Lucid Motors wins bankruptcy auction for Nikola’s Arizona factory and other assets

[californiaboy935]

Looks like Lucid is bringing more manufacturing to Arizona. Hopefully we can see some upward stock movement based on reinvestment! Article is attached:

Lucid Motors wins bankruptcy auction for Nikola's Arizona factory and other assets | TechCrunch

EV startup Lucid Motors has emerged as a surprise winner in the bankruptcy auction for electric trucking company Nikola's Arizona factory and other

techcrunch.com

 

[sri]

Good step, I like what Lucid did here.

https://ir.lucidmotors.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lucid-acquire-select-facilities-and-assets-previously-belonging

 

[TonyLieske]

I saw that this morning too. I was a little surprised since Lucid already seems to be burning through their available cash. Maybe they see this as a faster way to ramp up production for Gravity and/or Air.

 

[hmp10]

Two things occur to me:

This bid would likely have required Board approval, which means the Saudis are onboard with further U.S. expansion plans for Lucid.

Maybe it gives Lucid flexibility to offer capacity to offshore suppliers who might be willing to supply components from the U.S. if they have an easy path to do so?

 

[NoseyReporter]

I like it.

30M is a cheap price to pay. Pennies on the dollar as they say.

I imagine this type of opportunity doesn't come around all too often. Might as well snatch it up vs build it later.

 

[Blue Lectroid]

I saw that this morning too. I was a little surprised since Lucid already seems to be burning through their available cash. Maybe they see this as a faster way to ramp up production for Gravity and/or Air.

When Amazon was building its business everyone was frantic about the company burning cash, when Tesla was ramping, same deal. Building a successful, capital-intensive business is a very long-term proposition. Lucid's owners are not in this for next quarter or even next year. They seem focussed on building a solid, long-term EV powerhouse so "burning" an extra $30 million to take advantage of what amounts to a "fire sale" makes a heckuva lot of sense. Between this move and the recent restructuring of $1.1 billion in debt, Lucid Management is making some very, very shrewd moves that speak to their focus on being long term players and NOT simply trying to pump the stock. I personally LOVE the approach.

 

[TonyLieske]

I like it.

30M is a cheap price to pay. Pennies on the dollar as they say.

I imagine this type of opportunity doesn't come around all too often. Might as well snatch it up vs build it later.

This is a good point. I actually know for the company I work for we are working on building a new factory. We are estimating ~150 million USD (building + machinery) for a factory with ~200k sq ft.

From the press release Lucid is getting ~880k sq ft.

 

[DeaneG]

If Nikola's 300 employees work out to be valuable, that's $30M reasonably well spent and you get a factory and HQ for free.

 

[lpinprov]

Nikola reported over $400million in Property, Plant & Equipment as of the end of 2022. Most of that seems to be for their headquarters and the manufacturing facility, so it would seem that Lucid did very well with this purchase.

Note that Rivian bought a former Mitsubishi assembly plant in 2016 for $16.5mm, but that plant had been closed, and Rivian has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade and expand the plant. Presumably the Nikola plant is more up to date.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

... 300 skilled employees ...

 

[hmp10]

... 300 skilled employees ...

Lucid laid off ~1300 employees in two rounds in 2023 and 2024. I haven't seen any follow up about their fates. I wonder if any of them were rehired for the Gravity ramp?

 

[borski]

... 300 skilled employees ...

Not sure why this is funny. Fisker didn’t fail because the employees sucked or weren’t good at their job.

 

[illopp00]

Yes buying factory at 90% discount AND most importantly a massively shortened time frame is a good move. PIF may have huge funds, but LCID absolutely needed to pivot to more capital efficiency rather than building everything themselves from scratch. Even Tesla started out and has always been pretty capital efficient by getting Fremont for the cheap, same for Rivian with Normal plant.

 

[Neurio]

Not sure why this is funny. Fisker didn’t fail because the employees sucked or weren’t good at their job.

Nikola? Though same for Fisker too. I hope no one gives Henrik a 3rd chance....

 

[illopp00]

Nikola? Though same for Fisker too. I hope no one gives Henrik a 3rd chance....

He just needs to be ringfenced in Design, not allowed to touch money.

 

[Steveinarizona]

Looks like Lucid is bringing more manufacturing to Arizona. Hopefully we can see some upward stock movement based on reinvestment! Article is attached:

Lucid Motors wins bankruptcy auction for Nikola's Arizona factory and other assets | TechCrunch

EV startup Lucid Motors has emerged as a surprise winner in the bankruptcy auction for electric trucking company Nikola's Arizona factory and other

techcrunch.com

Coolidge is about 30 minutes and 20 miles away from Casa Grande. So it gives Lucid a fairly cheap way to expand.

 

[hmp10]

He just needs to be ringfenced in Design, not allowed to touch money.

I don't know. If the Karma's miserable interior comfort and functionality were any indication, it might be a good idea to lock him out of the design studio, too.

 

[illopp00]

I don't know. If the Karma's miserable interior comfort and functionality were any indication, it might be a good idea to lock him out of the design studio, too.

Right but those are more functional and hard requirements, you can't deny the actual aesthetics of the outside bodies at least of the Vantage V8 and BMW Z8.

 

[borski]

Nikola? Though same for Fisker too. I hope no one gives Henrik a 3rd chance....

Yeah, I meant Nikola, sorry. Brain fart.

Same idea though. When a company had layoffs and I was running my business, my first thought was “what great people can I find”

 

[hmp10]

Right but those are more functional and hard requirements, you can't deny the actual aesthetics of the outside bodies at least of the Vantage V8 and BMW Z8.

I think this nails the contrast between a designer of Derek Jenkins' caliber and a designer such as Henrik Fisher. With the Air, Jenkins' team produced a design that integrated top-tier aerodynamics and ground-breaking space utilization into an eye-catching exterior and interior design that worked harmoniously "of a piece" to make a car that broke many molds.

Yes, Fisker produced some alluring sheet metal -- but that was about it. He certainly didn't move any car design needles forward.