Officially, Lucid Motors is only looking for 'partners'. But there are many indications that the brand could be taken over by one or more larger competitors.
Lucid Motors, which is experiencing significant financial losses related to car production, is now seeking collaboration with established actors in the automotive industry.
The company, which builds electric cars, has already signed an agreement with Aston Martin to provide technology for their upcoming electric car platform.
Lucid, however, is looking to expand its portfolio of partners. In an interview with Bloomberg , Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said the company is in talks with "a few" automakers, including Hyundai-owned Genesis.
Rawlinson expressed a desire to provide Lucid's technology to more established car brands to "support the sustainable transition." At the same time, Lucid sees opportunities for economies of scale and established supplier networks with potential partners.
Lucid's agreement with Aston Martin is so far one-sided. Only Lucid will deliver anything in the form of technology and expertise.
Aston Martin plans to launch its first electric car with Lucid technology in 2026 and has plans for more electric cars in the future. However, Lucid expects future partnerships to provide more than just financial gain.
The American brand with Saudi owners is not the only electric car manufacturer seeking collaboration with established car brands.
Competitor Rivian has entered into a joint venture agreement with Volkswagen to develop electric cars. Volkswagen has committed to investing almost 42 billion kroner in the collaboration.
And here it is expected that the collaboration will produce the first cars in 2027. A prototype of a Volkswagen electric car is already running on a Rivian platform.
Volkswagen also owns the revived Scout brand. And it's possible that the upcoming Scout Terra and Traveler will be based on or even be Rivian's cars with different headlights.
Lucid has developed its own electric motors and a 900-volt platform that enables the production of high-efficiency electric cars.
However, the company lacks experience in scaling production to hundreds of thousands of cars without losing hundreds of thousands of kroner on each car. This is where the expertise of established car manufacturers can be valuable.
Lucid is ramping up production of its second model, the Gravity SUV, and a third model is on the way.
It will be a smaller and more affordable mid-size SUV with a starting price of around 335,000 kroner. That is, in the USA.
This model is expected to sell in higher volumes than Lucid's current model – the top model Air. The cheapest Lucid at the moment is the Air Pure, which has a starting price of 498,000 kroner. While a top model Air Sapphire costs over 1,745,000 kroner.
Peter Rawlinson has previously said that Lucid aims to sell 1 million cars annually. The company is betting that two mid-size SUVs will meet that goal. However, by 2024, Lucid will have built no more than 10,000 cars.
