"Lucid (LCID.US) Q1 delivery volume fell short of expectations due to a double blow of supplier interruptions and recall events."

Lucid Group (LCID.US) announced on Friday that its first quarter car deliveries fell short of market expectations, mainly due to temporary sales suspensions and recall events related to unauthorized supplier changes. Its electric Deluxe Corporation SUV Lucid Gravity's deliveries this quarter were disrupted for 29 days due to quality issues with the second-row seat supplier, severely limiting the company's ability to fulfill customer orders. The company disclosed that it produced a total of 5,500 cars in the quarter ending on March 31, delivering 3,093 of them. Analysts at Visible Alpha had previously expected production of 5,967 cars and deliveries of 5,237 cars. CEO Marc Winterhoff stated that the impact on deliveries in February was particularly significant - at that time, Lucid paused production to reverse supplier changes and inspect already produced vehicles. Earlier this week, Lucid issued a recall for 4,476 Gravity SUVs produced between December 2024 and February 2026, citing that the seat belt anchor welds did not meet safety standards. This delivery gap also highlights Lucid's long-standing issue of "discrepancy between production volume and actual delivery capacity" - a challenge that continues to plague Lucid and other emerging electric vehicle companies as electric car demand cools. Winterhoff expressed ongoing concerns about supply challenges and acknowledged that the company's forecast of producing 25,000 to 27,000 cars this year is on the conservative side, which could mean an increase of over 50%. On Friday, the company maintained this forecast. It is worth noting that Lucid's production volume for 2025 has nearly doubled to 17,840 cars. Apart from being hit by high tariffs on imported car parts, Lucid, like some of its competitors, has been dealing with issues such as chip shortages, unstable rare earth supply, and a fire at an aluminum supplier in September.