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Tag: Lucid Motors

  • TechCrunch Mobility: The robotaxi expansion that really matters | TechCrunch

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    Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility!

    It seems like a day doesn’t go by without Waymo making some kind of expansion announcement. Detroit, Las Vegas, Nashville, San Diego, and Washington, D.C., are just a few of the cities the company plans to bring its robotaxi to in the coming months. But as I have argued in this newsletter before, there is another “expansion” I think is more important. 

    Freeways. 

    And now after years of testing and development, the company’s commercial robotaxi service is using freeways around the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. 

    This is a critical expansion for the company. It’s the concrete and asphalt connective tissue in sprawling metro areas like the Bay Area. This new freeway access is fueling Waymo’s expansion in that region, which is now 260 square miles and encompasses Silicon Valley and San Francisco. 

    Robotaxi rides can have more efficient routes too. Waymo told me it will reduce ride times by up to 50%. 

    And using freeways is also essential for Waymo to offer rides to and from the San Francisco Airport, a location the company is currently testing in. 

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    That freeway-to-airport moment will be the big unlock for Waymo. But will it be enough to help push it in the black? Until someone over there slides me their balance sheet, I can’t say. It will certainly be a popular option for travelers. That doesn’t mean the economics will pencil out. 

    Read on for more news, including Einride’s SPAC bid, deals for Harbinger and Teradar, as well as how Via fared in its first earnings and a looming shutdown for Rad Power Bikes. Plus! Scroll down to get the results of the Tesla poll. 

    A little bird

    Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

    It’s been nearly nine months since Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson abruptly resigned, leaving the company without a permanent replacement. That may be about to change, though.

    A few little birds told us Lucid Motors has zeroed in on a candidate for the top role. It’s expected to be someone outside the organization, which is perhaps no surprise; in August, we shared here that the company and the executive hiring firm it’s using had cast a very wide net and was even cold-calling some candidates. This would likely mean that Marc Winterhoff, who’s been serving as interim CEO, would slide back to the COO role he occupied before Rawlinson left.

    Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com. 

    Deals!

    money the station
    Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

    Another SPAC has entered the AV world! Mergers with special acquisition companies may not be officially “back,” but they are certainly popular among autonomous vehicle companies. 

    Einride, the Swedish electric and autonomous truck startup, plans to go public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, just six weeks after it raised $100 million from investors. The SPAC merger with Legato Merger Corp. values Einride at $1.8 billion in pre-money equity.

    Einride does generate revenue, which may sound obvious but there have been plenty of pre-revenue transportation companies that have SPAC’d in recent years. 

    For now, its primary source of revenue is coming from its software-as-a-service product and a fleet of 200 heavy-duty electric trucks used by companies like Heineken and PepsiCo. Its unusual-looking autonomous podlike trucks are still in pilot mode. 

    The merger is expected to close in the first half of 2026, with Einride making its debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

    Other deals that got my attention this week …

    Forterra, a company developing autonomous tech for defense, raised $238 million in equity and debt funding. Moore Strategic Ventures led the equity piece of the funding, while Crescent Cove provided the debt financing. 

    Gopuff, the rapid-delivery startup, raised $250 million in a round led by Eldridge Industries and Valor Equity Partners. Baillie Gifford, Robinhood, Equalis Capital, George Ruan, Yakir Gabay, and Gopuff’s co-founders. The funding put its valuation at $8.5 billion, according to Bloomberg, a significant markdown from its last raise in 2021. 

    Harbinger, the Los Angeles-based electric truck startup, raised $160 million in a Series C funding round co-led by FedEx. As part of the investment, FedEx ordered 53 of Harbinger’s electric truck chassis.

    Octopus Electric Vehicles, a U.K.-based electric vehicle-leasing business, has struck a deal with lenders, including Lloyds Banking Group, Morgan Stanley, and Credit Agricole, to take its total funding line to £2 billion ($2.6 billion), Sky News reported.

    Teradar, a Boston-based startup developing a solid-state sensor, raised $150 million in a Series B funding round from investors Capricorn Investment Group, Lockheed Martin’s venture arm, mobility-focused firm Ibex Investors, and VXI Capital, a new defense-focused fund led by the former CTO of the U.S. military’s Defense Innovation Unit.

    Upway, an e-bike refurbishment startup, raised $60 million in a Series C funding round led by A.P. Moller. Galvanize, Ora Global, and Sequoia Capital also participated. The company has raised more than $125 million since its founding in 2021.

    Vay, a German startup that remotely pilots rental cars to customers, announced a $60 million investment from Singaporean tech heavyweight Grab. The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close by the end of the year, may be followed by “an additional $350M as joint milestones are achieved within the first year.”

    Notable reads and other tidbits

    Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

    Ford is expanding the availability of its BlueCruise hands-free highway driving technology in Europe. The automaker will make the system available in several vehicles, including the Puma, Puma Gen-E, Kuga, and Ranger PHEV 5 models starting in spring 2026.

    Joby Aviation conducted the first flight of its turbine electric, autonomous VTOL aircraft. This demonstrator shouldn’t be confused with its all-electric air taxi, although it was built off that platform. This aircraft has a hybrid turbine powertrain and is designed for defense applications.

    Lyft has partnered with Curb, a ride-hailing platform for licensed taxis. Under the deal, Lyft riders will be connected with Curb’s network of drivers through an integration with the Curb Flow platform, which is already in Los Angeles. Other cities will soon follow. 

    Rad Power Bikes, one of the more popular e-bike companies, may not be long for this world. The company has informed its employees that it will shut down in January if it is unable to find new funding or get acquired, according to an internal staff email viewed by TechCrunch.

    Tesla might bring Apple CarPlay to its EVs. But at this point, should it? Meanwhile, the company’s energy storage division is dealing with an expanded recall of its consumer-based Powerwall 2 product after reports of fires.

    The Boring Company, an Elon Musk company, is under scrutiny again. This time because of reports that firefighters performing a safety drill at one of The Boring Company’s construction sites in Las Vegas received burns from chemicals used in the tunnel-excavation process. And the controversy doesn’t stop there. 

    Toyota started production at a new $13.9 billion battery plant in North Carolina. While Toyota has several facilities in the U.S., this is its first battery plant to be built outside of Japan. And it’s not done investing in the U.S. The company said it plans to invest up to $10 billion more than previously expected over the next five years.

    Uber has quietly begun piloting in-app video recording for its drivers in India. The ride-hailing company is also seeking more premium customers through new efforts like Uber Ski, which lets riders schedule a vehicle in advance to nearly 40 popular ski destinations in North America and Europe, including Vail in Colorado and Park City in Utah.

    Via had its first earnings since it became a publicly traded company, and, welp, it lost money. The tech transit software company reported a loss of $36.9 million in its third quarter, a 73% increase since the same period last year. Its revenue grew to $713 million, an 11% increase YoY.

    One more thing …

    Remember the poll in last week’s newsletter? I asked which product goal is Tesla most likely to achieve by 2035? The options are based on real goals laid out in Musk’s $1 trillion compensation package:

    • 20 million Tesla vehicles delivered
    • 10 million active Full Self-Driving subscriptions
    • 1 million robots delivered
    • 1 million robotaxis in commercial operation
    • None of these will be reached

    And y’all are split between two options: Tesla delivering 20 million vehicles, which received 34.7% of the vote, and “None of these will be reached,” which received 32% of the vote. 

    The one item you seem to agree on is that Tesla is unlikely to deliver on the other three goals. About 9.5% of readers picked the 1 million robots option, 12.6% chose 10 million active Full Self-Driving subscriptions, and 10.5% picked 1 million robotaxis in commercial operation within 10 years.

    Note: If you want to participate in our polls, sign up for the Mobility newsletter here!

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    Kirsten Korosec

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  • Lucid Motors sets record as Gravity sales pick up and tax credit expires | TechCrunch

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    Lucid Motors delivered a record 4,078 vehicles in the third quarter, likely buoyed by a combination of more Gravity SUVs hitting the road and a rush of customers taking advantage of the expiring federal EV tax credit.

    The Saudi-owned luxury EV startup is still way off the projections it used to go public in 2021 — a transaction that netted it $4 billion. But Lucid Motors has seen deliveries steadily climb over the last two years. The third-quarter delivery figures announced Monday mark the seventh consecutive quarter that Lucid Motors has seen sales increase.

    Lucid Motors was not alone in seeing a big third-quarter bump in EV sales. Tesla recorded its best quarter in company history, and legacy automakers like Ford and General Motors saw big increases as well. Even Rivian, which is forecasting a worse overall year for total EV deliveries than 2024 or 2023, saw a boost in the third quarter.

    Like Rivian, only customers who leased Lucid Motors vehicles were eligible for the federal EV tax credit, meaning the impact of its expiration is hard to quantify. It’s also unclear how many Gravity SUVs were delivered compared to the company’s first model, the Air sedan. Lucid Motors will reveal full financial results for the quarter on November 5.

    Lucid Motors has struggled to generate interest for its luxury EVs since going public in 2021, with former CEO Peter Rawlinson openly admitting the company needed to beef up its marketing operations. Earlier this year, the company announced it signed actor Timothée Chalamet to be its first “global ambassador.” The company has also benefited from rental sales and company leases in some quarters, as TechCrunch previously reported.

    The company is also increasingly looking to Saudi Arabia — which owns around 60% of the publicly traded company through its sovereign wealth fund — as a market for its vehicles. On Monday, Lucid Motors said it built more than 1,000 vehicles specifically for the Saudi market. (The company currently operates an assembly facility in the Kingdom and plans to open a full-fledged factory there.)

    Lucid has also locked in future demand from an unlikely customer: Uber.

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    Uber announced last month plans to buy at least 20,000 Gravity SUVs over the next six years and use them as robotaxis on its network. For that deal, Lucid Motors will work to integrate autonomous vehicle company Nuro’s technology into the vehicles.

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    Sean O’Kane

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  • Lucid Motors sold just 6,001 cars in 2023 | TechCrunch

    Lucid Motors sold just 6,001 cars in 2023 | TechCrunch

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    Lucid Motors delivered only 6,001 of the 8,428 cars it built last year, as it continues to struggle to generate demand for its luxury electric sedans.

    The Saudi-backed company limped to the finish of 2023, building just 2,391 cars and delivering 1,734 in the fourth quarter — down 31% and 10%, respectively, from the fourth quarter of 2022. That’s despite the fact that Lucid launched the cheapest version of its car, dubbed the Lucid Air Pure, in October and immediately cut the price of the all-wheel drive trim to $74,900.

    Lucid also said in late 2023 that it had shipped 800 cars to Saudi Arabia to be assembled at a new facility in the Kingdom. It wasn’t immediately clear if those vehicles were counted in the figures released Thursday. In total, Lucid’s 2023 production and sales figures were only marginally better than they were in 2022, where it built 7,180 cars and delivered 4,369 of them.

    The disappointing sales figures cap a tough year for Lucid. The company laid off nearly 20% of its workforce (around 1,300 people), reduced its production targets multiple times, and lost its chief financial officer. Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said on multiple occasions that his startup was struggling to find buyers. “Too few people are aware of not just the car, but even the company,” he said way back in February.

    Lucid’s path to a more successful 2024 likely rests on the Air Pure model, but that could be complicated by the recent choppiness of EV sales, or any further price cuts from Tesla (or other players), and the fact that sedans have fallen out of style in the U.S. The company’s forthcoming electric SUV won’t ship until at least the end of this year. And while Saudi Arabia has pledged to buy up to 100,000 of the startup’s EVs over the next ten years, the factory Lucid currently operates there only has a maximum capacity of assembling just 5,000 vehicles per year until it gets expanded to a full production facility later this decade.

     

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    Sean O’Kane

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  • Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s 2030 growth plan bears fruit as Hyundai inks deal to join Lucid as next carmaker in the Gulf

    Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s 2030 growth plan bears fruit as Hyundai inks deal to join Lucid as next carmaker in the Gulf

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    In his race to diversify Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent economy away from black gold, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman just won a major victory. 

    Starting as early as 2026, Hyundai expects to begin local production of up to 50,000 combustion engine and electric vehicle cars annually with the help of an investment estimated to exceed half a billion dollars. 

    The new commercial joint venture will be 70% majority owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, while the South Korean automaker will control the remaining minority stake.

    “We are excited about the potential of this venture to drive significant advancements in vehicle production, fostering a sustainable and eco-friendly automotive future in the region,” Hyundai CEO Jaehoon Chang said in a statement.

