According to a letter from the company’s CEO Peter Rawlinson sent out to customers and investors, production of the Lucid Air is being delayed.
Rawlinson attributes the delay to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The CEO said that despite the company’s hard work, the wide-ranging impacts of the virus have led to delays at every stage of development, from testing to supply to preparing for sales.
“As a company we’ve worked diligently to minimize these impacts, and over the past year, Lucid has witnessed seismic progress and growth,” said Rawlinson. “We now know that we won’t be able to start delivering Lucid Air this spring at the level of quality we insist on providing.”
Also Read: Lucid Is Officially Going Public At A $24 Billion Valuation
Although the automaker previously announced that deliveries would start in spring 2021, it now expects series production to begin in the second half of the year, although an exact launch date for the electric sedan has not been mentioned.
With enough juice to go more than 500 miles, the Lucid Air is among the longest-range EVs planned for imminent release. The brand is selling itself as a luxury manufacturer and believes that will differentiate it from competitor Tesla, which it called “innovative but not luxury” in a slide shown to investors recently.
Earlier this month, Lucid showed off its Arizona factory . Moreover, this week it announced that it is merging with special purpose acquisition company Churchill Capital IV (CCIV) in a deal that puts its valuation at $24 billion, and will subsequently go public, which should generate roughly $4.4 billion in cash for the company.
