Saudi-owned Lucid Motors, a forthcoming EV rival to Tesla, announced that it completed the first phase of construction at its factory in Arizona, eying production of up to 400,000 electric cars per year at the facility after future expansions.
Lucid completed the first phase of construction of its factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, and is aiming to start production on its first cars in spring 2021, according to reports.
The Lucid Air.
“We broke ground on the 590-acre Lucid AMP-1 site in Casa Grande on Dec. 2, 2019, and slightly less than a year later we have completed the first purpose-built EV factory in North America,” Peter Rawlinson, CEO of Lucid Motors, said in a press statement.
“The effort and agility demonstrated by this team is truly astounding, as we’re already commissioning equipment compatible with the Lucid manufacturing system to start production of the next-generation EV, the Lucid Air, in just a few months,” he added.
Lucid Motors, backed by $1 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), unveiled its first vehicle, the Lucid Air electric sedan, at a virtual event from the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters in September.
The luxury sedan will get up to 517 miles of range, can hit a quarter-mile in under 10 seconds, packs over 1,000 horsepower, and will have a base price of under $80,000 with EV credits from the U.S. government.
Three versions of the Lucid Air will hit the market, according to the company’s website: The Lucid Air Touring, the Dream Edition, and the Grand Touring edition. The sedan is positioned as a more luxury version of Tesla’s offerings with a faster battery charging time.
Saudi Arabia’s PIF owns over half of the company.
