Lucid Motors, rival of TESLA, will go public
(AOF) – c better watch out. The Californian start-up Lucid Motors, CCIV Stock. its rival, has announced its intention to go public via a merger with a dedicated company, Churchill Capital Corp IV (CCIV Stock). The start-up will indeed go through a SPAC, that is to say a company without operational activity whose purpose is to raise funds by entering a stock market. If the title of CCIV Stock falls today from 33.78% to 37.99 dollars, it has however increased by more than 470% since the first discussions reported last month.
The transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter, will value Lucid Motors at $24 billion and enable it to raise nearly $4.4 billion.
With this IPO, Lucid Motors intends to accelerate its next phase of growth and achieve its ambitious goal: “to inspire the adoption of sustainable transportation by creating the most captivating luxury electric vehicles”.
The start-up is working on the launch of the Lucid Air, a new all-electric luxury sedan, which promises to last more than 500 miles (about 800 kilometers) on a single charge. It should arrive in the United States this year, and in 2022 in Europe, as well as in the Middle East. Will follow in 2023, the release of Gravity, a luxury SUV.
The funds raised will make it possible to expand the capacities of the production site located in Arizona (United States). In the years to come, the site should show a production capacity of 365,000 units per year, compared to a capacity of 34,000 units currently.
Founded in 2007, Lucid Motors currently employs 2,000 employees. The start-up led by Peter Rawlinson, a former Tesla employee, intends to recruit 3,000 additional people in the United States by the end of 2022.
On the shareholder side, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia will remain the majority. Among the investors appearing alongside him, we can notably cite BlackRock, Fidelity Management & Research LLC, Franklin Templeton and Neuberger Berman.
AOF – LEARN MORE ABOUT CCIV STOCK
How electric is reconfiguring the sector
2020 will have marked a real take-off in sales. In Western Europe, volumes of 100% electric and plug-in hybrid cars doubled to more than 1 million units. They represent 10% of the market, compared to 3.9% in 2019.
In mid-December, Tesla’s stock market value was higher than those of Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW, General Motors, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, PSA and Renault combined. At $570 billion, Tesla’s valuation was three times that of Toyota ($199 billion) and six times that of Volkswagen ($91 billion).
Another important development: several young Chinese start-ups operating in the electrical sector, which did not exist five years ago, have a high market capitalization.
