The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed yet another EV startup: Lucid Motors. Per a regulatory filing, Lucid Group, Inc. received the subpoena on December 3 and the regulator is seeking documents related to an investigation.
Although precisely what the SEC is interested in is not established in the filing, “the investigation appears to concern the business combination between the Company (f/k/a Churchill Capital Corp. IV) and Atieva, Inc [Lucid’s former name] and certain projection and statements,” Lucid writes in the filing.
The automaker said that it is cooperating fully with the SEC in its review, though, according to Reuters, that didn’t stop its shares from tumbling around 14 percent in pre-market trading.
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Churchill Capital Corp. IV is a special purpose acquisition company that merged with Lucid in February in a deal worth an estimated $24 billion. The deal reportedly generated about $4.4 billion in cash for Lucid to help bring vehicles to the market as it expanded its Arizona factory.
Lucid joins EV startups Nikola and Lordstown Motors in being investigated by U.S. regulators, the former for repeatedly misleading investors and the latter over vehicle pre-orders and its merger with a shell company.
Lucid was founded in 2007 by Bernard Tse, a former Tesla executive, and Sam Weng, an entrepreneur. The company hopes to produce 20,000 vehicles in 2022 and 50,000 in 2023. The company’s first model, the Air, started rolling off the assembly line earlier this year and the first examples were delivered to their owners in early November.
