SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 5 — Thanks to the construction of the EV startup's first manufacturing facility kicking off this week, Lucid Motors will finally begin mass producing its first vehicle — the Air luxury sedan — next year.
On Monday, the California-based luxury EV company Lucid Motors officially began construction of its first electric manufacturing factory in Casa Grande, Arizona.
This project and the resulting plant are expected to produce 4,800 jobs over the next 10 years as the company enters the mass vehicle production world.
The brand's first car, the Air luxury sedan, which was first previewed at the LA Auto Show in 2016, will be going into production upon the facility's completion, the first phase of which — an investment valued over US$300 million (RM1.25 billion) — is expected to be finished late next year.
According to Lucid Motors, the Air will have a driving range of more than 640 km on a single charge and will be able to accelerate to 60 mph in less than 2.5 seconds.
Today, alongside #Arizona Governor @dougducey and local officials, we marked the start of construction of our Casa Grande, Arizona factory. Stay tuned for a full recap coming soon. pic.twitter.com/wmX9gtJyNY
Advertisement— Lucid Motors (@Lucid_Motors) December 2, 2019
If those numbers materialise in the production version of the vehicle, the car will be a direct competitor of Tesla's Model S, which can make the same sprint in 2.4 seconds (performance variant) and has an EPA-estimated range of 600 km (long-range variant).
However, the Air is expected to have a price tag over US$100,000 (RM417,485) whereas the Model S starts at US$79,990.
The first Air will roll off the production line in December 2020. Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson stated that he is expecting to produce about 15,000 vehicles during 2021 with that number possibly growing up to 100,000 by 2026 or 2027. — AFP-Relaxnews
