An electric vehicle company in Silicon Valley just got a $1 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Lucid Motors, the recipient of the Saudi funding, and future competitor of Tesla is located next door to Tesla’s Fremont headquarters in Newark, California.
The luxury electric vehicle brand announced the cash infusion this week saying it would use the funding to move forward with its Lucid Air, expected to launch in 2020. Lucid Motors is expected to build its factory in Casa Grande, Arizona.
If this story sounds familiar, it’s because last month a deal was struck with the Saudi fund to buy 5 percent of Tesla for almost $2 billion. The company almost went private with the new infusion of funding, however, that part of the deal fell apart and didn’t happen.
Saudi Arabia seems intent to be on the cutting-edge of electric vehicles, no matter where it takes them. Lucid has been around for a decade, with the Lucid Air debuting at the Los Angeles auto show two years ago.
About the Lucid Air
The Lucid Air base model will start at $52,500, with the more expensive model costing over $100,000. The fully loaded car has a 1,000 horsepower all-wheel drive twin-motor, 400-mile range battery, panoramic glass canopy, leather trims, 21-inch wheels, 29-speaker audio system, two “executive” rear seats that recline up to 55-degrees, and a massager built into the front seats.
The base model will come with a 400 horsepower rear-wheel drive single motor and 240-mile range battery. Also, the base model comes with an aluminum roof instead of glass, the back seats don’t recline, the wheels are 19-inch, and the sound system only has 10 speakers.
Visit https://lucidmotors.com/ for more information about Lucid Motor and to reserve your Lucid Air!
The Future in Electric Vehicles
With Saudi Arabia infusing the notably private company with nearly as much cash as it invested in Tesla, we must ask:
Is there enough space on the road for two Electric Vehicle Manufacturers?
[via Mashable]
