The company Lucid Motors involved in the development of electric vehicles seem to have a second chance. Recall that the company is one of the daughters of the Chinese giant LeEco, who invested in its development and manufacture of luxury EV. Recent years have LeEco financial business has been bad, so Lucid Motors could not obtain the necessary financing to complete the development and serial production are presented in the 2016 model of the electric vehicle Lucid Air. However, it became known that the sovereign investment Fund of Saudi Arabia decided to invest in the company $ 1 billion to be able to reach the commercial market. The details of the transaction will be settled in the coming days.
Interestingly, information about this transaction came just weeks after the head of Tesla Elon Musk said on Twitter that he wants to make Tesla a private company by buying all its shares at a price of $ 420. Then Musk noted that the investment Fund of Saudi Arabia owns almost five percent stake in Tesla, has shown interest in this idea. But for others this news was like a bolt from the blue. The statement of the head of Tesla led to the fall in the price of its shares, as well as a few lawsuits to Mask from investors who considered themselves deceived. Eventually this all stopped. Musk later said that he changed his mind.
But, apparently, the idea of supporting any company manufacturing electric vehicles are not left Saudi Arabia.
“By investing in the rapidly growing market for electric cars state investment Fund invests in promising growth opportunities in the innovation and technological development of the automotive market, which in turn will boost revenues and sectoral diversification for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” — said the representative of the national welfare Fund in an interview with “Reuters”.
The news of the investment came to Lucid Motors at the crucial moment, when the company tried in vain to raise funds for the production of a luxury electric sedan Lucid Air. Thanks to the new Finance company will be able to complete the engineering revision and test luxury electric car, to build a previously planned plant for the production of electric cars in Arizona (USA), and begin a global deployment of its retail network, starting with the United States, notes the company.
Lucid Motors was established 11 years ago under a different name and a different purpose. Previously, the company called Atieva and was engaged in the development and improvement of technology of batteries for electric vehicles. In 2016, the change of name, the company decided to start producing electric cars. In some time she even bad things went. Lucid Motors have successfully raised initial capital and provided Lucid Air, announcing at the same time and the desire to build for $ 700 million factory in Arizona. The company has signed an agreement with Samsung SDI to supply lithium-ion batteries and involved in new major projects. However, the construction of the new plant proved too expensive, and the company almost a year has gone almost into hiding, not telling any news about the production of Air.
It is also noteworthy that to invest in the company decided that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Recall that the country is working on the implementation of the plan Kingdom”s Vision 2030, one of the key objectives of which is the abandonment of fossil fuels. Recent years, the national Fund of the country is actively investing in the development of new renewable energy sources, supports the opening of new companies for the recycling and energy efficiency.
To discuss the future of the company Lucid Motors in our Telgram-chat.
Investment for Tesla got the company Lucid Motors
Nikolai Khizhnyak