Lucid Motors, which builds electric vehicles in Arizona, goes public

PHOENIX – Lucid Motors, which is producing its soon-to-be-available luxury electric vehicles in Arizona, became a publicly listed company on Monday.

The California-based carmaker was rechristened as the Lucid Group after merging with Churchill Capital Corp IV and is now trading under the ticker symbol LCID.

The merger was finalized Friday, and the company’s stock went up more than 10% on its first trading day as a new entity.

“We are on track to meet our projected customer deliveries this year, the next, and into the future,” CEO Peter Rawlinson said in a statement.

“But with the $4.4 billion in funding we now have in the bank, we’re able to significantly accelerate our trajectory while also mitigating our risks in delivering the world’s best EVs.”

Lucid completed construction on the first phase of its $700 million factory in Casa Grande in late 2020. The 590-acre facility opened with the capacity to produce 30,000 vehicles annually.

Expansion is already underway, with the factory aiming to eventually crank out 400,000 units a year.

More than 11,000 reservations have been made for the company’s debut model, the Lucid Air sedan, according to a press release.

Customers can reserve the Air Pure base model, which starts at around $70,000, with a $300 deposit.

The premium version, the $131,500 Air Grand Touring, is projected to have a range of more than 500 miles, longer than any electric vehicle available.

Churchill Capital Corp IV, which until Monday traded as CCIV, was what’s known as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) or blank-check company. SPACs are publicly traded companies without actual business operations that are created as a means to eventually take another company public through a merger.

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