Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk, is lashing out fiercely at competitor Lucid, which he believes is only surviving on 'sugar daddy' money from Saudi Arabia.
They lose money. No doubt about it. A lot of money, in fact. Last year it emerged that the American electric car brand Lucid loses DKK 2.3 million for each car that is built at the factory in Arizona.
Yet there is still something called Lucid today. The brand even plans to send a new, cheaper SUV onto the roads.
But now Tesla director Elon Musk is interfering in the debate. The fact that Lucid is not yet short in the grave is solely due to a heavy flow of money from Saudi Arabia, believes the world's second richest man.
Musk wrote this this week on his own social media "X" – the former Twitter.
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This week, Lucid also released the brand's financial results for the fourth quarter of 2023. And it's not encouraging reading.
During the period, the brand managed to lose a staggering 636 million dollars. This corresponds to 4.3 billion Danish kroner.
Musk subsequently responded to this with a verbal slap. And a bit down the road, Elon Musk is also right. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund owns 60 percent of the shares in Lucid.
That's what Automotive News writes.
The Middle Eastern country's government got access to it through a buyout worth $10 billion and a cap that the Saudis will purchase 100,000 Lucid models over the next decade.
As recently as last year, Lucid also opened a factory in Saudi Arabia. The country hopes to become a hub for the world's electric car industry. But there is a long way to go until the 100,000 cars.
Last year, the brand delivered 6,001 cars worldwide. In comparison, Tesla sent almost 2 million new cars onto the street. Still, that's 37 percent growth for Lucid. That is, compared to 2022.
