“There’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip,” my old Irish grandmother liked to say. For Lucid Motors, an electric car startup that features many former Tesla employees, the road to getting its cars into production has been long and difficult. It was three years ago that it announced a deal with the state of Arizona to build a factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. This week, construction actually began at what was billed as a “ground building” ceremony attended by Arizona governor Doug Ducey and a host of other dignitaries, muckety mucks, and assorted poohbahs.
Image credit: Lucid Motors
“We are proud to be moving forward on our commitment to manufacturing the Lucid Air in Casa Grande. With supportive investors, an outstanding team of designers and engineers, and a product strategy that extends well beyond the Air, we expect today to be just the start of a longstanding presence in this dynamic city,” said Lucid Motors’ CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson in a news release.
According to Forbes, the $300 million first phase of the Lucid factory is expected to start turning out cars late next year. The factory is expected to produce 10,000 cars a year to start before ramping up to 60,000 vehicles a year by 2025. The final cost of the factory is expected to be $700 million.
The company’s first model, known as the Lucid Air, is a 400 horsepower luxury electric sedan about the size of an Audi A6. It is expected to have a 400 mile | 643 km driving range with a 0 to 60 mph | 96 km/h time of under 2.5 seconds. The rumored starting price will be around $60,000, although whether that will be the cost of the long range high performance version is an open question at this time. In any event, the Lucid Air is a handsome automobile that should find favor with luxury car buyers, especially those who are enamored of the Tesla Model S.
Several people who have experienced the Lucid Air have praised it for its performance, roomy interior, and supple ride. Nevertheless, the company came close to folding up shop until it secured a $1 billion funding package from the kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund last year. Crawling into bed with the Saudis may not be the most desirable way forward, but it’s better than going out of business, apparently.
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