I will inform anybody who will pay attention that the Lucid Air is, in my humble estimation, just about the perfect electrical car you should buy in America at the moment. The one downside is that it is an costly electrical luxurious sedan tasked with maintaining a promising startup afloat at a time when the market is shifting away from all of these issues. Some assistance is lastly on the best way 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 have a look at that on at the moment’s version of Vital Supplies, our morning roundup of trade and tech information. Additionally on faucet at the moment: South Korea has been cooking up a battery increase within the U.S., however now it is getting nervous about its prospects underneath the incoming Trump administration, and Rivian’s inventory worth appears poised to finish 2025 on a excessive be aware. 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 a detailed. Lucid Motors’ CEO Peter Rawlinson marked the event with these social media posts exhibiting the primary automobile driving off the meeting line:
It is onerous to overstate simply how a lot Lucid wants this automobile—and desires it to be successful. The California-based EV startup, now majority-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, has accomplished about all it in all probability 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 may well get extra inexpensive mass-volume EVs on the street. In the event 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 grow to be 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 scenario:
Lucid wants the Gravity to be a success, analysts mentioned. The EV maker reported a third-quarter web lack of $950 million. That was wider than its second-quarter web lack of $790 million and its first-quarter web 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 12 months 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 12 months or within the remaining weeks of this one. Each time that begins occurring, we’ll be trying intently at whether or not Gravity gross sales can propel Lucid to a extra secure monetary footing and show to be a winner with patrons.
By itself, the Gravity appears to be a really spectacular SUV; I’ve solely sat in just a few examples at auto exhibits to this point nevertheless it’s fairly the stunner. The Grand Touring will pack an impressive 440 miles of vary as properly. We’ll have extra on InsideEVs this week about what to anticipate from Lucid’s subsequent act.
60%: Korea’s $54 Billion ‘Battery Growth’ In The U.S. Seems to be Unsure Underneath Trump
Picture by: InsideEVs
GM Ultium platform with Samsung SDI prismatic batteries
Current unpleasantness apart, America has each cause on the earth to wish to preserve South Korea as a superb pal. It is a essential buying and selling companion, a like-minded ally in a area more and more dominated by China and an enormous know-how investor on this nation as properly. South Korea’s battery experience and trade are in all probability 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 varied suppliers are beginning to look a bit of 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 clarify:
Some Korean corporations have slowed or hit the pause button on any ongoing development of some crops as a result of they’re involved about lowered 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 problem. 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 attributable to “native circumstances.”
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 govt officer at SNE Analysis, a Seoul-based analysis agency that focuses on Korean battery makers.
Ending lots of 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 might additionally hit the earnings of Korean corporations, 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 could possibly be fairly completely different from Biden’s, together with permitting extra of that nation’s battery crops to take a position right here as a part of some type of broader commerce deal. This is able to be devastating to such an vital U.S. ally:
Korean corporations additionally fear Trump would possibly enable Chinese language battery corporations to enter the US. China’s Up to date Amperex Know-how Co. Ltd, or CATL, mentioned it’ll contemplate 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 regularly scale back sourcing essential battery minerals from “international entities of concern.”
“China’s entry to the US could be a catastrophe for Korea,” mentioned Park Chulwan, a professor within the automobile engineering division at Seojeong College. “Chinese language battery corporations would provide a lot decrease costs.”
We’re in for a really fascinating 12 months forward.
90%: Wall Avenue Will get Extra Optimistic About Rivian
Picture by: InsideEVs
However hey, it isn’t all doom and gloom on the EV entrance. In the event you’re a fan of Rivian, or have cash within the firm, issues are trying 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 opponents, a $6.6 billion Division of Power mortgage and a more healthy general steadiness sheet. From The Motley Idiot:
Rivian’s R1T is certainly one of only a few 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 in regards to the Ford EV that will have had Rivian inventory leaping by almost 10% Friday morning. At 1:55 p.m. ET, Rivian shares nonetheless held on to a acquire of 4.5%. The transfer has helped Rivian inventory log a rise of greater than 20% within the final month.
Final month, Rivian advised buyers it expects to ship between 50,500 and 52,000 EVs this 12 months. That will solely barely surpass 2023 deliveries. However the firm additionally just lately supplied encouraging information associated to its future capital place. And it’s making ready to begin manufacturing of its next-generation R2 platform subsequent 12 months as properly.
That has bolstered the inventory just lately, and yesterday it bought one other increase when Ford launched its November car gross sales replace. That is as a result of gross sales of Ford’s F-150 Lightning plunged by 17% final month 12 months over 12 months.
Nonetheless, Rivian is a protracted methods off from the launch of the R2. We’ll see the way it can preserve 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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