American EV startups come up far short of 2022 production goals

The three electric-vehicle startups that went public by merging with special purpose acquisition companies all came up well short of their original goals for 2022. 

Lucid and Lordstown Motors each missed their production objectives by wide margins, with Lucid making only slightly more than a third of its plan, at 7,180 Air sedans for the year, and Lordstown Motors building 31 Endurance pickups, a fraction of the 500 it had in mind.

Nikola delivered 131 Tre heavy-duty trucks, about a quarter of the number it had initially hoped to hand over to customers. The company cut its delivery forecast twice last year, and still fell short of the 300 it predicted in November. 

The outlook for 2023 isn’t much brighter. 

Lucid’s shares tumbled after it forecast production of only up to 14,000 vehicles this year. Nikola’s stock fell after the company said it expects to deliver only as many as 375 trucks. And Lordstown Motors shares plunged after the manufacturer announced it had paused production and customer deliveries since January due to performance and quality issues.

Lucid plummeted 11.9%, Lordstown slumped 11.4% and Nikola declined 5.6% Thursday in New York trading.

With assistance from Ed Ludlow, Sean O'Kane and David Welch