I am going to inform anybody who will hear that the Lucid Air is, in my humble estimation, just about the most effective electrical automobile you should buy in America as we speak. The one drawback is that it is an costly electrical luxurious sedan tasked with retaining a promising startup afloat at a time when the market is transferring away from all of these issues. Some assistance is lastly on the way in which 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 take a look at that on as we speak’s version of Vital Supplies, our morning roundup of trade and tech information. Additionally on faucet as we speak: South Korea has been cooking up a battery growth within the U.S., however now it is getting nervous about its prospects beneath the incoming Trump administration, and Rivian’s inventory value appears poised to finish 2025 on a excessive be aware. 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 exhibiting the primary automotive driving off the meeting line:
It is laborious to overstate simply how a lot Lucid wants this automotive—and wishes it to be successful. The California-based EV startup, now majority-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, has achieved 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 attraction to a wider viewers, which is able to hopefully pay the payments till it could get extra inexpensive mass-volume EVs on the street. For those who 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 change into 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. 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 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 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 value was down by about 50 p.c from the beginning of the 12 months to its closing value Dec. 5.
After which there’s the query of value. 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 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. Every 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 a couple of 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 effectively. We’ll have extra on InsideEVs this week about what to anticipate from Lucid’s subsequent act.
60%: Korea’s $54 Billion ‘Battery Increase’ In The U.S. Seems Unsure Underneath Trump
Photograph by: InsideEVs
GM Ultium platform with Samsung SDI prismatic batteries
Current unpleasantness apart, America has each motive on the planet to need to hold South Korea as a very good pal. It is a essential buying and selling associate, a like-minded ally in a area more and more dominated by China and an enormous expertise investor on this nation as effectively. 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 firms like LG, SK On, Samsung and varied suppliers are beginning to look a bit of unsure if the incoming Trump administration does in actual fact revoke the Inflation Discount Act’s EV tax breaks and different subsidies. This is Bloomberg to elucidate:
Some Korean firms have slowed or hit the pause button on any ongoing building of some crops as a result of they’re involved about diminished demand for EVs and what Trump would do throughout a second time period within the White Home, folks acquainted with the matter stated, asking to not be recognized as a result of sensitivity of the problem. Posco Future M, which makes cathodes for Basic Motors Co., stated in a submitting in September that it’s delaying the completion of its plant in Quebec because of “native circumstances.”
Though firms 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 a whole bunch 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 companies, 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 might 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 type of broader commerce deal. This could be devastating to such an vital U.S. ally:
Korean firms additionally fear Trump may enable Chinese language battery firms to enter the US. China’s Modern Amperex Expertise Co. Ltd, or CATL, stated 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 can be a catastrophe for Korea,” stated Park Chulwan, a professor within the automotive engineering division at Seojeong College. “Chinese language battery companies would supply a lot decrease costs.”
We’re in for a really fascinating 12 months forward.
90%: Wall Avenue Will get Extra Optimistic About Rivian
Photograph by: InsideEVs
However hey, it isn’t all doom and gloom on the EV entrance. For those who’re a fan of Rivian, or have cash within the firm, issues are trying up with its inventory value. 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 one among just some 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 that 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 advised traders it expects to ship between 50,500 and 52,000 EVs this 12 months. That might solely barely surpass 2023 deliveries. However the firm additionally not too long ago offered encouraging information associated to its future capital place. And it’s making ready to start out manufacturing of its next-generation R2 platform subsequent 12 months as effectively.
That has bolstered the inventory not too long ago, 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 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 hold 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 firms do you assume have the juice in 2025 and past? Tell us within the feedback beneath.
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