American EV startup Lucid Motors is in fervent discussions with a Saudi wealth fund, with the latter party sizing up opportunities to diversify its portfolio and prepare itself for a less oil-dependant future. While Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed that he was in discussion with the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Lucid and PIF have signed a non-binding agreement that seeks to find opportunities for the companies to grow and profit together.
That non-binding agreement stipulates that the PIF would allocate a total of US$1-billion (or AU$1.36-billion) for investment into Lucid, set up in tranches based on Lucid’s growth and capability to hit targets.
The American startup automaker had initially planned to start production of their Lucid luxury saloon later this year, at a US$700-million facility in Case Grande, Arizona. However, in order to facilitate the search for funding, those plans have been pushed back to 2020. The Saudi Arabian fund is rumoured to be sitting on something like US$250-billion, and according to Reuters, the PIF has been looking to diversify its portfolio aggressively and an investment in Lucid is in keeping with that intent.
But while PIF & Lucid have gone to the trouble of inking a non-binding agreement to outline each others’ intent, sources speaking to Reuters said that the deal is far from concluded. The PIF has genuinely been in discussion with Tesla to increase its stake in the company, though Elon Musk’s claims that they’ve offered to privatise the firm might be a step too far. Further, it’s likely that the PIF will want to look at industries outside of mobility as well, so snapping up bits of both carmakers will likely be counterproductive.
The Air luxury saloon will be the marque’s first contender, and promises to offer limousine-levels of luxury with sports-car levels of agility, something that was claimed by the Jaguar XJ. That’s hardly surprising though, given that Lucid’s engineering boss is Peter Rawlinson, who used to call Jaguar home (though he also said the same of Lotus and Tesla before joining the Lucid bandwagon). Add that to advanced driver assistance kit from Mobileye and batteries from Samsung and you’ve got quite
Stay tuned to CarShowroom for more updates as they come.
