Lucid is one of the electric vehicle manufacturers with the greatest technological potential, in other words, its aerodynamic sedan is the most powerful and has the widest range on the market. But the difficulty of manufacturing models in quantity leads customers to give up and lose faith in a young brand that promised so much. Losses are rising at the same pace as sales are moving away from targets, but none of this appears to be affecting CEO Peter Rawlinson’s salary and bonuses, which remain high.
Lucid began delivering the Air to customers in 2021, and even in 2023, the second full year of sales. The commercial results were very poor and far below the contractor’s expectations. From January to March, only 1,406 units of the saloon were sold. And during the second quarter of 2023, the 1404 Air reached customers, meaning Lucid couldn’t even sell the (ridiculous) amount of sedans it managed to make (2,173 units).
Lucid reduces production and sales, but increases losses
Making a few cars and not even selling them is a bad sign that is carried over into the marketEspecially considering that Lucid cut the price of the Air Pure, the most affordable version of the model, by $10,000, thus managing to get rid of all the units in the stock. and more dangerously, The number of vehicles waiting for customers continues to grow and has already exceeded 5,000 units at the end of the second quarterThat means there is enough air in stock for three-quarters of sales, without making a single vehicle, although the brand is sold in the US and Canada, having started operations in Europe this year.
Seemingly oblivious to this commercial desperation, Peter Rawlinson earned $380 million in 2022, which is 11 times higher than the CEO of General Motors Group. It turns out that despite huge investments in electric vehicles, General Motors is turning a profit (the group brought in $156.7 billion in revenue, with an EBIT of $14.5 billion), while Lucid lost a fortune in 2022, with control Rawlinson. And it continues to lose in 2023, with a loss of 780 million in the first quarter and 764 million in the second quarter.