Electric car startup Lucid Motors plans to invest $700 million to build a new production facility in Casa Grande, Ariz., the automaker said today.
The Silicon Valley automaker -- which recently changed its name from Atieva -- will begin construction in 2017; it plans to begin work on its unnamed production car by late 2018.
“We chose Arizona because you showed genuine interest in our company from the outset,” Brian Barron, Lucid’s director of global manufacturing said at a press conference that included Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey. “Readiness was a key focus during the site selection process and this site is truly ready to go, with the required infrastructure and site attributes.”
Over the past year, Lucid looked at 60 potential sites across 13 states in the U.S., but ultimately chose the 500-acre site in Casa Grande because of its proximity to rail lines, interstates, ports, training facilities and utilities, Barron said. It’s also a short flight from Lucid’s Menlo Park headquarters in California.
The Casa Grande facility will source many of its parts from nearby Sonora state in Mexico, the same state where Ford currently builds its Fusion and Lincoln MKZ vehicles.
By 2022, Lucid will have invested a total of $700 million in the facility, where it expects to build its unnamed luxury electric sedan -- to be unveiled in coming weeks -- as well as additional future models.
The site will ultimately employ as many as 2,000 people. Lucid plans to work with nearby Central Arizona College to train and staff employees, Barron said.
There was no word on whether Lucid received state or local tax incentives as part of the agreement.
