This Is the Tesla Rival That’s Wooing the Saudis

(Bloomberg) -- It's an electric-car maker. It's in the news. No, it's not Tesla Inc.

Lucid Motors, a startup co-founded 11 years ago by a Silicon Valley veteran, is in the spotlight following news reports over the weekend that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund would be willing to invest $1 billion in it, possibly as an alternative to playing a key role in taking Tesla private.

Regardless of what the Saudi Public Investment Fund does with Tesla, its $250 billion war chest could get Lucid's Air electric car into production.

“The Lucid Air is legitimate technology and very well designed,” said Eric Noble, president of consulting firm The CarLab. “They have a stellar team, they just need money.”

Funding would be a welcome new lease on life for Lucid, which had been trying to raise a series D round of $700 million last year to get a plant up and running in Arizona.

Lucid was co-founded by Sam Weng, who came from software maker Oracle Corp., and two partners as a maker of battery systems. The company has since assembled a team recruited from Mazda Motor Corp. and Tesla, including Chief Technical Officer Peter Rawlinson, who was chief engineer of the latter company's Model S before joining Lucid in 2013.

Lucid Air

When Lucid showed the Air as a concept car at the New York auto show in 2017, Rawlinson said that the car would start at a base price of $60,000, or $52,500 after federal tax credits. The Air's motor can produce the equivalent of 400 horsepower and run 240 miles on a charge, the CTO said. Lucid also planned on a higher-end, 1,000 horsepower version that can drive 400 miles on a charge will be much more expensive, selling for “well north of $100,000,” Rawlinson said at the time.

Lucid has no updated information about the car on its website. The company didn't return an email seeking comment, and Rawlinson didn't answer a call seeking comment.

News of the Saudi PIF's interest in Lucid was one factor weighing on Tesla stock Monday. Some investors feared that it signaled declining interest from the sovereign wealth fund in helping Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk take his company private. Musk, who announced his intention in a surprise tweet on Aug. 7, said last week that he met with the Saudis on July 31 and after that felt confident they would play a key role.

The Saudi PIF has a mission to invest in new technology and diversify both its portfolio and the Saudi economy away from oil and gas. Sovereign wealth funds often are more patient investors and could wait for the technology to be ready for the market, Noble said.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Welch in Southfield at dwelch12@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net, Cecile Daurat, Jamie Butters

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