I will inform anybody who will pay attention that the Lucid Air is, in my humble estimation, just about one of the best electrical automobile you should purchase in America right now. The one drawback is that it is an costly electrical luxurious sedan tasked with preserving 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, however 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 right now’s version of Essential Supplies, our morning roundup of business and tech information. Additionally on faucet right now: 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 observe. Let’s dig in.
30%: Defying Gravity
Photograph by: Lucid Motors
Manufacturing of the Lucid Gravity formally kicked off final week on the startup’s Casa Grande, Arizona manufacturing facility, 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 exhausting 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 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 can hopefully pay the payments till it will probably get extra reasonably priced 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 “Mission 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 wished it to be, and Lucid has no room for error at this level in its rise. This is the newest from Automotive Information on its monetary scenario:
Lucid wants the Gravity to be successful, analysts stated. 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 stated 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 start gross sales with the pretty loaded Grand Touring trim, and that may imply beginning at $96,550 out of the gate. Extra reasonably priced 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. Each time that begins occurring, we’ll be trying intently at whether or not Gravity gross sales can propel Lucid to a extra steady 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 a couple of examples at auto exhibits to date however 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 Growth’ In The U.S. Appears to be like Unsure Underneath Trump
Photograph by: InsideEVs
GM Ultium platform with Samsung SDI prismatic batteries
Latest unpleasantness apart, America has each purpose on the earth to need to preserve South Korea as a very good buddy. It is a essential buying and selling accomplice, 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 business 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 somewhat unsure if the incoming Trump administration does actually revoke the Inflation Discount Act’s EV tax breaks and different subsidies. This 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, individuals accustomed to the matter stated, asking to not be recognized because of the sensitivity of the difficulty. Posco Future M, which makes cathodes for Normal Motors Co., stated in a submitting in September that it’s delaying the completion of its plant in Quebec as a result 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, stated Kenny Kim, chief government 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 hundreds 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 corporations, key US companions within the effort to scale back reliance on Chinese language suppliers, at a time once 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 speculate right here as a part of some sort of broader commerce deal. This is able to be devastating to such an essential U.S. ally:
Korean corporations additionally fear Trump would possibly enable Chinese language battery corporations to enter the US. China’s Modern Amperex Know-how Co. Ltd, or CATL, stated it is going to think about constructing a US plant if Trump opens the door, Reuters reported final month.
The IRA has to date blocked investments from China, asking carmakers to regularly scale back sourcing important battery minerals from “international entities of concern.”
“China’s entry to the US could be a catastrophe for Korea,” stated 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 yr forward.
90%: Wall Road Will get Extra Optimistic About Rivian
Photograph 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 rivals, a $6.6 billion Division of Vitality mortgage and a more healthy general steadiness sheet. From The Motley Idiot:
Rivian’s R1T is one in every of only a few electrical pickup truck choices. Tesla has entered the market with its distinctive Cybertruck, however the R1T’s largest competitors is arguably Ford’s F-150 Lightning. And it is information concerning the Ford EV which 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 informed buyers it expects to ship between 50,500 and 52,000 EVs this yr. That might solely barely surpass 2023 deliveries. However the firm additionally lately offered encouraging information associated to its future capital place. And it’s getting ready to start out manufacturing of its next-generation R2 platform subsequent yr as nicely.
That has bolstered the inventory lately, and yesterday it acquired one other increase 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 an extended 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?
Photograph by: Lucid Motors
Conventional, startup and even Chinese language: Which firm or corporations do you suppose have the juice in 2025 and past? Tell us within the feedback under.
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