Lucid Motors finishes the first phase of its $700 million EV factory in Arizona

Last twelvemonth, The Verge published the first images of Crystalline Motors' planned $700 million electric automobile mill in Arizona. Now, nearly a twelvemonth after breaking ground, the company announced that it has finished the offse phase of construction and is connected schedule to start yield of its first vehicle, the luxury Lucid Air sedan, by natural spring 2021.

The first phase of the factory comprises 999,000 square feet of space, with the destination of eventually expanding that to a whopping 5.1 million quadrate feet by 2028. The next form of construction will Menachem Begin in incipient 2021, Lucid says. Initially, the factory testament have the capacity to produce 30,000 vehicles a twelvemonth, with the goal of eventually acquiring to an period of time capacity of 400,000 vehicles.

Sane says it has already produced a "full beta prototype examination flutter" and is now transitioning to the construction of "production representative" versions of the Air. The company hopes to expand the factory to begin product of its SUV, codenamed "Project Gravity," by 2023.

Logical Motors doesn't own the land; instead, Pinal County bought the much 500-acre site and will lease IT to the EV startup with the goal of one of these days handing it over. Pinal County raised $29.94 million through bonds to buy the land, and Sane Motors will pay $1.8 million each year in tear, before being relinquished the opportunity to buy the land in five years.

The Sane Air out, first revealed last September, volition induce adequate 517 miles of set out, can hit a quarter-mile in under 10 seconds, packs over 1,000 horsepower, and testament suffer a base price of $77,400. But Lucid is prioritizing the pricier lop levels in the hopes of replicating Tesla's scheme of selling a lot of really expensive cars to generate adequate cash flow for the more affordable versions. The two most valuable versions of the Air — the $139,000 Air Grand Touring and $169,000 Air Dream Edition — are expected to go happening sale in the second quarter of 2021.

Over the last decade, there's been a lot of money pouring into the EV startup infinite, without numerous new EVs to show for it. One of the major hurdling has been manufacturing plant construction. Both companies believed they needed to build big, expensive factories, a la Tesla's Gigafactory, to impress investors and signal their intention to compete with Elon Musk. Others searched for smaller, preexisting factories to lease in the hopes of saving money on capital costs.

Like numerous other EV startups, Limpid Motors almost ran out of money as it chased its plans to build the Lucid Breeze. Information technology took on loans from a hedgefund and a Chinese bus service to stay afloat and ultimately received a massive $1 billion life line from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.