Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Lucid shares are off to a heart start this month.
Speaker 2: They're up nearly twenty percent since July first. The shares
Speaker 2: are rallying after the ev startup announced second quarter deliveries
Speaker 2: and production targets above expectations. Joining us now, I'm pleased
Speaker 2: to say, live from the Bank of America Breakthrough Technology
Speaker 2: Dialogue is Lucid CEO and CTO Peter Rollins with Bloomberg's
Speaker 2: Tom mackenzie.
Speaker 3: Tom, Danny, thank you. It's very timely actually because the
Speaker 3: Festival of Speed is happening as we speak as well,
Speaker 3: so a lot of auto there's a lot of petrol
Speaker 3: heads here, but we're all talking about petrol.
Speaker 1: We're talking about evs and as.
Speaker 3: You say, the CEO of Lucid joining me now, which
Speaker 3: is a fantastic conversation, we hope, Danny, I'm going to
Speaker 3: bring you that now, Peter Willings and the CEO of
Speaker 3: course of Lucid. Let's start then with the production delivery numbers,
Speaker 3: as Danny was saying, stronger than the markets expected. The
Speaker 3: shares have had a lift on the back of this,
Speaker 3: and we compare that as well. We bring in the
Speaker 3: Tesla story because they come in with slightly better numbers
Speaker 3: as well in recent days. Is this a sign that
Speaker 3: the EV market is starting to turn around?
Speaker 1: Peter? It certainly is.
Speaker 4: For us.
Speaker 5: We're about seventy percent quarter on quarter with a record
Speaker 5: delivery in Q two on the back of another record
Speaker 5: delivery in Q one. Things are looking up, and I
Speaker 5: think more people are getting the message that we have
Speaker 5: an extraordinary product in lucid Air, and everyone's also looking
Speaker 5: for it, looking forward to our new.
Speaker 4: Suv, the Gravity, which is coming later this year.
Speaker 3: Give us an update on the Gravity, because I know.
Speaker 1: Analysts are looking at as well.
Speaker 3: They see that as consequential, really consequential for your story
Speaker 3: longer term. So the Gravity suv is production on track?
Speaker 3: What is the timeframe? What is demand looking like?
Speaker 4: It is schedule four started production late this year.
Speaker 5: We're seeing an incredible late demand because this is an
Speaker 5: unprecedented product. It has a range of attributes which really
Speaker 5: have no right to coexist. It has the driving dynamics
Speaker 5: superior to a Lamborghini Urus. It has the present stance
Speaker 5: of a range rover, It has more interior space than
Speaker 5: an Escalade, and yet it is only a slightly small
Speaker 5: lot on the outside than our Lucid Air. It's a
Speaker 5: seven seat, three row suv. This is what the market
Speaker 5: has been waiting for.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's a very good sales pitch there, Peter, talk
Speaker 3: to us about the margin story, the profitability.
Speaker 1: Then at what point can you start to.
Speaker 3: Raise prices for your vehicles and start to push margins
Speaker 3: out of negative territory.
Speaker 5: Well, we're able to bring a successively more attainable products
Speaker 5: to market where our range now starts at just sixty
Speaker 5: nine nine hundred dollars, and we're able to do that
Speaker 5: because we've got the most advanced technology in the world.
Speaker 5: Let me explain, we're able to go further with less
Speaker 5: battery energy than anyone else.
Speaker 4: I recently announced that we hit the magic five miles
Speaker 4: per kilowatt hour.
Speaker 5: Landmark, and we're going to reveal a product which achieves
Speaker 5: that very soon. We're actually at four point seven four
Speaker 5: miles per kill a lot hour here today with our
Speaker 5: pure electric vehicle. Now, that pure variant has a range
Speaker 5: of four hundred and nineteen miles, more range than anyone
Speaker 5: else in the marketplace, but it does it with just
Speaker 5: an eighty eight killer our battery pack, and that makes
Speaker 5: it the most sustainable vehicle on the market today. Any
Speaker 5: journey you take, that car uses less electricity to go
Speaker 5: from A to B than.
Speaker 4: Anything else in the world today.
Speaker 1: That's on the mass market, okay.
Speaker 5: And that means we can have less minerals, less dependence
Speaker 5: upon mines around the world, less dependence upon sources of lithium, nickel, cobalt.
Speaker 4: And this is what the world needs.
Speaker 5: More efficient, more energy efficient, and more high tech evs
Speaker 5: and Lucid is leading the way in this respect.
Speaker 3: Okay, five miles per killer? What ours you say? A
Speaker 3: magic numbers? You allow Martin number as you've described it.
Speaker 3: You are, of course backed by Arabia, the Public Investment
Speaker 3: Fund of Saudia to the tune of about six point.
Speaker 1: Four billion US dollars. Is it fair to assume.
Speaker 3: That you're going to need to raise a similar amount
Speaker 3: around six billion dollar level to push forward into the future.
Speaker 3: Is that about an appropriate number to be thinking about
Speaker 3: in terms of future funding.
