EV maker Lucid expands its operations to Phoenix

Lucid officially opened its new Phoenix location on June 11 that once served as the headquarters for Nikola.

The ribbon is cut, and the building on Broadway Road and 40th Street gets new life.

What they're saying:

"In some ways, this feels like taking lemons and making lemonade. It was a tough situation for a while," said Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego.

The Nikola building went dark in February as the electric truck-maker declared bankruptcy and laid off 855 Arizonans. Lucid, in Casa Grande, saw an opportunity.

"Initially, when you look at this building, you think it's an office space. But, in actual fact, it has dynos, battery testing facilities. It's set up as a hub to be able to do product design," said Adrian Price, Senior Vice President of Operations at Lucid.

He says by purchasing the Phoenix building, and Nikola's facility in Coolidge, they saved hundreds of Arizona jobs.

"We were able to offer over 300 jobs and 250 of those people are now joining us. They're at our Coolidge facility that we also took over from Nikola," Price explained.

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Big picture view:

The expansion comes at a hectic time for the auto industry as Trump administration tariffs begin.

Are prices going to go up on these vehicles because of it?

Price says, "I don't know. I think there's a big broader impact across the whole of the automotive industry and Lucid is uniquely positioned because of our integration to more protect the customers from that, because so much of it is sourced locally or sourced in the U.S."

A once robust EV landscape in Arizona has crumbled due to bankruptcies and buyouts, but Lucid remains.

"Our sales are expanding every day. We're ramping up production in our facility in AMP-1 to meet the demand. So were continuing to grow and add people to do that," Price said.

What's next:

Inside the Phoenix building, Lucid said it has the first prototypes of a new midsize crossover. It wants to price it under $50,000 and build it in the newly acquired Coolidge facility starting next year.

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