EV maker Lucid suspends production guidance amid incoming CEO’s business review

DETROIT — Lucid Group suspended its car production guidance for the 12 months as its incoming CEO evaluates the all-electric car producer’s business operations, together with the potential for decrease output of EVs.

The corporate on Tuesday additionally mentioned it must decrease its “elevated stock” of autos, which for automakers has traditionally meant reducing or idling car production.

An organization spokesman informed CNBC that there’s at the moment no plan to idle its sole U.S. plant in Arizona, however incoming CEO Silvio Napoli mentioned he’s persevering with to judge Lucid’s business.

“A necessary goal over time is to construct a extra cost-efficient firm, one which progresses in funding its personal development. Which means being rigorous in delivering our commitments,” Napoli mentioned Tuesday on Lucid’s quarterly outcomes name with traders. “In easy phrases, this implies making clear selections on the place to speculate and, simply as importantly, the place to not.”

Napoli mentioned he plans to review the corporate’s operations over the following a number of weeks earlier than updating traders on the corporate’s guidance when Lucid studies its second-quarter outcomes at an unspecified date.

The corporate’s prior production guidance was between 25,000 to 27,000 models in 2026. Lucid executives mentioned plans for cost-cutting, autonomous autos with Uber and Nuro, and the corporate’s “path to profitability” outlined in an investor day in March stay intact.

Lucid has produced roughly 3,200 extra autos than it has offered since 2024, in response to its annual production and deliveries. That features a distinction of roughly 2,000 models final 12 months and a pair of,400 autos in the course of the first quarter of 2026.

The pulled guidance occurred as the corporate reported first-quarter outcomes that have been in keeping with preliminary outcomes launched by the corporate a month in the past, however that also considerably missed Wall Avenue’s expectations.

“We ended the quarter with elevated stock that we anticipate to transform to income and money as deliveries normalize, whereas sustaining alignment between production and gross sales cadence. Our focus is on disciplined execution — driving structural value enhancements, managing capital effectively, and bettering working leverage as we scale,” Lucid CFO Taoufiq Boussaid mentioned in a press release.

This is how the corporate carried out within the first quarter in contrast with common estimates compiled by LSEG:

• Loss per share: $3.46 vs. a lack of $2.64 anticipated
• Income: $282.5 million vs. $440.4 million anticipated

The corporate’s income elevated roughly 20% year-over-year however was far decrease than the 87.4% leap analysts have been anticipating, in response to LSEG.

The all-electric car maker mentioned a seat provider situation “considerably affected” deliveries of its essential Lucid Gravity SUV in the course of the quarter that resulted in a stop-sale of the car as a result of security considerations.

Boussaid mentioned the seat situation brought about a greater than $200 million income impairment in the course of the first quarter.

Lucid produced 5,500 autos and delivered 3,093 autos within the first quarter of 2026.

The automaker, which is closely backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, mentioned it has ample liquidity by the second half of 2027. It ended the primary quarter with roughly $4.7 billion, together with a current capital elevate and delayed draw time period mortgage supplied by PIF.

Lucid on Tuesday mentioned production of a brand new car plant in Saudi Arabia continues regardless of the continued conflict in close by Iran. The corporate mentioned it has not skilled any important interruptions to the ability apart from some delays in delivery.

The corporate additionally mentioned it’s adjusting its production reporting to depend autos as soon as they full the corporate’s “manufacturing unit gating course of,” which incorporates autos that might not be fully constructed and are despatched to operations elsewhere for completion.