Lucid’s Head of China Operations, Zhu Jiang, confirmed the automaker is preparing to enter the Chinese market. The expansion comes as the luxury EV automaker has started deliveries of its Air sedan in Saudi Arabia.
According to a report from Reuters, Lucid will sell imported cars in China but is considering local production per an unnamed local source. However, Jiang declined to comment on local production at this time. Jiang is not new to the automaking space with previous jobs with Jidu Motor and was Ford’s project leader on the Mach-e project in China.
Lucid nor Jiang provided a roadmap or date for when sales in China would start. However, with the complex automotive sector in the region, we can assume it will be in late 2023 or 2024.
At the same time, Lucid’s Vice President and Managing Director of Lucid Middle East Faisal Sultan has confirmed that deliveries of the Air have begun in Saudi Arabia. In an interview with Argaam, Sultan said the company is seeing high demand from customers, and is planning to complete hundreds of deliveries over the next few months. To support the deliveries Sultan explained Lucid will be exporting hundreds of Air sedan from its manufacturing facility in Casa Grande, Arizona on a weekly basis.
The automaker, who’s largest investor is the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), is currently building its second factory in Saudi Arabia. It is expected to open its doors later this year, where it will initially re-assemble cars produced in Arizona to support deliveries in the region. By 2025 or 2026 the factory will begin vehicle production, with a capacity of up to 150,000 cars per year.
Lucid announced last week that it would raise about $3 billion through a stock offering to support the expansion and sure up cash flow. Nearly two-thirds of that amount will come from the PIF.
