Who Owns Lucid Motors And Where Are Its Cars Built?

The mission statement for Lucid Motors is not just to make the best EV on the road, but the best dang car — period. The electric vehicle revolution has come with tradeoffs; going farther on a road trip without frequent stops at jammed-packed charging stations means adding more batteries, which weighs down the vehicle. If you want your EV to perform like a Porsche, you must sacrifice luxury, comfort, nimbleness, or roominess. However, Lucid claims you don't have to compromise anything with their cars.

Lucid started in 2007 as a company based in Newark, California called Atieva. It was created by Bernard Tse (former Tesla VP/board member) and entrepreneur Sam Weng to develop electric car battery technology. and would go on to supply batteries to the Formula E racing series. Atieva became Lucid in 2016, and in 2018, received a $1 Billion investment from the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia — one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds — with Ayar Third Investment Company (a PIF affiliate) as the majority stockholder.

Lucid went public in 2021 when it merged with Churchill Capital Corp IV, thus allowing it to debut on the Nasdaq (as "LCID"). At the helm — as CEO and CTO — is Peter Rawlinson, another former Tesla executive (VP of Vehicle Engineering), the man behind the top-to-bottom engineering of the Model S. A prototype of their first EV, the Lucid Air, was unveiled in December 2016 but wasn't manufactured and sold to consumers until the end of 2021. At that time, it held the record for the longest driving range of any electric vehicle.

Lucid's vehicles are manufactured at two facilities. Its first Advanced Manufacturing Plant (AMP-1) is located in Casa Grande, Arizona, a 500-acre property picked after looking at 60 sites in 13 different states. Lucid claims it's the first purpose-built EV factory in North America, with an initial capacity to make 10,000 cars annually. After planned expansions, they expect to build over 300,000 per year. Its second Advanced Manufacturing Plant (AMP-2) opened in September 2023 in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), Saudi Arabia, the country's very first car manufacturing facility.

Based on our hands-on review of the Air Sapphire, Lucid's claim about not needing to sacrifice anything seems spot on, and it's not just their sedans that are earning rave reviews. When we test-drove the Gravity, its version of a Sport Utility Vehicle, we were incredibly impressed by its ability to perform like a supercar with the "capability of an off-roader and the interior spaciousness of a minivan." It absolutely redefines all previous notions of what an SUV should or could be. 

But having everything you want from a Lucid EV comes with a hefty price tag. The Air Sapphire will set you back a quarter of a million dollars, while the Gravity Grand Touring starts at $95,000. Despite the cost, Lucid — which sells vehicles in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East – sold 10,241 EVs in 2024, amounting to a 71% increase from the previous year and setting a new record for the company.