On Tuesday (January 4), local time, electric vehicle manufacturer lucid said on twitter that the company would begin to expand into the European market this year.
Lucid's first electric vehicle, called air, began delivering its flagship "dream edition" worth $169000 to customers in late October last year.
In January 2020, lucid began to accept online bookings of its flagship models in 15 European countries such as the UK, France and Germany, but the company did not specify when they would be delivered.
Lucid was founded in 2007 and led by Peter Rawlinson, a former Tesla executive. Last July, the company was listed through spac with a valuation of about $24 billion. Lucid told investors that month that it expected to produce 20000 air electric vehicles in 2022, with a revenue of more than $2.2 billion.
Four months later, lucid's market value surpassed that of Ford, once reaching $89.9 billion. Earlier, lucid told investors that the number of air electric vehicles booked exceeded 17000, up from 13000 in the third quarter.
However, lucid disclosed last month that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may investigate its transactions listed through spac. Affected by the news, the company's share price plunged by about 20%.
Today, lucid's market value is about $65 billion, which is not only far lower than Tesla, the leader of electric vehicles, which soared to $1 trillion last year, but also lower than rivian, an electric pickup start-up listed in November last year. The company's market value is about $91 billion.
Like Tesla, lucid is also developing autopilot technology. However, Axel Schmid, head of Accenture automotive industry, points out that technology companies underestimate all the challenges of automatic driving on the road.
Schmid added that by 2030, 60% to 70% of new vehicles will have "level 2" automatic driving capability, which means that the system can assist driving and maintain the correct lane and control speed, but it is not enough to drive independently and safely until they reach "level 5".
(Financial Associated Press)
