Merger, stock listing to allow vehicle manufacturer Lucid to expand Casa Grande manufacturing facility

Corrections & Clarifications: Lucid Motors' factory complex is in Pinal County. The county in which it is located was incorrect in an earlier version of the article.

The Arizona manufacturing sector could benefit to the tune of billions of dollars from the successful merger and stock listing of an emerging electric car company.

Lucid Motors, which produces a line of luxury electric cars in Casa Grande, completed a previously announced merger with Churchill Capital IV on Friday, paving the way for shares of the combined company, Lucid Group, to debut Monday on Nasdaq.

After the merger, Lucid Group has $4.4 billion in funding that will allow the company to add 2.7 million square feet of additional space at the Pinal County factory complex, said Peter Rawlinson, the company's CEO. The factory is currently 999,000 square feet and has room to expand to 5.1 million.

Financing for development of SUVs

Lucid has already completed other portions of the factory and is conducting quality checks on vehicles built there. Deliveries to customers are expected to begin during the second half of this year, with a new showroom coming next month to Scottsdale Fashion Square.

The company is currently producing a luxury electric sedan, the Lucid Air, that will start at $77,400 minus a potential federal tax credit that would reduce the price to $69,900.

The Casa Grande factory expansion will support the company's development of an electric SUV called Project Gravity, Rawlinson said, with production of that vehicle expected to begin in 2023.

The company also has other vehicles planned down the road and expects to have the ability to manufacture up to 400,000 vehicles there annually.

Lucid said it has received more than 11,000 paid reservations for the Lucid Air.

Lucid vehicles being built in Arizona

Lucid Group is headquartered in Newark, California, but has an extensive footprint in Arizona owing to the manufacturing complex in Casa Grande, just north of Interstate 8.

Churchill is a SPAC, or special purchase acquisition company. These controversial entities list their shares on Wall Street after raising money from institutional investors. The aim is to acquire a private company, allowing the latter to go public with less disclosure and fewer hurdles than in a traditional initial public offering or IPO process.

Stock in the new Lucid Group, trading under the symbol LCID, was up about 6% to $26.83 a share at market close Monday.

Reach the reporter at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com.

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