Lucid Group (LCID 0.41%), the luxury electric vehicle (EV) maker, was among the losers in the stock market last month due to signs of weakening EV demand and the company's own disappointing production report for the third quarter.
As a result, the stock finished the month down 26%, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. As you can see from the chart below, the stock had its sharpest dip in the middle of the month, during the week when the company released underwhelming third-quarter production numbers and Tesla put out its own disappointing earnings report.
Lucid is spinning its wheels
The big news out of the company during the month was its third-quarter production report. The company said it manufactured 1,550 vehicles in the third quarter and sent another 700 vehicles to Saudi Arabia for final assembly.
The company has a close relationship with the Saudi government, whose Public Investment Fund (PIF) is a major investor in the company, and the Saudis have agreed to buy at least 50,000 of its EVs over the next decade. Lucid also recently opened a factory in Saudi Arabia.
But the stock fell 9.4% on the news as it shows that Lucid is unlikely to meet its goal of manufacturing 10,000 vehicles this year. And the company delivered even fewer vehicles than it produced, shipping 1,457 cars, a sign that it might be having demand weakness like much of the rest of the car industry is experiencing.
The following day, the stock fell another 4% after Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave downbeat commentary on the state of the EV industry, blaming interest rates for price pressures and saying the company would slow-walk the opening of its new factory in Mexico due to economic uncertainty.
There were other signs that EV demand seemed to be plateauing. Ford laid off a shift at its Lightning F-150 EV factory and said it would pause $12 billion in planned investments in electric vehicles due to intensifying price competition and questions about demand. Similarly, GM said it would delay production of several new EVs.
Is the EV party over for Lucid?
Lucid has only just started making EVs, and already it seems like the industry is too crowded and demand is thinning. That could be a result of cyclical issues like interest rates, or it could be for more-secular reasons, including that early adopters have largely already purchased EVs, and the industry must now convince the more-skeptical mainstream to make the switch.
Whatever the reason, Lucid investors should hope those headwinds are fleeting. The company is still far from profitability, and slowing demand in the industry will only make it more difficult for the business to show it can be viable.
