Lucid delivers first of its lower-priced — but still expensive — Touring EVs
Lucid Group Inc. on Tuesday said it delivered the first of its Air Touring luxury sedans as it tries to get back on track after missing targets through the first three quarters of this year.
The Touring is the third of its original line of Pure Electric Vehicles, with prices that start at $107,400. It’s an all-wheel drive electric vehicle with 620 horsepower and an EPA-estimated 425 miles of range.
It follows the limited edition Dream, which went for $169,000, and Grand Touring, which starts at $154,000. A high-performance version, called Air Sapphire, will start at $249,000 and is expected to begin production in the first half of next year. It is designed to accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in 1.89 seconds and have a top speed of 205 miles per hour.
Lucid’s vehicles are manufactured at the company’s plant in Casa Grande south of Phoenix.
The first deliveries of the lowest price model, called simply the Air Pure, are expected by the end of this year, Lucid said. Its pricing starts at $87,400. The first ones delivered will be all-wheel drive versions with 410 miles of range, and will ship by the end of this year.
A rear-wheel drive version is planned for next year.
The first deliveries of the Touring come after Newark, California-based Lucid last week said reservations for its cars dropped between the second and third quarters, dipping from 37,000 to 34,000. The automaker said it delivered 1,398 vehicles in the third quarter, compared to 679 in the second.
The company said last month that it was on track to hit its reduced goal of 6,000 to 7,000 cars this year. That is far below the 20,000 cars that Lucid told investors it would make in 2022 as part of its pitch to them before it went public last year. It slashed that target several times after running into production and supply problems.
Lucid said last week that it brought in $195.5 million in revenue in the third quarter, which was a record, but missed Wall Street estimates that it would exceed $200 million. The company’s losses were also bigger than expected, coming in at $530.1 million, or 40 cents a share. Analysts had projected a 31-cent-per-share loss.
Since going public in July 2021, the price of Lucid shares (Nasdaq:LCID) have dropped by about half. They opened trading Tuesday at $12.88 each, up about 5%, but gave up a little of that gain shortly afterwards. Track the stock here.