Going public was basically a validation process for Lucid, according to Peter Rawlinson. Lucid’s CEO even realized that this could give the company more time to achieve flawless mass production with Air. After all, Lucid is a post-luxury brand, while Tesla is “innovative, but not luxurious”, as you can see in the image above.
It was extracted from Lucid Investor Deck: February 2021. This document was designed to present the merger between Lucid and Churchill Capital Corp IV that will transform the automotive startup into a public company.
As you can see, this establishes Lucid as a competitor to Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, something Rawlinson has been saying for months. Audi would represent technological luxury, BMW would represent sports luxury and Mercedes-Benz would be the best example of classic luxury. Lucid’s post-luxury concept would encompass all of these ideas in a single brand and would be above all the main examples of them.
To the far left is the Tesla emblem and the inscription “innovative, but not luxurious”. Rawlinson justifies that in this interview with Bloomberg.
According to Lucid’s CEO, “a lot of slack was cut” with the Model S because “the electric car was such a fun experience that people forgave build quality problems.” Rawlinson thinks that is no longer the case, hence the need for Lucid Air to be flawless.
The production delay is not necessarily related to Lucid itself. Rawlinson said the company has “250 suppliers, 3,000 parts” and “the impact of COVID-19 should not be underestimated here”. According to the executive, the chip shortage did not affect the company because of the “very smart purchase” agreements that Lucid made.
It is at this point that Rawlinson said that going public was not for money, because the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund “has pockets” and long-term intentions with Lucid. The aim was to have validation, attracting “the bluest of blue-chip investors”.
Regardless, the deal with Churchill Capital Corp IV brought in $ 4.5 billion for Lucid. The company is now worth more than $ 60 billion without having delivered a single car.
According to Rawlinson, the evaluation is “a reflection” of Lucid’s technology, which would be cutting edge. What the CEO of Lucid said the company needs to do is “humbly and diligently put it into production”, which should happen in the second half of 2021. Instead of spring 2021, expect “post-luxury” to make its opens in late summer or fall.