Tesla Challenger Lucid Shares Details on its Bold New Model

While Isaac Newton believed what goes up must come down, the people at Lucid  (LCID) - Get Free Report want Gravity to keep on climbing.

The electric vehicle maker released new details about Gravity, its first luxury electric SUV, on November 15.

Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said in a statement that Gravity "builds upon everything we have achieved thus far, driving further advancements of our in-house technology to create a luxury performance SUV like none other."

"Just as redefined the sedan category, so too will Gravity impact the world of luxury SUVs, setting new benchmarks across the board," he said.

And Sherry House, Lucid's, chief financial officer, said earlier this month that the company believes Gravity "will unlock a very large and incremental addressable market for us."

 Gravity will come to earth in 2024, but Lucid will be taking early reservations in 2023 and promises more information at that time.

Lucid Faces Plenty of Competition 

The Newark, Calif., company is finalizing the vehicle design and specifications, while continuing the expansion of its AMP-1 factory in Casa Grande, AZ.

Gravity will have plenty of company in the luxury electric SUV arena, including Tesla's  (TSLA) - Get Free Report Model X and Model Y; General Motors'  (GM) - Get Free Report Cadillac Lyriq and Mercedes-Benz'  (DDAIF)  EQB.

Rawlinson, who joined Lucid in 2013, was vice president of vehicle engineering at Tesla and vehicle engineer of the Tesla Model S. 

His resume includes principal engineer at Jaguar Cars and chief engineer at Lotus. 

While Lucid was providing details about the Gravity, the company was also revealing several new versions of its Air sedan. Customer deliveries of the 2023 Lucid Air Touring have begun and all-wheel versions of the Lucid Air Pure will follow next month. 

Lucid has been facing some serious challenges. There were problems with the supply chain and logistics that forced the company to revise down its production target twice.

On Nov. 16, 2021, Lucid shares were going for $55.52. Twelve months later, the stock was selling for $12.36 a share at last check.

Lucid's stock took a beating on Nov.8. when the automaker posted a third-quarter loss of 40 cents a share, missing the FactSet analysts' consensus of a 31-cent loss. 

Revenue totaled $195.5 million, falling short of FactSet's call for $209.4 million in sales.

Lucid Has to Make Difficult Decisions

Reservations for Lucid’s Air sedan dropped from 37,000 in the second quarter to 34,000.

However, the company said it saw strong customer demand for Lucid Air with reservations over 34,000, as of November 7, representing potential sales of over $3.2 billion.

As for the financials, Lucid said in a regulatory filing that it had reached agreements to raise $1.5 billion as it planned to sell $600 million in new shares through Bank of America, Barclay’s Capital, and Citigroup.

Lucid also said it reached an agreement to sell up to $915 million in stock to the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.

Rawlinson the company had made "significant progress toward achieving our 2022 production target of 6,000-7,000 vehicles.".

"We've made some difficult decisions and some systematic changes to the organizational structure," Rawlinson said during the company's earnings call, according to a transcript. "And I think now that the results are beginning to speak for themselves."

"We're working very hard to control what we can control, but the supply chain situation remains fluid," he said.