Industry News: Rumorpile: Saudi Investment Fund In Talks With Lucid Motors

[William Maley]

Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) could help provide the necessary funding to make the company private. But a new report hints that the PIF could invest its money into a different electric automaker.

Reuters has learned from sources that the PIF is in talks with Lucid Motors about a potential investment. The two have drawn up a term sheet where the PIF could invest more than $1 billion into Lucid Motors and become the majority stakeholder. One source adds that the first investment would only be for $500 million and that subsequent investments would only come if Lucid Motors is able to hit  certain production milestones

The sources do caution that the talks may not result in a deal.

Despite the PIF having $250 billion in assets, Reuters says the fund has already made a number of substantial investments into other things such as a $45 billion investment into a giant technology fund. This leaves them with limited funds, which makes the deal with Lucid more appealing. Banks have estimated that Tesla could need up to $72 billion if Tesla pays the $420 per share announced by Musk a few weeks ago. However, the price could drop if current shareholders keep their shares in the private company.

Lucid Motors made a big splash in 2016 with the introduction of the Air. The model made some big promises such as having the interior space of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class and a max range of up to 400 miles on a charge. Lucid was planning to start production of the sedan this year in Arizona. But last year, the company pushed back production to 2019 as they needed to raise more funds. 

Source: Reuters

View full article

[G. David Felt]

I personally like the looks of this over Tesla. Tesla is such a dated look and honestly, I think is going to be hurting to update their auto's due to Musk's poor focus on building a profitable company rather than pie in the sky projects all over.

He is stretched to thin with the semi, pickup truck, Tesla 3 CUV and especially the Roadster 2.0. He should have focused on one to make it a profitable hit.

I really hope PIF moves forward with investing in Lucid and we get this auto sooner rather than later. Yet as every delay, it becomes more common that the company will fade away and die once the traditional OEMs get their EV plans into production and selling.

[regfootball]

this is the sort of wrapper the sedan will need to move to to compete with the perceived usefulness advantage of an SUV.  Something significantly larger inside than typical sedans.  Note how its cab forward and stretched backend, and possible hatch.  long wheelbase, sits a bit taller than sedans now but not so freaking low.  This is the direction something like an Impala should go if it survives.  Perhaps make it about 2" more tall and add a very good ingress and egress setup.

Edited August 20, 2018 by regfootball

[G. David Felt]

2 minutes ago, regfootball said:

this is the sort of wrapper the sedan will need to move to to compete with the perceived usefulness advantage of an SUV.  Something significantly larger inside than typical sedans.  Note how its cab forward and stretched backend, and possible hatch.  long wheelbase, sits a bit taller than sedans now but not so freaking low.  This is the direction something like an Impala should go if it survives.

Yet that picture is very deceptive as the mules running around California are much lower when compared to other auto's.

[regfootball]

wow, that is messed up.  

[G. David Felt]

4 hours ago, regfootball said:

wow, that is messed up.  

Yes going to be interesting to see how they give it the interior space of an S class when it is looking like a size or more below the over all body. Yes EV power trains allow better interior space layout, but still, Kinda crazy.

[balthazar]

Lucid Air concept is 2 inches lower than the '18 Impala, and it's only 189" long. It's within a few inches of a Tesla Model 3.

[Suaviloquent]

That means Tesla is currently worth 50 times as much as Lucid.

 

In that light Tesla is super undervalued.