Lucid takes its spot among the Big 3 EVs after winning “car of the year”

Halle-lucid... The sedans are coming. EV startup Lucid went public via a SPAC merger in July, and began delivering its luxury sedans to driveways last month. Yesterday, the Lucid Air — aka Lucid’s first product — was crowned car of the year by auto magazine Motor Trend. It’s the first time the award has been given to a carmaker’s first vehicle (FYI: Tesla won in 2012 for the Model S). The specs:

• High range, high price: The Lucid Air has the longest range of any EV sold in the US, at 520 miles/charge. Tesla’s Model S, the next closest, gets just over 400. But its $169K price tag tops sedans from luxe brands like Tesla and Porsche.
• Futuristic features include an iPad-like touch display, a 21-speaker sound system, and a solid glass roof that still keeps the sun at bay.

Making Elon sweat... Lucid shares soared 23% yesterday after it won the award and dropped its first public earnings on Monday. It’s now worth more than Ford, even though it delivered zero vehicles last quarter and lost more than $500M. Investors were revved up over future sales.

• Lucid ended last quarter with 13K reservations, representing ~$1.3B in potential sales. Lucid execs say the total has jumped to 17K since then.
• Lucid plans to produce 90K/year by 2023, and has $4.8B in cash on hand to do it. Tesla delivered 1,500 Roadsters in its first year on the market.
• FYI: Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund owns 63% of Lucid, and has plans to turn its capital city, Riyadh, 30% electric by 2030.