    Hyundai did not elaborate as to whether it would invest its own money into the project or whether its 30% stake reflects a non-cash contribution in kind, for example through the planned transfer of knowledge and expertise. No location was named, but the country’s economic hub Jeddah would be a leading candidate. 

    Fast-growing economy

    Saudi Arabia was the fastest growing G20 nation in the world last year, thanks in no small part to the gains its flagship state-owned oil producer Aramco got from soaring energy prices sparked by Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine,.

    Adopting a similar strategy to China, bin Salman wants to introduce economic reforms without political ones that may pose a risk to the House of Saud’s continued reign. To realize his Vision 2030 strategy to modernize the Saudi economy, he will need to convince companies to look past its human rights abuses and other controversies such as the 2018 murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi by government agents.

    Attracting car manufacturers and their supplier parks would be a major victory. The industry traditionally plays a key role among developing countries in driving prosperity, since it sits atop the economic pyramid. That’s because it sources parts from virtually every sector beneath it, including steel and aluminum for the body, chemicals for paint and plastics and, increasingly, high-tech electronics. 

    Only last month luxury EV manufacturer Lucid opened the monarchy’s first ever automotive facility in King Abdullah Economic City, near Jeddah, with a capacity to build 5,000 cars annually using what are called semi knocked-down (SKD) kits. 

    This kind of low value-added work, in which only final assembly is performed, is a common risk-mitigation strategy in the industry when expanding into new markets. Yet Lucid, which counts PIF as its anchor shareholder, aims to add full-scale manufacturing of roughly 150,000 cars by the middle of the decade. 

    In two years, Lucid could be joined by Ceer Motors, the first Saudi EV brand that is a joint venture between PIF and Taiwan’s Apple iPhone contract manufacturer Foxconn. A new National Automotive and Mobility Investment Company called Tasaru, launched earlier this month, aims to furthermore situate suppliers in the country.

    Peak demand expected for 2026

    But it will take more to develop Jeddah into the kind of competitive automotive cluster found in parts of Germany, Japan and the United States. It would be almost impossible to accomplish this through two small challenger brands facing uncertain outlooks and operating plants that likely would not have gotten off the ground without hefty government support.

    The Saudis need to reach a critical threshold in scale for the effort to be self-sustaining, and winning a trusted partner like an industry incumbent definitely helps.  

    “Partnering with Hyundai is another significant milestone for PIF […], aligning closely with our existing stakes in Lucid and Ceer Motors, and amplifying the breadth of Saudi Arabia’s automotive and mobility value chain,” said Yazeed Al-Humied, deputy governor at PIF and head of its Middle East and North Africa investments. 

    Hyundai’s follow-up investment could be the proof point other companies need before they too are willing to invest in the local economy. 

    One reason is that skilled labor, a key criteria for auto execs when selecting sites, is hard to find in Saudi Arabia, since Riyadh has traditionally relied on importing both white collar employees and menial labor from abroad. Roughly two-thirds of all Saudi nationals collect government paychecks, which ensures a level of dependency on the continued rule of the royal dynasty. 

    The House of Saud faces a broader shift away from fossil fuels that threatens its strategic value to key allies like the United States. 

    In a June report, the International Energy Agency predicted the world’s collective appetite for oil is “set to slow almost to a halt” in the coming years amid projections that the increase in annual demand will “shrivel” from 2.4 million barrels per day to just 400,000 in 2028. 

    The chief culprit for this is transport fuels. The next three years of growth are expected to mark the last before a rising tide of electric vehicles usher in an era of steady decline for crude distillates like gasoline. This may be behind the recent wave of consolidation in the oil industry.

    “The shift to a clean energy economy is picking up pace, with a peak in global oil demand in sight before the end of this decade,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol. “Oil producers need to pay careful attention to the gathering pace of change and calibrate their investment decisions to ensure an orderly transition.” 

    While this technocratic recommendation is phrased innocuously, Birol is warning petrodollar states lacking democratic legitimacy that they could face widescale disruption to their economies should they not diversify. This poses a risk to the stability repressive regimes prize.

    Developing a small but thriving auto industry could go a long way in insulating the monarchy from domestic unrest.

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    Christiaan Hetzner

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