Lucid Motors, which hopes to someday be an EV manufacturing heavyweight rivaling Tesla, took an important step on Tuesday by announcing plans for an assembly plant in Casa Grande, Arizona. The automotive startup claims it could create up to 2,000 jobs over five years. Governor Doug Ducey seems particularly pleased to divulge Lucid’s commitment to training and hiring Arizona veterans.
For its part, Arizona will offer $46 million in subsidies dependent upon the company reaching milestones as it approaches vehicle production.
“We’ve demonstrated that Arizona is among the most competitive states in the nation to work and do business — we’re talking technology companies, we’re in Silicon Valley. We’re talking with organizations considering Arizona over other states,” Ducey said at the announcement.
AZCentral reported that Lucid had scouted 13 other states before finally settling on Arizona. “The word’s out on us,” Ducey said.
However, the word is not yet out on Lucid’s financial stability.
The company has reportedly already raised $131 million, but will still need to find more cash early next year. Current investors include Chinese electronics firm LeEco, Venture Rockefeller, Japan’s Misui & Co. and Beijing Auto, but Brian Barron — the company’s director of manufacturing — maintains that Lucid Motors is an American firm.
LeEco is behind two other electric car projects: its own LeSee and the American-based Faraday Future. The company recently announced a plan to construct a $1.8 billon EV plant in China and Faraday Future has its own billion-dollar desert factory in Nevada. Plant construction has been halted due to Faraday having missed payments to the contractor, while LeEco admitted that it was quickly running out of money.
However, if everything goes according to plan, Lucid CTO Peter Rawlinson wants the company to start unit production in 2018. The initial run of Model-S rivals will be limited to 10,000 in that first year, with the goal of increasing that to 60,000 units annually. However, not a lot is known about the car Lucid will put into production. Rawlinson has said it should have roughly the same interior dimensions as a BMW 7 Series, have autonomous capabilities, and a minimum range of 300 miles.
While it hasn’t said so explicitly, the company also wants it to best Tesla in terms of performance. Lucid has been showcasing videos of its EV powertrain inside of Edna — a modified Mercedes-Benz van — reaching 60 mph as fast as a Tesla Model S operating in “Ludicrous Mode.”
[Image: Lucid Motors]
Did the
ARTS
DISTRICT
CO-OP
paint that thing?
Nice looking car but who is the driving force behind it? It is the man/woman that makes the business successful. You got to have an Elon to make it. Not only that but does it make financial sense to offer another car in the same market? What we need is a new competitor to the Bolt.
“However, if everything goes according to plan, Lucid CTO Peter Rawlinson wants the company to start unit production in 2018. ”
Yes, just like Faraday Futu…. oh.
cripes, Tesla, an established automaker with operating production facilities, won’t get the Model 3 shipping until sometime next year. Can’t these idiots stop throwing money at every charlatan who comes around promising the world with his amazing EV startup?
“Can’t these idiots stop throwing money at every charlatan..”
If they’re so rich, why aren’t they smart? Or is a project this risibly hopeless considered a charitable contribution?
I read something about 800 hp and 400 mile range. Wtf? I predict this thing will never see the light of day, but not before sucking up millions$.
It doesn’t seem to take much to produce a supercar and get journalists to drool all over it.
Takes a lot more engineering talent to make a high volume production car at a reasonable price point.
This is exactly right. You can charge supercar money for super EVs, but it’s much harder to build a 200-mile EV that seats 4, for $35k, and perhaps make a profit.
If money could be made off these cars everyone would be building them. They didn’t make $$$ even with an extreme green left Government, you think they’re going to with a right wing Gov’t that may trash the EPA all together? I don’t.
Pipe dream motors. Tesla will be for sale soon too with no more carbon credit sales.
Maybe I’m just a cynic but to me this has scam written all over it. All you have to do is dangle “jobs!” in front of a politician and they dive on it like the first person who got an email from a Nigerian prince.
Yeah, you would think after the possible Faraday Future implosion, they would at least look at these proposals a little bit more.
Maybe all the Telsa wanna bees can team up and have one plant built instead of starting and stopping a bunch of them, didn’t Telsa start out with a old GM plant, would that not be cheaper and easier in the short term and maybe long term???
“The initial run of Model-S rivals will be limited to 10,000 in that first year…”
They’ll have no trouble limiting production to 10,000 units.