Did Lucid overlook something vital?

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AGTRAIN

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This is a post I hope I’m wrong about, so any pushback you provide will in fact make me feel better. I live in the east but have visited Phoenix and Tucson for business. There’s a lot of open country there, which i found enjoyable last time I was there maybe 15 years ago. I just looked it up and Casa Grande is about 50 miles south of Phoenix and 67 miles north of Tucson. Those are fairly long commutes from the major cities (at least by east coast standards). So is it possible Lucid will struggle attracting/ retaining enough engineers and other talent to keep pace with their expansion plans? Especially over time? Could this be a factor in their (apparent) slow start? Or am I trying to connect too many dots?
 
I actually think Casa Grande is well positioned between the two metro areas as well as having access to Mexico. I will let our AZ members chime in, but I think that it would be a very attractive place to live, especially for standard of living as compared to the East or west coasts.
 
It helps that they are working with trade schools around them to train them for jobs.
 
Hadn’t thought about trade schools in the area. It’s also possible the Phoenix metro area has grown even more since i used to do business there.
 
Cass Grande is well located and growing rapidly. Eloy and Maricopa are also nearby and closer than Phoenix or Tucson. The outskirts of both Tucson and Phoenix are growing toward Casa Grande. Engineering talent may be more difficult but I have heard that there is some Lucid engineering and maufacturing support in Tempe. Direct labor for manufacturing in Casa Grande should not be problem. People have commuted between Phoenix and Casa Grande for many years. Many commuting to Phoenix for better jobs.

Getting people hired and trained is difficult everywhere including Arizona. There are a lot of educational partnerships in AZ for high tech fields. Think Intel, NXP, Microchip, On and TSMC in the semiconductor area. There is also battery and other EV manufacturing starting.
 
Cass Grande is well located and growing rapidly. Eloy and Maricopa are also nearby and closer than Phoenix or Tucson. The outskirts of both Tucson and Phoenix are growing toward Casa Grande. Engineering talent may be more difficult but I have heard that there is some Lucid engineering and maufacturing support in Tempe. Direct labor for manufacturing in Casa Grande should not be problem. People have commuted between Phoenix and Casa Grande for many years. Many commuting to Phoenix for better jobs.

Getting people hired and trained is difficult everywhere including Arizona. There are a lot of educational partnerships in AZ for high tech fields. Think Intel, NXP, Microchip, On and TSMC in the semiconductor area. There is also battery and other EV manufacturing starting.
Also, Queen Creek is rapidly becoming an affordable but upscale community in far southern Phoenix metro. It is less than 40 mile from Casa Grande which is actually not much different if not shorter than many tech centers in Phoenix metro. Adnillien is right that attracting talent is difficult throughout the region, but Glassdoor reviews seem to be positive and the cost of living is way less there than elsewhere.
 
Could also travel 40 miles in AZ faster than 5 miles in West LA hah
 
Lucid is headquartered in Newark, CA for attracting software engineering talent. I think they will not have a hard time attracting significant amount of engineering talent to Az.
 
Great replies. Makes me feel better although I had to figure Lucid must’ve done some due diligence of the region. Thanks all.
 
A timely article in the AZ paper this morning:


"Buoyed by the successful launch of its high-end electric cars and emboldened by industry awards, Lucid Motors' Arizona employee count is growing and the company is seeking more help from the state in workforce training and other areas.

Hiring is proceeding as planned, and the company said it is pleased with the quality of workers here.

“More than 2,000 people are now employed by Lucid in Arizona,” Mike Boike, Lucid’s senior director of manufacturing, told The Arizona Republic. The bulk of those jobs are at the company's expanding factory near Interstate 8. “We continue to ramp up production in Casa Grande and will increase hiring.”

That employment number is more than double the approximately 700 workers who were at the plant when the first cars rolled off the line in late September.

The company has two manufacturing complexes there, one producing electric power trains and the other assembling the Lucid Air, which was anointed as "car of year" by MotorTrend right around the time the first vehicles were delivered to customers last fall. Over the next year or two, the Silicon Valley-based corporation will start delivering other models.

Boike said Lucid has faced some supply chain challenges, without elaborating, but he said the company is managing these issues and continues to focus on quality assurance and customer satisfaction. The Casa Grande manufacturing facilities are operating seven days a week to produce the Air as Lucid constructs in another factory on the site.

Lucid also has a warehouse in Tempe, a showroom at Scottsdale Fashion Square and other facilities including service centers in the state. Open positions are on the careers page at lucidmotors.com."
 
Nice to know that they are producing cars 7 days per week. I assume, though, that it is still one shift.
 
While they are working 7 days a week, the weekend has many fewer employees than weekdays. Here is a picture from Bear's from Wednesday Jan 26, and one that I took on Sunday Jan 30.

Lots of employee cars on Wednesday Jan 26 from Bear's
1645193541686.png



Sunday has only a few cars in the parking lot.
1645193249507.png
 
While they are working 7 days a week, the weekend has many fewer employees than weekdays. Here is a picture from Bear's from Wednesday Jan 26, and one that I took on Sunday Jan 30.

Additional context, here's the lot on a Saturday taken by @Adnillien:

1645228780569.png
 
It’s no small feat to triple the workforce in 5 months…i see that as an encouraging sign. Thanks for the article!
 
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