Luxury electric vehicle maker said Tuesday that it delivered 1,457 of its Air sedans to customers in the third quarter, a number that is unlikely to reassure investors worried about demand for the posh and pricey electric vehicle.
Shares of the company fell on the news and ended Tuesday's session down about 5%.
Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Lucid to deliver about 2,000 vehicles in the third quarter.
Lucid's third-quarter deliveries compare with 1,404 deliveries in the and 1,398 deliveries in the .
The company it produced 1,550 Airs during the period, with "over 700" additional vehicles in transit to a new facility in Saudi Arabia for final assembly. That compares to 2,173 Airs built in the second quarter and 2,282 Airs a year earlier.
Saudi Arabia's government, a major investor in Lucid, agreed last year to over the following 10 years, with an option to buy up to 50,000 more. Deliveries are expected to begin before the end of 2023.
Lucid's shares have fallen nearly 23% from the beginning of 2023 through Monday's close as have lingered. While the Air has received strong reviews and can claim the longest range of any EV currently available in the U.S., it's expensive. The Air starts at $77,400 in its least-expensive Pure trim, a with 410 miles of range. At the high end, the 1,234-horsepower Sapphire version costs $249,000.
Lucid didn't provide an update to its production guidance for the full year. The company previously told investors that it expects to produce "over 10,000" vehicles in 2023, guidance it first provided in May and . Through the end of September, Lucid produced 6,037 EVs in 2023, not including the units in transit to Saudi Arabia at quarter-end.
Lucid had $6.25 billion in available liquidity as of the end of the second quarter, including $5.5 billion in cash and the remainder in available credit lines, which Chief Financial Officer Sherry House said at the time was sufficient to fund the company into 2025.
Lucid will report its third-quarter results after the U.S. markets close Nov. 7.
Don't miss these CNBC PRO stories: