I am going to inform anybody who will hear that the Lucid Air is, in my humble estimation, just about one of the best electrical automobile you should purchase in America at present. The one downside is that it is an costly electrical luxurious sedan tasked with holding a promising startup afloat at a time when the market is shifting away from all of these issues. Some assistance is lastly on the way in which within the type of the Lucid Gravity SUV, nevertheless it too arrives at a second of profound uncertainty.
Can the family-friendly Gravity transfer the needle for Lucid Motors in 2025 and past? We’ll take a look at that on at present’s version of Important Supplies, our morning roundup of trade and tech information. Additionally on faucet at present: South Korea has been cooking up a battery growth within the U.S., however now it is getting nervous about its prospects beneath the incoming Trump administration, and Rivian’s inventory worth appears poised to finish 2025 on a excessive word. Let’s dig in.
30%: Defying Gravity
Picture by: Lucid Motors
Manufacturing of the Lucid Gravity formally kicked off final week on the startup’s Casa Grande, Arizona manufacturing unit, making good on a promise to take action earlier than 2024 drew to an in depth. Lucid Motors’ CEO Peter Rawlinson marked the event with these social media posts displaying the primary automobile driving off the meeting line:
It is onerous to overstate simply how a lot Lucid wants this automobile—and wishes it to be a hit. The California-based EV startup, now majority-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, has completed about all it most likely can for now with the Air sedan and its starting-at-$70,000 price ticket. Now it wants extra mainstream fashions that may enchantment to a wider viewers, which is able to hopefully pay the payments till it might probably get extra inexpensive mass-volume EVs on the street. When you consider the Lucid Air as a stand-in for the Tesla Mannequin S, then the Gravity is the Mannequin X till Lucid’s “Undertaking Midsize” can successfully change into its Mannequin Y.
Besides I might wager that the Mannequin X was by no means fairly the hit Tesla needed it to be, and Lucid has no room for error at this level in its rise. Here is the newest from Automotive Information on its monetary state of affairs:
Lucid wants the Gravity to be successful, analysts mentioned. The EV maker reported a third-quarter internet lack of $950 million. That was wider than its second-quarter internet lack of $790 million and its first-quarter internet lack of $681 million. Lucid is majority owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund. The corporate mentioned in its third-quarter earnings report that it had $1.9 billion in money and money equivalents as of Sept. 30.
Lucid’s inventory worth was down by about 50 p.c from the beginning of the yr to its closing worth Dec. 5.
After which there’s the query of worth. The three-row Gravity will begin gross sales with the pretty loaded Grand Touring trim, and that may imply beginning at $96,550 out of the gate. Extra inexpensive variations are anticipated to roll out however not till late 2025, and it is unclear if buyer deliveries will begin subsequent yr or within the remaining weeks of this one. At any time when that begins taking place, we’ll be wanting carefully at whether or not Gravity gross sales can propel Lucid to a extra steady monetary footing and show to be a winner with consumers.
By itself, the Gravity appears to be a really spectacular SUV; I’ve solely sat in a couple of examples at auto exhibits to this point nevertheless it’s fairly the stunner. The Grand Touring will pack an excellent 440 miles of vary as nicely. We’ll have extra on InsideEVs this week about what to anticipate from Lucid’s subsequent act.
60%: Korea’s $54 Billion ‘Battery Increase’ In The U.S. Appears Unsure Beneath Trump
Picture by: InsideEVs
GM Ultium platform with Samsung SDI prismatic batteries
Current unpleasantness apart, America has each motive on the earth to wish to maintain South Korea as buddy. It is a essential buying and selling associate, a like-minded ally in a area more and more dominated by China and an enormous know-how investor on this nation as nicely. South Korea’s battery experience and trade are most likely second general to China’s (albeit a really distant second, sadly) so the U.S. does want its assist to catch up there.
