- Lucid CEO confirms the corporate is in search of further established automakers to accomplice with.
- It is already in talks with two unnamed automakers after signing a deal to supply Aston Martin with its EV tech.
- Lucid needs to promote 1 million autos yearly and it’ll want an OEM’s assist to assist it ramp up manufacturing.
Though Lucid Motors is a startup with a lot much less car-making expertise than conventional OEMs, it has rapidly turn out to be an electrical car expertise chief. It’s prepared to share its EV tech with others and it’s already serving to Aston Martin create its personal bespoke EV platform. Nonetheless, it additionally needs to seek out extra automakers to accomplice with.
In a latest interview with Bloomberg, Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson stated the corporate was at present in talks with “a pair” of automakers, however he didn’t title names—certainly one of them might be Genesis. He stated, “It might be pretty if we may provide expertise to a conventional automotive firm to assist them on their technique to sustainability, and maybe we will leverage economies of scale with their components bin and different elements of the enterprise.”
In different phrases, Lucid could be enthusiastic about supplying its EV tech and count on to realize know-how from its potential companions. This doesn’t apply to its cope with Aston Martin, which is one-sided for now, however Lucid expects to earn extra than simply cash from its future partnerships. Aston Martin will launch its first EV, which may have Lucid tech and know-how, in 2026, and it says it has a number of EVs within the pipeline.
Lucid isn’t the one EV startup in search of established OEM companions. Rivian arrange a multi-billion greenback three way partnership cope with Volkswagen to develop electrical autos. VW has pledged to speculate near $6 billion, and the partnership’s first autos are anticipated to debut in 2027. Apparently, a Volkswagen EV prototype is already operating on a Rivian platform with Rivian tech.
Volkswagen additionally owns the Scout EV model, so it’s not totally unreasonable to recommend that the upcoming Scout Terra and Traveler could have some elements in widespread. That may make the truth that Scout and Rivian should not the identical firm even much less obvious.
Lucid’s in-house-developed electrical motors and 900-volt platform permit it to make a few of essentially the most environment friendly electrical autos on the planet. The startup lacks data about scaling up manufacturing into the tons of of hundreds, which is the place the expertise supplied by a longtime automaker could be very helpful.
Now within the means of ramping up manufacturing of its second mannequin, the Gravity full dimension SUV, Lucid will then transfer on to making ready the beginning of manufacturing for its third mannequin. This will probably be a smaller and extra reasonably priced midsize electrical SUV, whose beginning value will probably be round $48,000, so it ought to promote in larger volumes than any of its present fashions—the most cost effective Lucid proper now could be the Air Pure, which begins at $71,400, however you possibly can pay over $250,000 for a top-spec Air Sapphire.
Peter Rawlinson beforehand stated that Lucid is aiming to promote 1 million autos yearly, and it’s banking on not one however two midsize electrical crossovers to get there. This yr, it produced round 10,000 autos, so it is obtained a protracted technique to go to realize the acknowledged aim.
