Lucid Group Officially Starts Production of the Fully-Electric Lucid Air Sedan in Arizona, Customer Deliveries Will Begin Next Month

author: Eric Walz   

A Lucid Air at the Lucid Group's factory in Casa Grande, Arizona.

California-based luxury electric vehicle startup Lucid Group kicked off its "Production Preview Week" on Tuesday, providing members of the media, investor community and reservation holders the first look inside Lucid's factory in Arizona.

Lucid's factory in Casa Grande, Arizona near Phoenix, is dubbed the "Advanced Manufacturing Plant 1" (AMP-1) and its the first electric vehicle factory in the U.S. purposefully built from the ground up to produce battery-powered vehicles.

The site is also home to the Lucid Powertrain Manufacturing (LPM-1) where the company will build electric motors and other components for Lucid's electric vehicles. 

Today's events included a factory commissioning ceremony with Arizona Governor Doug Ducey as the first Lucid Air Dream Edition rolled off the assembly line on Tuesday. Lucid Air deliveries to reservation holders will begin in late October.

During the event, customers, analysts, investors, and members of the media were also given the opportunity to test drive the Lucid Air for the first time. 

Following the launch of the Lucid Air Dream Edition, Lucid Group will begin producing the more affordable Grand Touring, Touring, and Air Pure models. Lucid has confirmed that the Air sedan meets all the applicable regulatory requirements from the EPA and U.S. Department of Transportation for manufacture and sale in the U.S. 

Lucid said its has received more than 13,000 reservations for Lucid Air and increased the planned total production quantity of the limited production Dream Edition to 520 vehicles.

The Lucid Air Dream Edition is also the world's longest range EV, with an EPA estimated range of 520 miles, which is over 100 miles more than Tesla's Model S, a vehicle that will be a close competitor to the Lucid Air.

The Lucid Air Dream Edition Performance variant and Lucid Air Grand Touring also achieved EPA estimated ranges far beyond any other EV, coming in at 471 miles for the Performance and 516 miles for the Grand Touring. 

The more mainstream version of the Lucid Air called the "Air Pure" is available to reserve now with a starting price of $77,400, before any EV tax credits. It has an estimated range of 406 miles.

The Lucid Air.

Lucid's CEO credits the company proprotiary electric propulsion technology for achieving the longest range in the industry.

"The proprietary EV technology that Lucid has developed will make it possible to travel more miles using less battery energy," said Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, of the Lucid Group. For example, our Lucid Air Grand Touring has an official EPA rating of 516 miles of range with a 112-kWh battery pack, giving it an industry-leading efficiency of 4.6 miles per kWh. Our technology will allow for increasingly lighter, more efficient, and less expensive EVs, and today represents a major step in our journey to expand the accessibility of more sustainable transportation."

Lucid completed the construction of the AMP-1 factory on a 590-acre site in Casa Grande, Arizona, in less than a year. The manufacturing facilities are expected to bring a projected economic output of $9 billion to the state in 2024, as well as a projected 15,000 jobs annually by then. 

Lucid's innovative AMP-1 was designed with a future-ready focus for Lucid's planned expansion. The company will be able to add 2.85 million square feet to the factory to ramp up production as Lucid grows as a company. Following the Air sedan, Lucid will introduce its first electric SUV called the Gravity, which is expected to enter production in 2023.

In July 2019, Lucid hired Peter Hochholdinger from Tesla to serve as its VP of Manufacturing. While at Tesla, Hochholder oversaw the production of the Model 3, the company's first mass-market car. Prior to working at Tesla, Hochholdinger spent 24 years at Audi, where he rose to Senior Director of Production for the Audi A4, A5, and Q5.

At the time, Rawlinson said that Hochholdinger's experience in manufacturing will help the company to launch the Lucid Air and other luxury electric models in the future.

Lucid is one of the most talked about electric vehicle startups since Tesla went public in June 2010. CEO & CTO Rawlinson is a former Tesla employee and worked under Elon Musk as chief designer of the Tesla Model S before joining Lucid. He set out to build an electric car that's more advanced than Tesla's vehicles and the result was the Air sedan.

Rawlinson said in the past that the ultra-luxurious and high-performance Lucid Air sedan will be the "world's most advanced electric car" and will define Lucid as a company. He's betting that Lucid's advanced powertrain technology and state-of-the-art factory will set the automaker apart from rivals like Tesla, Porsche and Mercedes Benz. 

But the company's team of engineers and visionaries are an important part of its mission to deliver one of the world's most advanced electric cars, Rawlinson said.

Lucid is also a U.S. listed company. The startup launched its U.S. IPO in July after completing its merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Churchill Capital Corp IV on July 23. Lucid's shares are listed on the NASDAQ under the symbol "LCID."

Lucid shares were trading down 5% on Tuesday afternoon at $24.54. The company's market cap is $39.7 billion.

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.