10 year plan, price increases, and production bottlenecks

[hydbob]

Rising costs have Lucid CEO eyeing price hike for future electric cars

Electric carmaker Lucid is looking into raising prices for future models, its chief executive said on Thursday, citing "huge inflationary pressures" but said the company was committed to honoring prices for existing reservation holders.

www.reuters.com

 

[Neurio]

Rising costs have Lucid CEO eyeing price hike for future electric cars

Electric carmaker Lucid is looking into raising prices for future models, its chief executive said on Thursday, citing "huge inflationary pressures" but said the company was committed to honoring prices for existing reservation holders.

www.reuters.com

*cough* Rivian *cough*

 

[copper]

I also I ended up posting this in the ordering section for people still on the fence about a reservation.

Key takeaways:

"There's an inevitability that we will have to look at the price points of models that are coming out in the future," CEO Peter Rawlinson told Reuters, citing soaring nickel prices after Russia invaded Ukraine.
"What we want to do is to honor and keep our commitments to existing reservation holders. I think that's what was ill received in the market with Rivian."

This probably will apply to new reservations for the Touring and Pure, along with the Gravity.

Rawlinson on Thursday said the bottlenecks were caused by a handful of suppliers for windshield glass, carpeting and some exterior trim parts.
"I'm super frustrated because we're not gated by silicon chips, we're not gated by our ability to make electric motors," Rawlinson said.
Switching to different suppliers for those parts would compromise quality, he said.

It looks like some of the more esoteric parts didn't come from suppliers where (a) Lucid had sufficient volume to dictate production priorities or (b) were smaller volume makers who couldn't handle QC at the committed contract levels.

Rawlinson also said Lucid has started on a prototype of in-house battery cell production, adding that it also has partnerships with battery suppliers Samsung SDI (006400.KS) and LG Energy Solutions.

This is very interesting. Any EV company now has to consider batteries a core competency in order to protect their supply chain and gain a market advantage. This may create drift in cell standards across the market as carmakers seek to lock-in the single most important volume component of their powertrain.

 

[Sandvinsd]

I have been saying that I fully expect a price increase by Lucid and have told friends if they are on the fence to at least Lock in the current pricing with a reservation. They can always cancel if they decide not to pull the trigger and get the deposit back.

 

[Steveinarizona]

I have been saying that I fully expect a price increase by Lucid and have told friends if they are on the fence to at least Lock in the current pricing with a reservation. They can always cancel if they decide not to pull the trigger and get the deposit back.

If Lucid goes under, one could lose the deposit but for a Pure it is all of $300...if one can't easily afford to lose that one should not be considering a Lucid.

 

[Sandvinsd]

If Lucid goes under, one could lose the deposit but for a Pure it is all of $300...if one can't easily afford to lose that one should not be considering a Lucid.

The deposits are held in escrow until they become non-refundable so one won’t lose the deposit if Lucid goes belly up.

 

[MPawelek]

And if Lucid goes belly up and you own the physical car you then have the world’s most expensive flower box!

 

[Sandvinsd]

And if Lucid goes belly up and you own the physical car you then have the world’s most expensive flower box!

I would be more concerned with any of the other numerous start-up EV companies rather than Lucid. With the overall car quality and technology, if Lucid was in financial trouble, they would get bought by a legacy automaker (or Tesla) and the Lucid name would become their luxury EV nameplate. Just like there was a lot of consolidation among automakers in the first half of the 1900s, and those companies became brands under Ford, GM and Chrysler, the same thing will invariably happen with all these EV companies.