But the copious battery plant investments within the U.S. from corporations like LG, SK On, Samsung and numerous suppliers are beginning to look just a little unsure if the incoming Trump administration does in reality revoke the Inflation Discount Act’s EV tax breaks and different subsidies. Here is Bloomberg to elucidate:
Some Korean corporations have slowed or hit the pause button on any ongoing development of some vegetation as a result of they’re involved about diminished demand for EVs and what Trump would do throughout a second time period within the White Home, folks acquainted with the matter mentioned, asking to not be recognized because of the sensitivity of the difficulty. Posco Future M, which makes cathodes for Common Motors Co., mentioned in a submitting in September that it’s delaying the completion of its plant in Quebec because of “native situations.”
Though corporations haven’t taken any motion but, many are “anxious” about to what diploma Trump would slash authorities incentives for the EV market, mentioned Kenny Kim, chief government officer at SNE Analysis, a Seoul-based analysis agency that focuses on Korean battery makers.
Ending a whole bunch of billions of {dollars} in subsidies, tax credit and different incentives would threaten tens of 1000’s of US jobs and undo years of labor shifting the worldwide EV provide chain away from China. It may additionally hit the earnings of Korean companies, key US companions within the effort to cut back reliance on Chinese language suppliers, at a time after they’re already affected by weaker demand for EVs and falling battery costs.
After which there’s the issue with China. Trump’s calculus there may very well be fairly completely different from Biden’s, together with permitting extra of that nation’s battery vegetation to take a position right here as a part of some form of broader commerce deal. This is able to be devastating to such an necessary U.S. ally:
Korean corporations additionally fear Trump would possibly permit Chinese language battery corporations to enter the US. China’s Up to date Amperex Know-how Co. Ltd, or CATL, mentioned it would take into account constructing a US plant if Trump opens the door, Reuters reported final month.
The IRA has to this point blocked investments from China, asking carmakers to progressively scale back sourcing essential battery minerals from “international entities of concern.”
“China’s entry to the US can be a catastrophe for Korea,” mentioned Park Chulwan, a professor within the automobile engineering division at Seojeong College. “Chinese language battery companies would supply a lot decrease costs.”
We’re in for a really attention-grabbing yr forward.
90%: Wall Avenue Will get Extra Optimistic About Rivian
Picture by: InsideEVs
However hey, it is not all doom and gloom on the EV entrance. When you’re a fan of Rivian, or have cash within the firm, issues are wanting up with its inventory worth. RIVN has gained fairly a bit over the previous month amid its funding from Volkswagen, declining gross sales of electrical rivals, a $6.6 billion Division of Vitality mortgage and a more healthy general stability sheet. From The Motley Idiot:
Rivian’s R1T is one in all just some electrical pickup truck choices. Tesla has entered the market with its distinctive Cybertruck, however the R1T’s greatest competitors is arguably Ford’s F-150 Lightning. And it is information concerning the Ford EV that will have had Rivian inventory leaping by practically 10% Friday morning. At 1:55 p.m. ET, Rivian shares nonetheless held on to a achieve of 4.5%. The transfer has helped Rivian inventory log a rise of greater than 20% within the final month.
Final month, Rivian instructed buyers it expects to ship between 50,500 and 52,000 EVs this yr. That may solely barely surpass 2023 deliveries. However the firm additionally not too long ago offered encouraging information associated to its future capital place. And it’s getting ready to begin manufacturing of its next-generation R2 platform subsequent yr as nicely.
That has bolstered the inventory not too long ago, and yesterday it received one other enhance when Ford launched its November automobile gross sales replace. That is as a result of gross sales of Ford’s F-150 Lightning plunged by 17% final month yr over yr.
Nonetheless, Rivian is a protracted methods off from the launch of the R2. We’ll see the way it can maintain this momentum going within the meantime.
100%: What EV Maker Are You Most Optimistic About?
Picture by: Lucid Motors
Conventional, startup and even Chinese language: Which firm or corporations do you assume have the juice in 2025 and past? Tell us within the feedback under.
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