Individuals take a look at drive Dream Version P and Dream Version R electrical automobiles on the Lucid Motors plant in Casa Grande, Arizona, September 28, 2021.
Caitlin O’Hara | Reuters
Electrical car maker Lucid plans to begin promoting its automobiles in Europe this yr.
The California-headquartered agency, which competes with Tesla, introduced the growth on Tuesday after a Twitter user asked if a picture of some new Lucid homeowners have been based mostly within the U.Ok.
“Enlargement to European markets will start this yr. Keep tuned for country-specific supply data,” the company tweeted in response.
Lucid didn’t instantly reply to a CNBC request for extra data.
Lucid’s first car is called the Air sedan. It began delivering a $169,000 “Dream Version” of the flagship automotive to prospects in late October, following business manufacturing starting a month earlier at a brand new manufacturing unit in Casa Grande, Arizona. The automotive has an industry-leading range of 520 miles.
Like Tesla, Lucid is attempting to develop autonomous driving expertise that permits its automobiles to securely drive themselves.
Axel Schmidt, who heads up the automotive sector at consultancy agency Accenture, instructed CNBC Wednesday that tech firms have “underestimated all of the challenges” relating to getting autonomous automobiles on the highway.
He added that 60% to 70% of recent automobiles could have “Stage 2” autonomous driving capabilities by 2030. Which means the automobiles will help with steering, staying in the suitable lane and controlling velocity however they will not be capable of safely drive themselves till they attain “Stage 5.”
European reservations
In January 2020, Lucid began taking online reservations in 15 European international locations for its flagship Lucid Air sedan however the agency has not specified when the automobiles shall be delivered.
Areas included Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
The corporate, based in 2007 and led by former Tesla government Peter Rawlinson, went public by way of a SPAC deal in July that valued it at around $24 billion.
That month, it instructed traders that it expects to provide 20,000 Lucid Air sedans in 2022, producing greater than $2.2 billion in income.
Overtaking Ford
4 months later, Lucid’s market value blew past Ford to $89.9 billion after executives instructed traders that reservations for its first automobiles had jumped and that its manufacturing plans for 2022 have been nonetheless on observe. On the time, it stated it has greater than 17,000 reservations for its Air sedan, up from 13,000 by way of the third quarter.
Nonetheless, shares tanked round 20% final month when Lucid disclosed a probe by the U.S. Securities and Change Fee probably into the corporate’s SPAC deal to go public.
Lucid stated though there may be “no assurance as to the scope or consequence of this matter, the investigation seems to concern the enterprise mixture” between the automaker and blank-check firm Churchill Capital Corp. IV.
As we speak, Lucid is valued at round $65 billion and its market cap remains to be far beneath Tesla, which surged to more than $1 trillion final yr. Rivian, an EV start-up that went public in November, has a market cap of about $91 billion.
— Extra reporting by CNBC’s Michael Wayland and Lora Kolodny.
