Lucid Motors on Tuesday announced completion of construction on its factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. Pending further equipment installations, the factory is scheduled to start building the Lucid Air electric car in spring 2021.
Dubbed AMP-1 (Advanced Manufacturing Plant, number one) by Lucid, the factory will be expanded beginning in 2021 in anticipation of the 2023 launch of a Lucid SUV, the company said in a press release.
Lucid Motors AMP-1 factory, Casa Grande, Arizona
Lucid said it chose the Arizona site partly because it offered a large enough footprint for planned expansions. A total of four phases are planned through 2028, the company said, taking the factory from its current 999,000 square feet to 5.1 million square feet, and increasing production capacity from the initial 30,000 cars per year to 400,000 cars per year.
The factory site was chosen in 2016, but Lucid only broke ground on December 2, 2019. The delay was largely due to funding issues, remedied when Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund stepped in with a $1 billion investment.
2021 Lucid Air
Lucid will start off building the top Dream Edition of the Air, sporting 1,080 horsepower, a 503-mile range, and a base price of $169,000. That will be followed by Grand Touring and Touring versions, and then by the base Air Pure in 2022.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk seems to have seen the Air Pure’s $69,900 base price (after the $7,500 federal EV tax credit) to be enough of a threat where he announced another Model S price cut the same day as Lucid announced its pricing.
Lucid Project Gravity – from video clip during Air debut
Lucid has already previewed its SUV codenamed—”Project Gravity”—in early concept form. It’s said to lead “a beguiling range of cars” as part of a 10-year product plan.
The company is focusing on building its own brand, not making EVs for other companies. Earlier this year, CEO Peter Rawlinson told Green Car Reports that, while the company is considering a wide range of new models, he is not interested in contract manufacturing.
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