By Tina Bellon
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Electric carmaker Lucid is looking into raising prices for future models amid “huge inflationary pressures,” but is committed to honoring prices for existing reservation holders, its chief executive on Thursday.
“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 said in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the South by Southwest music, technology and film festival (SXSW).
“I think it would be absolutely foolish of me to say we’re never going to raise our prices,” Rawlinson added, citing high nickel prices.
His comments come as several electric vehicle makers, including Tesla Inc, Rivian and BYD, have raised prices on higher raw material costs.
Lucid in late February cut its production forecast for this year to a range of 12,000 to 14,000, down from its original target of 20,000 vehicles, citing “extraordinary supply chain and logistics challenges.” Its shares slid following the announcement.
Rawlinson on Thursday said the bottlenecks were caused by suppliers for windshield glass, carpeting and some exterior trim parts.
“It’s about a handful suppliers that are gating our volume,” Rawlinson said. “I’m super frustrated because we’re not gated by silicon chips, we’re not gated by our ability to make electric motors.”
Switching to different suppliers for those parts would compromise quality, Rawlinson said.
Rawlinson, who previously was vice president of vehicle engineering at Tesla, said he was not concerned about short-term market reactions to Lucid’s production cuts.
“Customer satisfaction and recognition of the quality trumps short-term myopic attention to how many cars we have delivered to customers in a quarter,” Rawlinson said, adding that he was working on a 10-year plan.
(Reporting by Tina Bellon; Editing by Leslie Adler)
