- Lucid opened a new office just outside of Detroit
- The automaker has had trouble producing large quantities of vehicles in the past
- It's looking to tap into the Big Three's talent pool to scale up operations
Lucid makes some pretty cool cars. They're flashy, fast, and a freakin' marvel of engineering (don't believe me? Just watch some of their tech talks). It's like the early stages of Tesla, just with more attention to build quality and more investments from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.
Despite building an impressive machine, Lucid has been struggling to gain market share with its Air electric sedan. It's looking to solve that problem with the release of the Gravity SUV and a more affordable model under the $50,000 mark. However, the California-based automaker knows that it needs more than just high-tech engineering to scale up and make its dreams come true. That's where legacy auto excels. And if you can't beat 'em, poach 'em.
Lucid officially opened its so-called "Michigan office" this week. Officially, the location is in Southfield, Michigan, which is, give or take, 15 miles from Detroit. Unofficially, it's in the Big Three's backyard.
The automaker says it opened this plant to grow its R&D, engineering, and operations teams...which is tongue-in-cheek for poaching the core auto workers in the Detroit metro area who have been key in the success of designing, building, and launching cars for legacy carmakers.
Lucid doesn't need Detroit to teach it how to build the underlying tech for a car. It's already done that and done it extremely well. The automaker has earned its stripes by building out electric drive units capable of, quite frankly, wizardry. It's also earned a reputation for being a premium brand with some rather eye-catching styling. None of these are the departments in which Lucid needs help.
Detroit is crawling with automotive expertise. After all, Ford, GM, and Stellantis have spent literally a century perfecting the craft of large-scale production. Lucid, on the other hand, isn't even old enough to vote. Naturally, it's still going through some growing pains largely surrounding how difficult it is to scale up vehicle production. Tapping into local talent gives Lucid insight into how to effectively scale from producing vehicles by the thousands to the tens (and eventually, hundreds) of thousands.
So while Lucid may be gaining some engineers and R&D experts, the real talent to be gained here are those who have connections in supply chains, logistics, and production planning. That's where some of the biggest secrets in automotive manufacturing hide, and Lucid is hellbent on turning over every stone to find the right people for the job.
Is it possible for Lucid to succeed on its own? Sure. But it's not going to be a walk in the park. Lucid has already missed some crucial production targets. For example, it anticipated building 49,000 vehicles in 2023 and 90,000 in 2024. Last year, it built just 8,428 vehicles and sold them to 6,001 customers.
Perhaps Tesla CEO Elon Musk was right when he said "prototypes are easy, production is hard."
Either way, Lucid is showing that it's putting its investments to good use. It wants to succeed, but it needs the right people to keep the company's head above water. And the move to Michigan is a clear signal: Lucid wants to play on the same level as the big dogs and isn't afraid to pull from Detroit's talent pool to do so.
