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Back in January, Lucid Motors announced that it’s finally unveiling the production model of its electric sedan in April three years after it was first revealed. The company was supposed to launch the car next week at the New York Auto Show, but the event was postponed until August due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now company CEO and former Tesla chief engineer Peter Rawlinson has confirmed to Silicon Valley Business Journal that it won’t be pushing through with Lucid Air’s debut.
Lucid Air was introduced way back in 2016 and was supposed to be in production in 2018. Financial issues kept the company from adhering to its original timeline, but it managed to secure enough funds since then to continue building a factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. While the company has unsurprisingly chosen not to hold an event outside the New York show, it’s unclear when the debut will take place: Rawlinson told the publication that it will happen when larger world events allow. At the moment, New York Auto Show’s home, Manhattan’s Javits Center, is being converted into a temporary hospital.
The executive has also assured SVBJ that the production itself hasn’t been delayed and that it’s hiring new talents to grow the company. He said in a statement:
“Leading up to the rise of COVID-19, Lucid had grown to over 1,000 employees and we are maintaining this aggressive growth trajectory even now. We have worked with the HR team to maintain interview schedules for new-hire candidates while switching them to phone calls, and we are also moving forward on talent acquisition strategies…
Our supply chain remains totally committed and in a state of readiness for start of production for the Lucid Air. For the most part, tooling and machinery for the Lucid factory in Arizona was well underway before the current crisis.”
