Lucid, a California-headquartered electric vehicle maker, has revealed plans to venture into Europe and start selling cars in Europe this year. Lucid, which is a rival to established electric vehicle maker Tesla made the announcement via a Twitter response after a Twitter user asked if some images of some of the company’s new cars were based in the UK.
Lucid’s tweet response read “Expansion to European markets will begin this year. Stay tuned for country-specific delivery information”.
Lucid, just like Tesla, is trying to develop independent driving technology that’ll allow cars to be able to drive themselves without any effort from a person. The company’s first vehicle is called the Air Sedan. The company started delivering a “Dream Edition” of the flagship car marked at $169,000 in October last year. This followed commercial production that began a month earlier at a new factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. The car has a range of 520 miles.
According to Axel Schmidt, the head of the automotive sector at Accenture, tech companies have “underestimated all the challenges” in terms of getting autonomous vehicles on the road. According to him, by 2030 60 percent to 70 percent of new cars will have “Level 2” autonomous driving capabilities. What this means is that cars will be able to steer, stay in the right lane as well as control speed but they cannot safely drive themselves.
Founded in 2007 and led by former Tesla executive Peter Rawlinson, Lucid went public through a SPAC deal in July 2021 that valued the company around $24 million.
Around this time two years ago, Lucid started taking reservations for its flagship Air Sedan in 15 European countries. The time for delivery, however, was not specified by the firm. The company received online reservations from European countries including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
According to what Lucid told investors, it expects to produce 20,000 Lucid Air Sedans in 2022 and generate at least $2.2 billion in revenue.
Lucid is valued at $65 billion currently and is a part of the list of electric vehicle makers that are rivals to Tesla.