Speaker 5: We haven't guided on the actual quantum, but let me
Speaker 5: tell you this is a capital invents intensive business and
Speaker 5: we do need to raise more money and we will
Speaker 5: at opportune moments in time on the future. Our vision
Speaker 5: is to be a major player here or the SUV
Speaker 5: this year. And we've got the mid sized platform coming
Speaker 5: late twenty six and that's going to be a high
Speaker 5: volume vehicle mass produced both in the US and in
Speaker 5: Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 3: And you've talked about being in this for the long
Speaker 3: run with the PIF with Saudi Arabia. Is there a
Speaker 3: line that they draw somewhere, Peter, where they say, Okay.
Speaker 1: This is enough.
Speaker 5: Look, they're the perfect long term partners. We share a
Speaker 5: long term vision and we mutually incentivize for six They
Speaker 5: want this as much as I do.
Speaker 1: Watch this space.
Speaker 5: They're in for the long term, and this transcends a
Speaker 5: mere financial investment. We are a cornerstone of them realizing
Speaker 5: their bold vision twenty thirty where they transitioned their quintessential
Speaker 5: fossil fuel economy to an environmentally sustainable economy.
Speaker 3: Okay, when you say watch this space, I something's going
Speaker 3: off from my mind suggesting that maybe they're going to
Speaker 3: come through with another check soon from the saudiast for
Speaker 3: the business.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about talk to me.
Speaker 3: About the deal you did with Aston Martin, because it's interesting.
Speaker 3: So you've licensed some of your technology to asked in
Speaker 3: Martin talk to talks about the consequences they have delayed
Speaker 3: their evs. Does that have an impact on that deal?
Speaker 3: Does that have an impact on LOCID?
Speaker 4: Very mildly, but the deal is very strong.
Speaker 5: It secures them high tech electric technology for the next decade.
Speaker 5: We're supplying them with modules for the battery pack, wonder
Speaker 5: box charging, two way charging technology, and our Sapphire drive units.
Speaker 5: These are the world's finest drive units and it's appropriate
Speaker 5: that as to not get the really top end stuff
Speaker 5: from our range, the hypercar high performance. If you look
Speaker 5: at the future, though, it gets a lot more exciting.
Speaker 1: Were you disappointed if they delayed their EV.
Speaker 5: Well, absolutely, Any delay in any EV is less than ideal.
Speaker 5: But it's going to come and we have secured their
Speaker 5: electric hypercar future for the next decade.
Speaker 1: Is that a template for other licenses?
Speaker 5: I hope it is, and it's actually initiated a lot
Speaker 5: more interest.
Speaker 4: We are in discussions with others.
Speaker 5: And when it gets really exciting is you look at
Speaker 5: the technology that we're developing now from a mid sized
Speaker 5: platform for late twenty six that really suits mess market,
Speaker 5: family car and applications.
Speaker 1: That's why we're in this.
Speaker 5: We're not here to be a niche player, loose it
Speaker 5: here to bring down the cost of electric vehicle for
Speaker 5: the benefit of all and be a major player.
Speaker 3: And Rivian doing an interesting deal with Volkswagen in investment
Speaker 3: from VW into Rivian in exchange for some technology. Is
Speaker 3: that something you would consider that kind of partnership, that
Speaker 3: kind of deal.
Speaker 5: I'm always interested in partnerships which involve our technology.
Speaker 3: Okay, we talked about the gravity the SUV coming online.
Speaker 3: You talk about production the end of this year, deliveries
Speaker 3: next year. Then what about manufacturing in Saudi Arabia. That's
Speaker 3: part of a process outside of Jeddi. You're putting the
Speaker 3: car together there. But in terms of full term manufacturing
Speaker 3: in Saudi Arabia does that when does that come online?
Speaker 3: And what is the challenge in Saudi Arabia is the
Speaker 3: challenge around talent.
Speaker 5: There's always a challenge around talent because as a company,
Speaker 5: we're only as good as the brain pawer that we
Speaker 5: can attract. That you know, no company in its own
Speaker 5: right has experienced. It's only the brilliance of the employees
Speaker 5: that represent the capability of a company. But we already
Speaker 5: have the very first car plant operating in Saudi Arabia
Speaker 5: right this moment. It is running, and that is a
Speaker 5: kit assembly plant on a very modest scale. We are
Speaker 5: actually laying the foundations for our major plant which will
Speaker 5: be scaled for one hundred and fifty thousand unit capacity
Speaker 5: per annum as we speak, and that is scheduled to
Speaker 5: be ready for production late twenty six, where we'll put
Speaker 5: our mid sized vehicle into that plant.
Speaker 1: Okay, Peter Rolinson, thank you very much.
Speaker 3: In the CTEO and CEO of lucid On not wanting
Speaker 3: to be a niche brand within EVS and hitting that
Speaker 3: five mile per kilowatts in terms of the rage for
Speaker 3: their vehicles looking head
Speaker 1: Of course to the SUV as well the gravity