EV maker Lucid receives additional $1.5bn in Saudi funding forward of SUV launch

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Lucid Motors has obtained one other $1.5bn in funding from its largest shareholder, Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, giving the Californian electrical automobile start-up very important new money to navigate a world slowdown in demand and launch a mass-market SUV.

The PIF, which owns about 60 per cent of Lucid, would purchase $750mn in convertible most popular inventory and supply a delayed draw mortgage facility of $750mn via an affiliate funding firm referred to as Ayar, in keeping with a press release on Monday. The funding comes on high of a $1bn injection in March and raises the entire that PIF has invested to roughly $8bn.

Lucid shares rose 7 per cent in after-hours buying and selling. Its shares have fallen 53 per cent previously 12 months and 70 per cent for the reason that firm first listed within the US by way of a particular function acquisition firm merger in July 2021.

Founder Peter Rawlinson, the previous chief automobile engineer at rival Tesla, mentioned in an interview earlier this yr that Lucid can’t depend on the “bottomless wealth” of its proprietor and should discover methods to chop prices and increase gross sales. Lucid markets itself as having extra superior battery expertise and driving vary than rivals resembling Tesla, Volkswagen and Hyundai.

Lucid makes just one mannequin, the Air sedan, and has struggled to get traction in an more and more crowded EV discipline, with a fundamental mannequin costing virtually $70,000. Rawlinson mentioned he hoped that the launch of the Gravity SUV later this yr would broaden the pool of potential consumers. Nonetheless, it is usually aimed on the high of the market and should value about $80,000.

Longer-term, the corporate is designing a smaller, extra inexpensive automobile that will probably be produced at a manufacturing unit beneath development in Saudi Arabia as quickly as 2026.

The announcement got here as Lucid launched its second-quarter earnings on Monday. Income elevated by a 3rd from a yr in the past to $200mn within the three months to June 30, beating analysts’ expectations, whereas deliveries grew to 2,394 autos, a 71 per cent soar from the identical interval in 2023. Rawlinson mentioned it remained on observe to supply 9,000 vehicles this yr. By comparability, Tesla delivered 443,956 autos within the second quarter. 

The EV maker’s quarterly web loss expanded to $790mn from $764mn final yr. For 2023 general its web loss reached $2.8bn.