EV Startups Struggled to Build Cars. Now They Struggle to Sell Them.

livemint.com:

Electric-vehicle startups once said their greatest challenge was building cars fast enough; now selling them is proving difficult. Rivian Automotive and Lucid Group last week offered disappointing production outlooks for this year, saying EV demand is being hit by high interest rates and economic uncertainty. The electric-pickup maker Rivian plans to produce 57,000 vehicles this year, roughly the same number as last year.

Lucid said it aims to produce 9,000 vehicles, a slight increase from last year’s figure. Both say they are concentrating on finding customers. “Our key focus is on increasing demand to achieve our 2024 delivery targets," Rivian Chief Executive Officer RJ Scaringe said on a call with analysts Wednesday.

Investors piled into the public debuts of Rivian, Lucid and others, believing they were nimble, innovative companies that could beat established automakers in the race to sell EVs. The young companies racked up steep losses as they plowed billions of dollars into building factories and designing luxurious, high-performance vehicles. They struggled to master the nuts and bolts of mass-producing automobiles, but the companies said they had highly desirable products that customers were lining up to buy.

Just as the companies were overcoming their production woes, signs started to appear that the pool of willing buyers wasn’t as deep as expected. As recently as this past summer, Rivian said it was focused on stepping up production volume and had a strong backlog of waiting customers. “We’re quite bullish on the continued strong demand we have for our products," Scaringe said at the time.