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Arizona’s nascent auto industry hit a milestone on Tuesday as the first electric vehicles rolled off an assembly line at Casa Grande.
Lucid Group opened its advanced manufacturing and powertrain manufacturing plants to members of the media, investors, policy makers and initial customers and officially commissioned the plants in a ceremony attended by Governor Doug Ducey .
The factories currently employ around 700 workers and will continue to hire as production increases. The company receives approximately nine applications for each job posting.
Lucid cars soon on the roads
The initial vehicles produced are Lucid Air Dream Edition models heading to showrooms and will be used for road tests. Scottsdale Fashion Square features one of the company’s showrooms, as well as those of competitors.
The first customers who ordered Air Dream Edition models will start receiving their vehicles at the end of October. Overpowered luxury cars, capable of accelerating from 0 to 100 km / h in under 3 seconds, sell for $ 169,000 before federal tax credits.
Other models will follow, including an SUV and a less powerful sedan capable of going 400 miles between charges and selling for $ 77,400.
The Air Dream Edition was recently estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency to be able to travel 520 miles on a single charge, roughly the distance from downtown Phoenix beyond Santa Barbara, California. .
Highly technical operations
Lucid’s state-of-the-art complex near Interstate 8 relies heavily on robotics and other advanced manufacturing capabilities. Lucid said the new factories are the first entirely new electric vehicle factories in North America, or those built and equipped on once barren land, farmland or other non-industrial sites.
“The proprietary EV technology that Lucid has developed will allow you to travel more miles using less battery power,†said Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO of Lucid. “Our technology will make electric vehicles lighter, more efficient and less expensive. “
Lucid, headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, completed construction of state-of-the-art manufacturing plants on a 590-acre former farm site in Casa Grande in less than a year. The complex has the capacity to produce 34,000 vehicles per year.
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