Shares of EV start-up Lucid rise after executives confirm new reservations, 2022 vehicle production
Shares of Lucid Group jumped by more than 5% during afterhours trading before retreating to about even after reporting its first quarterly financial results as a public company.
The electric vehicle start-up announced a notable increase in vehicle reservations and confirmed its production target for next year, while reporting a net loss of $524.4 million in the third quarter.
Lucid, which went public via a SPAC deal in July, reported it has lost $1.5 billion through the first nine months of the year.
The company on Monday said it has more than 17,000 reservations for its Air sedan, up from 13,000 through the third quarter. The reservations through September represented an order book of $1.3 billion, the company said.
Lucid also confirmed its 20,000 vehicle production target for next year, but said hurdles remain for achieving those plans.
"We remain confident in our ability to achieve 20,000 units in 2022," Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said in a press release. "This target is not without risk given ongoing challenges facing the automotive industry, with global disruptions to supply chains and logistics."
Rawlinson said the automaker was taking steps to mitigate supply chain hurdles and still planned to launch less expensive versions of Lucid Air through 2022.
The automaker's revenue in the third quarter was $232,000 largely from a battery deal with the Formula E electric racing league, Lucid CFO Sherry House told Wall Street analysts Monday during a call. She said the company will begin recording revenue from vehicle sales and report details of its sales beginning for the fourth quarter.
Shares closed at $44.88 per share, up 2.2%. The stock price remains below its 52-week high of nearly $65 a share in February when it was reported that Lucid was nearing a deal with blank-check company Churchill Capital IV Corp. to go public.
Shares of Lucid are up by more than 80% since the company went public through a reverse merger with Churchill in July. The largest daily increase of 31% occurred late last month when the company confirmed customer deliveries of the Lucid Air Dream Edition were beginning.
"I feel great about our stock price," House told CNBC during a phone interview. "The run up that we've had, where it is today and also the growth trajectory, frankly, that's in front of us. I see that we're being regarded as a technology company with a platform that's extensible across lots of vehicle variants and sustainable tech."
Rawlinson echoed those remarks: "I think what is happening in our stock value reflects our status as a tech company more than a car company."
The all-electric Air sedan on Monday was named MotorTrend's car of the year, a coveted award in the automotive industry. It marks the first time that the initial product from a new automotive company has received the award, according to the publication.
In total, Lucid has said it plans to deliver 520 customer-configured Lucid Air Dream Editions, followed by production of lower-priced models. Lucid told investors in July that it expects to produce 20,000 Lucid Air sedans in 2022, generating more than $2.2 billion in revenue, according to an investor presentation.
The Dream Edition is a $169,000 special edition of its flagship sedan, with an industry-leading range of up to 520 miles, according to the EPA. Pricing for an entry-level version of the car, the Lucid Air sedan, starts at $77,400 before an up to $7,500 federal tax credit for plug-in vehicles.
Lucid is among a handful of EV start-up companies to go public through deals with SPAC companies since last year. But unlike many of its SPAC peers, Lucid is actually generating revenue and producing vehicles. It also has thus far avoided any federal probes into potentially misleading statements to investors unlike others such as Nikola, Lordstown Motors and Canoo.