NEW YORK -- Electric-car startup Lucid Motors Inc. has a team recruited from Tesla Inc. and a slick concept that boasts impressive performance.
Now it’s going to need more money.
The nascent carmaker unveiled its Air prototype in December and had said it would start production of its all-electric luxury sedan in 2018. That timeline has slipped a bit -- Lucid wants to secure its next series of financing before breaking ground on a plant in Arizona, then debut the car in 2019, according to chief technology officer Peter Rawlinson.
“We don’t have the money in place. That’s why we need to secure Series D in order to execute this,” Rawlinson, who led engineering of Tesla’s Model S sedan, said Thursday at the New York auto show. “It would be irresponsible to start moving earth or start anything until we have a financial runway to execute that professionally and with absolute integrity.”
Once funding is in place, it will take 24 months before Lucid begins production, Rawlinson said. In November, the company said it would break ground and begin hiring in the first half of 2017, with production beginning in 2018.
