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Lucid Motors has received another $1.5 billion in funding from its largest shareholder, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, providing the California-based electric vehicle startup with new cash needed to weather slowing global demand and launch a mass-market SUV.
PIF, which owns about 60 percent of Lucid, would purchase $750 million in convertible preferred stock and provide a $750 million deferred draw credit facility through an affiliated investment firm called Ayar, according to a Monday statement. The financing comes on top of a $1 billion injection in March and raises the total PIF has invested to about $8 billion.
Lucid shares rose 7 percent in aVsceker-hours trading. Its stock has fallen 53 percent in the past 12 months and 70 percent since the company first went public in the U.S. via a special purpose acquisition merger in July 2021.
Founder Peter Rawlinson, a former chief vehicle engineer at rival Tesla, said in an interview earlier this year that Lucid can’t rely on its owner’s “bottomless wealth” and must find ways to cut costs and boost sales. Lucid touts itself as having more advanced battery technology and driving range than rivals like Tesla, Volkswagen and Hyundai.
Lucid makes just one model, the Air sedan, and has struggled to gain traction in an increasingly crowded EV field, with a base model costing nearly $70,000. Rawlinson said he hoped the launch of the Gravity SUV later this year would broaden the pool of potential buyers. However, it is also aimed at the high end of the market and could cost around $80,000.
In the long term, the company is planning a smaller, more affordable vehicle, which will be produced in a factory under construction in Saudi Arabia as early as 2026.
The announcement came as Lucid reported its second-quarter earnings on Monday. Revenue rose a third from a year earlier to $200 million in the three months to June 30, beating analysts’ expectations, while deliveries rose to 2,394 vehicles, a 71 percent jump from the same period in 2023. Rawlinson said it remained on track to produce 9,000 cars this year. By comparison, Tesla delivered 443,956 vehicles in the second quarter.
The electric vehicle maker’s quarterly net loss widened to $790 million from $764 million a year ago. Its overall net loss for 2023 reached $2.8 billion.
