The Lucid Air moved one step closer to production last week, as Lucid announced Wednesday via Twitter that preliminary work is underway in the construction of its assembly plant in Casa Grande, Arizona.
The EV startup, which is far more reserved about its ambitions compared to other startups, has also begun accepting employment applications for the Arizona production facility. Lucid plans to have it up and running inside a year, ramping up to a 2,000-person staff by 2022.
The company is looking to fill more than 300 open positions, initially, not counting plant positions.
Construction is underway on Lucid’s Arizona factory. Learn more about our progress towards production in our latest post: https://t.co/t1GvqFyOlJ pic.twitter.com/C4pQwt46tg
— Lucid Motors (@Lucid_Motors) November 6, 2019
“Last month, the local Planning and Zoning Commission gave final approval of our multi-year master site plan. Land grading began in September, and crews are drilling and forming the caissons that will provide the structural foundation of the facility,” Lucid’s announcement said.
“While factory construction continues, the first members of our Casa Grande assembly team are working alongside our engineers at the Silicon Valley headquarters building the next generation of Lucid Air prototypes.”
While Lucid may be just now staffing up its new plant, the company’s talent search has been ongoing for quite some time. Back in July, Lucid poached Tesla manufacturing VP Peter Hochholdinger. Lucid’s plans for manufacturing are far less dependent on automation than Tesla’s were for Model 3, which should allow Hochholdinger to get the new facility spun up more expeditiously.
In April, the Saudi Arabian Private Wealth Fund invested $1 billion in the privately-held company, giving it perhaps its most promising shot in the arm since its initial founding, and a potential leg up over foundering competitors such as Faraday Future. Lucid has also inked a deal with Electrify America to grant owners access to its charging network.
If everything pans out, we should be only a year away from seeing the first production Lucid Air luxury EV. Its base 240-mile range and 400 horsepower would make it competitive with entry-level luxury EVs currently on the market. A 1,000-horsepower, 217-mph variant is also supposedly in the works.
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