Lucid Motors, a rising star in the electric vehicle market, is revving up to start production at its first manufacturing plant in Casa Grande, Arizona this spring, CEO Peter Rawlinson told Cheddar.
"To the best of my knowledge, it's the first purpose-built greenfield EV plant in North America. It's been constructed in record time, and it's got state-of-the-art facilities," he said.
The California-based firm broke ground on the factory one year ago. Now it plans to start rolling tech-heavy electric vehicles off of the manufacturing line by spring of 2021. The plant will produce 30,000 units per year in its initial phase and ramp up to 400,000 units "later in the decade," Rawlinson said.
The CEO attributed the company's speed in building the plant to its flexibility and size.
"The agility of a small company like Lucid helps us enormously," he said. "We're able to set up and establish our own most appropriate processes and central to that is the production process, which will ensure a wonderfully high-quality product for customers."
That flexible approach extends to the construction of the plant itself, which is designed to grow with the company over a 590-acre footprint.
Lucid Motors' ramp-up also happens to be taking place amid a major political transition that could have significant implications for the U.S. electric vehicle market.
"I think there's a real great opportunity here for the U.S. to regain leadership," Rawlinson said.
He noted that while America may have the most technical expertise — due to the leading position of companies such as Tesla — the country is "lagging" when it comes to government policy.
"If we look at the worldwide picture, probably China takes the lead in that, frankly, and then Europe," he said.
Rawlinson added that he has "high hopes" the Biden administration will provide more support to electric vehicles. At the same time, he stressed that Lucid's launch model will stand on its own.
"This car stands on its own merit in the market," he said. "We don't need the artificial construct of incentives. This is inherently a better car than its gasoline counterpart."
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
