As Tesla EV Sales Dip, Lucid Tightens Grip

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Final Up to date on: eleventh April 2025, 11:06 am

With its EV gross sales slipping within the US and elsewhere, Tesla has determined {that a} relaunch of the model in Saudi Arabia will assist refresh its sagging picture. How’s that once more? The Saudi-backed US automaker Lucid already beat Tesla to the punch, opening a manufacturing facility in King Abdullah Financial Metropolis in Mecca Province again in 2023. In the meantime, Lucid can also be increasing its manufacturing footprint in Arizona, aiming to nudge Tesla farther down the EV gross sales market within the US. Whereas the cat’s away….

Saudi Arabia, The New Hotspot For EV Gross sales

Tesla’s relaunch in Saudi Arabia is a giant deal as a result of the corporate has not had presence there for years, as a result of a kerfuffle over a controversial tweet issued by Tesla CEO Elon Musk all the best way again in 2018.

For apparent causes, Saudi Arabia has by no means been a very ripe marketplace for EV gross sales, so the breakup didn’t have a noticeable influence on Tesla. The large query is why Tesla has out of the blue determined that Saudi Arabia can be an excellent place to rev up its gross sales engine.

The reply is simple sufficient. The Kingdom has set an electrification aim for itself, aiming at 30% EV adoption by 2030 alongside plans to convey its EV charging community as much as par.

Lucid Acquired There First

As broadly reported by the Related Press and different media, Tesla has launched a brand new showroom and repair middle in Riyadh to pitch the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck. Pop-up shops are additionally deliberate for Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam.

If absence makes the center develop fonder, Tesla may do very nicely within the Kingdom. However, it’s not going to be a stroll within the park. The Chinese language automaker Geely has already carved out a distinct segment for its Knight evs in that market, and that automaker has enlargement plans within the works for 2025.

Then there’s Lucid, which has been positioning its model as a hometown hero of kinds partly on account of its backing from the Saudi Arabia Public Funding Fund. When PIF bankrolled Lucid in 2022the plan included a manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia in addition to one within the US (see more Lucid EV background here).

The Saudi Arabia manufacturing facility permits Lucid to outline its model as a creator of top quality, excessive tech jobs within the Kingdom, and a centerpiece for innovation. The Saudi Arabia manufacturing facility, AMP-2, started producing automobiles in 2023, utilizing kits assembled on the Arizona facility. When AMP-2 is totally constructed out, 150,000 EVs will roll off its meeting line per 12 months, destined for markets abroad in addition to in Saudi Arabia.

Lucid Picks Up The Items Of Nikola’s Shattered Goals

In the meantime again within the US, on April 11, Lucid introduced that it’s going to carve out the BEV slice of the bankrupt truckmaker Nikola, which was auctioned off on April 10. Nikola acquired extra consideration for its ill-fated give attention to Class 8 gas cell vans, nevertheless it additionally had a BEV department. The corporate tried to launch its “Badger” battery-electric pickup truck with Common Motors a number of years in the past, an association that evaporated in 2020.

Barring any unexpected obstacles, Lucid will purchase Nikola’s two amenities in Arizona, the manufacturing facility in Coolidge and its headquarters in Phoenix.

With the 2 buildings in hand, Lucid will add greater than 884,000 sq. toes to its present footprint in Arizona. “Most of this space is comprised of state-of-the-art manufacturing and warehousing buildings, which executes against Lucid’s prior planned expansion in Arizona,” the corporate notes.

“These facilities also include development equipment with extensive battery and environmental testing chambers, a full-size chassis dynamometer, machining equipment, and more,” they add.

Together with the {hardware}, Lucid additionally goals to avail itself of an instantaneous workforce, providing positions to greater than 300 former Nikola workers. “These offers will encompass various technical salaried and hourly positions including manufacturing engineering, software, assembly, vehicle testing, and warehouse support,” Lucid elaborates.

Lucid’s worker retention plan presents a pointy distinction to the goings-on at Elon Musk’s “DOGE,” a federal workplace credited with abruptly firing hundreds of expert federal employees. “We are delighted to extend employment offers to more than 300 former employees, who bring valuable industry experience, and together with our outstanding teams, will continue powering Lucid’s industry-leading innovation,” mentioned Lucid Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff in a press assertion.

Extra EV Gross sales In The USA

As for EV gross sales associated to the Nikola acquisition, don’t maintain your breath for a Lucid Class 8 battery-electric truck. The corporate at the moment presents the Air sedan and the newly launched Gravity SUV. Winterhoff additionally used the event of the Nikola announcement to remind everybody Lucid is making ready for its “upcoming midsize platform vehicles,” indicating that vans of any kind are off the desk, no less than for now. If something, the newly expanded operation in Arizona may allow Lucid to speed up its plans for midsized EVs.

Rumors about these upcoming EVs started surfacing final fall, when the automotive media scooped plans that counsel the brand new platform is a crossover SUV to be named Earth, geared toward competing for EV gross sales against the Tesla Model Ypresumably as quickly as mannequin 12 months 2026.

That’s going to be a troublesome row to hoe. Sagging sales asideTesla remains to be #1 in EV gross sales right here within the US, with virtually 50% of the US EV market. Nonetheless, that received’t final for lengthy if US automobile patrons comply with the trajectory of their counterparts in Europe. EV sales in Europe have been surging this 12 months, however not for Tesla, with the notable exception of the UK.

Tesla followers are pinning their hopes on the refreshed Mannequin Y. That would but show to be a lifeline, however EV patrons within the US have already turned their consideration to different manufacturers.

On April 10, Cox Automotive took a take a look at EV gross sales reported by Kelley Blue Ebook, noting that almost 300,000 new EVs have been bought within the US in Q1 2025. “Roughly 7.5% of total new-vehicle sales in the first quarter were electric vehicles, an increase from 7% a year earlier,” Cox summarized.

“But the EV growth story continues to center on market leader Tesla, which saw sales fall further in Q1, down nearly 9% from year-ago levels,” Cox added, whereas citing Acura, Audi, Chevrolet, Honda, and Porsche amongst different automakers that rode the wave of the EV shopping for spree.

Whether or not or not Tesla can win them again stays to be seen. The automaker had the zero emission mobility area virtually all to itself for a few years, however Musk’s potential to push EV gross sales in a aggressive market was in query from the start. The unfolding Cybertruck disaster means that Tesla is incapable of shifting previous its fundamental fashions with Musk as CEO, and the “DOGE” fiasco demonstrates that he’s no genius, in any case.

Photograph: The California startup Lucid Motors goals to spice up its EV gross sales footprint with a newly expanded footprint for its operations in Arizona, together with a second manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia (courtesy of Lucid by way of CleanTechnica archive).