According to Peter Rawlinson, the IPO was in fact a validation process for Lucid. Lucid’s CEO even realized that the company could give more time to achieve flawless mass production with the Air. After all, Lucid is a post-luxury brand, while Tesla is “innovative but not luxury,” as you can see in the image above.
It was extracted from the Lucid Investor Deck: February 2021This document was prepared to present the merger between Lucid and Churchill Capital Corp IV, which will transform the automotive start-up into a public company.
As you can see, it establishes Lucid as a competitor to Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, something Rawlinson has been saying for months. Audi would represent technical luxury, BMW would represent sports luxury and Mercedes-Benz would be the best example of classic luxury. Lucid’s post-luxury concept would unite all of these ideas into one brand and be above all major examples for them.
On the far left, there is Tesla’s badge and the writing “innovative but not luxury.” Rawlinson justifies that in this interview with Bloomberg
According to Lucid’s CEO, “a lot of leeway was made” with the Model S because “the electric car was such a fun experience that people forgave the build quality problems.” Rawlinson no longer thinks this is the case, which is why the Lucid Air must 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 is not to be underestimated here.” According to the director, the shortage of chips has not affected the company because of ‘very smart purchasing’ deals that Lucid made.
It is at this point that Rawlinson said going public was not for the money, as the Saudi Arabian public investment fund has “pockets” and long-term intentions with Lucid. The point was to have validation, which attracted ‘the bluest blue chip investors’.
Regardless, the Churchill Capital Corp IV deal raised Lucid $ 4.5 billion. The company is now worth more than $ 60 billion without having delivered a single car.
According to Rawlinson, the rating is “a reflection” of Lucid’s technology, which is said to be cutting-edge. What Lucid’s CEO said the company should do is “humbly and diligently get this into production,” which should happen in the second half of 2021. autumn.