Lucid may build factories in the Middle East and China in 2025

According to foreign media reports, Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson said on November 16th that the company plans to build new plants in China and the Middle East by 2025.

"We plan to open factories in the Middle East and China around 2025," Rawlinson said in an interview with Mad Money. China is the largest car market in the world. Tesla, the leader of electric cars, opened a factory in China in 2019. Many Chinese electric car start-ups, such as Xiaopeng, ideal and Xilai, are also trying to attract more consumers.

Lucid's flagship plant is located in Casa Grande (Casa Grande), Arizona, USA. The company began commercial production at the plant in September. Deliveries of the first Lucid Air Dream began at the end of October, an important milestone for Lucid in the increasingly competitive electric vehicle market.

Lucid, which expects to produce 20, 000 Air cars next year, first proposed the production plan in July and confirmed it on November 15. However, Rawlinson says the Arizona plant is currently capable of producing 34000 cars a year and will expand in the future.

"We're going to quadruple the size of the plant in Arizona," Rawlinson said. We are carrying out an expansion of 2.85 million square feet, which can produce 90, 000 vehicles a year, while the plant itself, together with the third phase of the project, can produce nearly 400000 vehicles a year. "

Rawlinson said Lucid had received pre-orders for "more than 17000" Air electric vehicles (the deposit is refundable). "bookings have increased by more than 30 per cent in the past six weeks alone," Rawlinson said. He added that the company receives more bookings every day, especially after the Lucid Air was named car of the year by MotorTrend on Nov. 15.

On Nov. 15, Lucid released its first quarterly results after going public. Lucid shares rose on Nov. 16, surpassing Ford's market capitalization, thanks to an increase in Lucid pre-orders and the company's management confirmed its production plan for 2022.