Lucid Motors Moves to Larger Location as the Company Prepares for Growth

author: Eric Walz   

MENLO PARK, CA, — California electric car start-up Lucid Motors has announced its move to a new, larger headquarters in nearby Newark, California at the Pacific Research Center. The new facility is twice as big as its current Silicon Valley location. Lucid's new headquarters is also just a few blocks from Lucid's prototype shop, where the Lucid Air sedan was first revealed at a private event in late 2016.

"As we move closer to realizing our vision for the future of luxury mobility, we are outgrowing our Menlo Park headquarters and are in need of a new location that will allow for expansion. We are excited to announce that in late 2017 we will begin moving into the Pacific Research Center. The new facility, located just east of the Dumbarton Bridge in Newark, California, is twice the size of our current location." the company wrote in a blog post.

Following Lucid's product development philosophy of collocating functions to increase development speed and improve quality, the new headquarters will accommodate a larger design studio, more lab space, and more office space, all under one roof. This collocation has enabled the collaborative design and engineering process that led to the creation of the Lucid Air.

The Lucid Air is a luxurious, all-electric sedan designed with Lucid's proprietary powertrain system, offering world-class performance in acceleration, driving range, and efficiency. The Lucid Air's motor and transmission have been designed as an integrated system. Entirely developed in-house, the resulting solution is smaller, more efficient and more power-dense than competitors, while potentially more reliable.

The Lucid Air Electric Sedan

The Lucid Air made its debut at the New York International Auto Show in April. Lucid says the car is smaller than a Tesla Model S, but offers as much interior space as a large Mercedes S-class sedan. The Air is not yet available to the public.

Lucid's chief technology officer is Peter Rawlinson, a former Tesla vice president and chief engineer on the Model S.

Lucid is positioning itself as a direct competitor with Tesla with its all-electric Air sedan, which the company says will be priced starting at $52,000. With Lucid's move to its new location, Tesla has a new competitor – right in its own backyard.  

The next two years will be a defining period for Lucid as the start-up prepares the Lucid Air for production and continues with the development of future products. "With the space secured for our expansion, we can now focus our attention on the task at hand." the company wrote.

Eric Walz

Originally hailing from New Jersey, Eric is a automotive & technology reporter covering the high-tech industry here in Silicon Valley. He has over 15 years of automotive experience and a bachelors degree in computer science. These skills, combined with technical writing and news reporting, allows him to fully understand and identify new and innovative technologies in the auto industry and beyond. He has worked at Uber on self-driving cars and as a technical writer, helping people to understand and work with technology.