- Lucid opened a brand new workplace simply outdoors of Detroit
- The automaker has had bother producing giant portions of automobiles up to now
- It is trying to faucet into the Large Three’s expertise pool to scale up operations
Lucid makes some fairly cool vehicles. They’re flashy, quick, and a freakin’ marvel of engineering (do not imagine me? Simply watch a few of their tech talks). It is just like the early phases of Tesla, simply with extra consideration to construct high quality and extra investments from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.
Regardless of constructing a formidable machine, Lucid has been struggling to achieve market share with its Air electrical sedan. It is trying to resolve that downside with the discharge of the Gravity SUV and a extra inexpensive mannequin below the $50,000 mark. Nonetheless, the California-based automaker is aware of that it wants extra than simply high-tech engineering to scale up and make its goals come true. That is the place legacy auto excels. And if you cannot beat ’em, poach ’em.
Lucid formally opened its so-called “Michigan workplace” this week. Formally, the situation is in Southfield, Michigan, which is, give or take, 15 miles from Detroit. Unofficially, it is within the Large Three’s yard.
The automaker says it opened this plant to develop its R&D, engineering, and operations groups…which is tongue-in-cheek for poaching the core auto staff within the Detroit metro space who’ve been key within the success of designing, constructing, and launching vehicles for legacy carmakers.
Lucid does not want Detroit to show it how one can construct the underlying tech for a automobile. It is already carried out that and carried out it extraordinarily nicely. The automaker has earned its stripes by constructing out electrical drive models able to, fairly frankly, wizardry. It is also earned a fame for being a premium model with some quite eye-catching styling. None of those are the departments through which Lucid wants assist.
Detroit is crawling with automotive experience. In any case, Ford, GM, and Stellantis have spent actually a century perfecting the craft of large-scale manufacturing. Lucid, then again, is not even sufficiently old to vote. Naturally, it is nonetheless going via some rising pains largely surrounding how troublesome it’s to scale up car manufacturing. Tapping into native expertise offers Lucid perception into how one can successfully scale from producing automobiles by the 1000’s to the tens (and ultimately, lots of) of 1000’s.
So whereas Lucid could also be gaining some engineers and R&D consultants, the true expertise to be gained listed below are those that have connections in provide chains, logistics, and manufacturing planning. That is the place a few of the largest secrets and techniques in automotive manufacturing cover, and Lucid is hellbent on turning over each stone to seek out the correct folks for the job.
Is it potential for Lucid to succeed by itself? Certain. Nevertheless it’s not going to be a stroll within the park. Lucid has already missed some essential manufacturing targets. For instance, it anticipated constructing 49,000 automobiles in 2023 and 90,000 in 2024. Final yr, it constructed simply 8,428 automobiles and bought them to six,001 prospects.
Maybe Tesla CEO Elon Musk was proper when he stated “prototypes are straightforward, manufacturing is tough.”
Both approach, Lucid is displaying that it is placing its investments to good use. It needs to succeed, nevertheless it wants the correct folks to maintain the corporate’s head above water. And the transfer to Michigan is a transparent sign: Lucid needs to play on the identical degree as the massive canine and is not afraid to tug from Detroit’s expertise pool to take action.
