Lucid Motors does not know what number of EVs it is going to construct this 12 months

Lucid Motors mentioned Tuesday that it’s not positive what number of EVs it is going to construct or promote this 12 months, because it navigates a transition to a new CEO and a company-wide cost-cutting push.

The corporate mentioned in February that it planned to build between 25,000 and 27,000 automobiles this 12 months. That’s removed from the hundreds of thousands of automobiles that Lucid Motors estimated it will construct and promote this 12 months when it went public again in 2021. However it will have represented a big bump from final 12 months’s determine of round 18,000.

The change to Lucid’s steering was introduced through the firm’s first-quarter earnings name by chief monetary officer Taoufiq Boussaid. It comes only a few months after the corporate laid off 12% of its workforce, which TechCrunch first reported in February. Lucid Motors mentioned in a submitting Tuesday that these layoffs will price the corporate round $40 million within the close to time period, although it believes the cuts will in the end save as a lot as $500 million over the following few years.

Boussaid mentioned the choice to drag Lucid Motors’ steering for the 12 months was a “governance choice,” and that incoming CEO Silvio Napoli is conducting a evaluate of the enterprise. Boussaid mentioned Lucid Motors expects to supply a “full up to date outlook” through the second-quarter earnings name in just a few months.

“It’s clear that realizing Lucid’s full potential would require sharper focus and constant execution, notably round simplification, prioritization and pace,” Napoli mentioned through the name.

Lucid Motors additionally shared Tuesday that it had a worse-than-expected first quarter, largely resulting from a manufacturing disruption and a brief stop-sale that affected Gravity SUV deliveries for 29 days resulting from issues with a seat provider.

These issues wound up inflating Lucid Motors’ stock, and the corporate mentioned it should fastidiously handle manufacturing quantity within the close to time period as a way to cut back that glut.

“We’re not constrained on capability. We’re constrained by our personal self-discipline to not construct stock forward of demand. As market situations develop, we’ll scale manufacturing accordingly,” Boussaid mentioned.

This all comes as Lucid Motors is meant to start out constructing its first high-volume car this 12 months, priced at underneath $50,000. The corporate has mentioned it will start producing the primary EV on this mid-size platform by the top of 2026. On Tuesday, the corporate stored the give attention to subsequent 12 months, saying it “stay[s] on monitor for manufacturing ramp-up of the mid dimension in 2027.”

Lucid Motors can also be planning to launch a robotaxi service with Uber and Nuro by the top of this 12 months, utilizing autonomous variations of its Gravity SUV. Lucid confirmed Tuesday that it stays on monitor to start out constructing the road-ready variations of these automobiles within the fourth quarter.

Replace: This text was up to date to make clear that deliveries have been disrupted for 29 days.