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Luxury EV maker Lucid (LCID, $15.15) wants to raise more cash via a universal shelf offering. If all goes well by the SEC, the shelf offering should allow Lucid to raise up to $8 billion of capital, over the next three years. That should help the brand ease its production woes, and get cars on the road. Lucid’s stock dipped 3% after announcing this plan.
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Led by CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson, a former Tesla chief engineer who was key to creating that company’s Model S sedan, Lucid seeks to become the leading producer of premium, high-powered, long-range electric vehicles.
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Lucid has also signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia, a major stakeholder in the company, to build a plant there that will be able to produce up to 155,000 vehicles per year and ultimately cost up to $3.4 billion. It hasn’t said when construction of that facility, the first auto plant in the country, will begin.
Why it matters
The SPAC merger boom provided a cash infusion to a number of EV startups. However, those capitally rich days have disappeared as companies grapple with production bottlenecks, inflationary pressures and supply chain constraints. Like other automakers, Lucid had headaches launching production owing to global supply chain challenges and expects to deliver between 6,000 and 7,000 EVs this year. The company’s new Casa Grande, Arizona, plant can build up to 34,000 vehicles per year.
