“We’ve solved production. That is not the gating issue here now,” Rawlinson said. “My focus is on sales. And here’s the thing: We’ve got what I believe to be the very best product in the world. … Too few people are aware of not just the car, but even the company.”<\/p>\n

Rawlinson went on to say he believes that to be an “entirely solvable problem” and plans to focus on “amplifying customer awareness” in 2023.<\/p>\n

More marketing might help. But clearly, demand for Lucid’s vehicles isn’t materializing as quickly as the company expected, which raises some tough questions for investors.<\/p>\n

First, how big is Lucid’s potential market? Any estimate of how much Lucid could grow has to start with an estimate of the “total addressable market,” and it appears the company’s estimates on that front may have been too rosy, given that its factory is set up to produce many more vehicles than it’s building now.<\/p>\n

Running an auto factory well below capacity isn’t exactly a route to profitability, as Chief Financial Officer Sherry House conceded during Lucid’s earnings call.<\/p>\n

“As we produce vehicles at low volumes on production lines designed for higher volumes, we have and we will continue to experience negative gross profit related to labor and overhead costs,” House said.<\/p>\n

That leads to a second, related question: How long will Lucid have to run its factory at a loss? Or, put another way, how long will it take Lucid to get to profitability \u2014 and how much money will it have to raise between now and then?<\/p>\n

Bank of America analyst John Murphy has long been bullish on Lucid, but in a note to investors following Lucid’s earnings report, he cut the bank’s rating on the stock to hold, from buy. Murphy wrote that he now thinks Lucid won’t break even before 2027, and that the company will need to raise more capital sooner than he had previously expected.<\/p>\n