How Battery Supplier Atieva Turned Into Electric Car Maker
In 2007, former Tesla executive Bernard Tse and Sam Weng built a quiet firm named Atieva in California. They built battery packs for electric buses in China. But everything shifted in 2016. The team changed the company name to Lucid Motors and announced a massive plan to build high-end electric sedans.
Peter Rawlinson joined as chief engineer and later became the boss. They went straight after the luxury car market with big dreams, setting out to showcase their engineering capabilities through a brand-new vehicle platform.
The Mind Blowing Technology Inside The Famous Lucid Air
At the heart of the Lucid Air Grand Touring sits a tiny electric motor that packs 819 horsepower. With a 900-volt battery system, the car gains 200 miles of range in twelve minutes at a fast charger. Engineers created a special power unit called the Wunderbox to handle extreme charging speeds without overheating. The car hits 60 miles per hour in three seconds flat. It runs for 512 miles on a single charge.
Why Making Great Cars Does Not Mean Making Money
Translating this breakthrough technology into a commercial reality presented massive financial hurdles. In September 2021, the first customer cars rolled off the assembly line at the AMP-1 factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. Money flowed out faster than it came in. The company spent billions building factories, opening stores, and setting up service networks.
So they opened a second factory called AMP-2 in King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund put in over one billion dollars in 2018 and added billions more later to keep operations going.
Boardroom Fights Over Saudi Money And Executive Pay Secrets
This heavy reliance on outside capital brought heightened corporate scrutiny, leading to major debates behind closed doors over executive pay and tech deals. In 2022, CEO Peter Rawlinson earned over three hundred million dollars in total compensation, making industry heads spin across Detroit and Silicon Valley.
Critics argued the payout was way too high for a firm losing money on every vehicle.
Meanwhile, Aston Martin signed a deal in June 2023 to buy electric drive units and battery systems directly from Lucid for over two hundred million dollars.
Aston Martin chose Lucid technology over legacy rivals because the hardware is smaller and lighter.
What You Should Watch For In Electric Luxury Cars
To see how these financial and technological developments translate to the market, watch for these upcoming developments:
- Test drive the Lucid Gravity SUV at local retail studio locations across North America.
- Watch the upcoming third quarter earnings call webcast on the investor relations portal to check vehicle delivery numbers.
- Check out the DreamDrive Pro driver assist hardware updates released through over-the-air software updates this month.
- Attend the Monterey Car Week showcase to see custom electric supercars using Lucid powertrain components.
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