The electric vehicle maker has barely sold any cars, but CEO Peter Rawlinson has big plans.
Lucid has barely delivered any vehicles. The electric car maker wants to take on industry leader Tesla, but it has only just begun its journey to do that.
The company hasn't sold a lot of vehicles but it has delivered to its first group of customers and CEO Peter Rawlinson has very big plans. He laid out his vision for the company in its most recent earnings call, and he explained that a lot of progress has happened behind the scenes.
I would like to spend some time providing an overview of our longer term strategic focus areas as well as upcoming major milestones. Lucid continues to grow its operations in the US, but as part of our growth strategy and more specifically our international strategy, we intend to expand our sales, maintenance, repair services, and manufacturing activities outside of the US, again, with the goals of mitigating business risk and charging future growth.
Basically, Rawlinson believes that his company has built the base needed to quickly ramp up sales. He made it clear in his remarks that the company has invested heavily in infrastructure while also laying out aggressive plans for future growth.
What Has Lucid Motors Accomplished?
Rawlinson explained that his company has been doing the things needed to facilitate growth. That has included heavy investment in manufacturing and infrastructure.
With such demand across the Lucid Air lineup, we felt it's critical to accelerate expansion of our advanced manufacturing plant or our AMP-1 factory in Arizona, essentially investing in our capabilities to mitigate future business risks. This process started in Q3, with progress well underway on the addition of 2.85 million square feet of manufacturing space to our Arizona factory. This expansion will allow for a significant increase in production capacity for Lucid Air and enable production of the Gravity SUV in 2023.
Lucid has also expanded its retail footprint including launching its first "studio" outside of the U.S. in Vancouver. The company expects to have 20 studios and service centers open by the end of 2021.
What's Next for Lucid?
Rawlinson has a detailed vision for how his company plans to grow in the U.S. That includes not just brick-and-mortar service centers but also adding mobile capabilities.
"We expect service centers to continue opening in North America, and we anticipate hiring a significant number of additional service technicians as we expand our capabilities," he said. "We are optimistic about these goals even in a challenging environment as COVID-19 continues to present numerous obstacles to the auto industry and supply chain."
The CEO also made it clear that his company has global ambitions.
"On the retail and service front, we're looking to expand our footprint in Europe and the Middle East, and we expect to enter these markets in 2022," he said. " "There has been continued expansion of the team in both regions with key additions to leadership and the employee base, and we are excited by the prospects of these key regions."
Rawlinson also explained how Lucid plans to grow its vehicle lineup. And, as he likes to subtly do, he threw some shade at the competition,
Moving to our Air lineup, the longer view will see production expanding to include Touring and Pure models, as well as future variants. With our in-house technology establishing Lucid Air as the new benchmark for EV efficiency, we will be quick to maximize this potential. Because if we can achieve 516 miles with just a 112 kilowatt-hour battery pack, it's easy to imagine a smaller pack and the weight and cost savings afforded by it, which would allow for much more attainable EV that can still achieve 300-plus or 400-plus miles of range.
Lucid also has plans to launch a luxury SUX that Rawlison said "will elevate the SUV to a new level, with extraordinary performance and category-defining interior space. That vehicle will enter production in 2023 with the company expecting to share details on it in the coming year.