Lucid completes construction on Arizona electric-auto plant
Lucid Motors has completed its Casa Grande factory and is commissioning the equipment to begin manufacturing tens of thousands of electric vehicles starting in Arizona this spring, the company announced Tuesday.
Top-end models of the luxury vehicles are touted as getting 500 miles per charge with the capability to go zero to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds.
The Newark, California, company refers to its Arizona facility as AMP-1, for “Advanced Manufacturing Plant,” and says it will be capable of producing 30,000 cars a year.
Already it has built 100 vehicles in
California for a beta prototype test fleet and is now transitioning that manufacturing to Arizona, Vice President of Manufacturing Peter Hochholdinger said.
“Initially these were fully built in the Newark facility, but that was transitioned recently to a production line at the Casa Grande factory,” he said. “The main line at Casa Grande will soon be spun up to start building these production-representative cars, which will precede start-of-production for customer cars in spring of 2021.”
Once the facility is ready for full production, the first models off the Arizona line will be the “Dream” edition of the cars, which retail for $162,000 after deducting the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles. Then it will roll out the
Grand Touring ($132,000) and Touring ($88,000) editions, according to the company.
In 2022, the company plans to produce a model called the Air Pure that retails for about $70,000 after federal tax credits.
Lucid takes reservations for its vehicles online at lucidmotors.com. The company does not disclose how many car orders it has received.
The factory was built with expansion in mind, and the company says it will expand and produce a Lucid SUV in 2023, which it is referring to as Project Gravity.
Lucid said four expansion phases are planned at the factory through 2028,
with the square footage growing from nearly 1 million square feet today to more than 5 million square feet, and a final capacity of 400,000 cars a year.
Hochholdinger said the first phase is only part of a $700 million investment, and that Lucid employs about 750 people.
Saudis aid factory construction
Gov. Doug Ducey announced the factory in 2016, along with Sonora, Mexico, Gov. Claudia Pavlovich and Lucid executives. Parts for the vehicles were to be manufactured by suppliers in Sonora.
When that announcement was made, Arizona had recently lost a bid to locate the Tesla Inc. “Gigafactory,” which went to Nevada thanks in large part to more than $1 billion in subsidies from that state.
But the Lucid project initially was delayed until the company announced a $1 billion investment in 2018 from Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. That allowed the project to move forward, and it actually broke ground in December 2019.
“We broke ground on the 590-acre Lucid AMP-1 site in Casa Grande, Arizona, on Dec. 2, 2019, and slightly less than a year later we have completed the first purpose-built EV factory in North America,” CEO and Chief Technology Officer Peter Rawlinson said in a press release. “The effort and agility demonstrated by this team is truly astounding.”
The company said it chose the Arizona location because of “infrastructure, talent, geographic location, and pre-existing automotive supply chain.”
At the groundbreaking, Lucid officials said the first phase of the project would cost $300 million, but that they planned to spend double that in the next decade expanding the plant.
An analysis of the project presented to the Pinal County Board of Supervisors described the first phase as a $168 million investment in equipment and an $82 million property investment. Hochholdinger would only describe the total investment, not what the first phase cost.
Arizona offered cash incentives
Lucid made a commitment to eventually hire more than 2,000 workers with an average wage of more than $42,000 annually, and to spend about $675 million on the full project, according to data from the Arizona Commerce Authority.
The Commerce Authority offered Lucid a $5 million grant from the Competes Fund, a cash account used to help entice companies to the state. And Lucid also has applied for a $1.3 million job training grant.
The project also could qualify for nearly $44 million in tax credits, though it has not yet applied for those, according to the Commerce Authority.
So far, Lucid has received approval for $145,000 in job-training funds, according to the Commerce Authority.
“Arizona is incredibly proud to be home to Lucid Motors and its cuttingedge advanced manufacturing facility, which is the first of its kind in North America,” Sandra Watson, president/ CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority, said in a statement.
She said the factory is expected to not only directly employ thousands, but should enhance the automotive supply chain in the region and boost the regional economy.
“Under Gov. Ducey’s leadership, Arizona has established a reputation as a hub for emerging technology — drawing innovators like Lucid Motors that are shaping the future of mobility,” Watson said. “We congratulate the entire Lucid Motors team on this remarkable accomplishment and look forward to seeing the first cars roll off the production line in just a few short months!”