Tesla CEO Elon Musk Surprised At Lucid CFO's Departure

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk on Monday responded with surprise to the resignation of rival EV maker Lucid Group Inc‘s LCID Chief Financial Officer Sherry House.

What Happened: “!,” Musk wrote on X without elaborating. The CEO was responding to a Tesla enthusiast who flagged the news on the social media platform saying, “Delisted from Nasdaq 100 and CFO leaves all in the span of a few days. Lucid's only choice for survival IMO is to go private and completely rethink their strategy.”

Last week, it was reported that Lucid would be one of the six stocks removed from the Nasdaq 100 index before the market opening on Dec. 18 as part of an annual reconstitution, sending shares sliding. Earlier on Monday, the company also announced the departure of its CFO Sherry House.

Last month, Musk agreed with an enthusiast when they guessed that Lucid would be taken private in 2024 saying, “Good guess.”

Lucid's Financial Picture: Lucid reported a quarterly loss of 28 cents per share and revenue of 137.8 million for the third quarter. The company delivered 1,457 vehicles in the quarter and made 1,550. This takes the loss incurred per vehicle delivery to over $433,000 for the company whose CEO Peter Rawlinson was formerly the chief engineer for Tesla‘s Model S.

Additionally, in an attempt to align deliveries with production, the company is now looking to produce only 8,000-8,500 vehicles this year, down from its earlier projection of over 10,000 units.

Though Lucid operates in the U.S., it is 60% owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. The PIF has invested about $5.4 billion into Lucid since 2018. 

Photo courtesy: Thomas Hawk on Flickr

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