On Thursday, Zhu Jiang, the head of Lucid Group's operations in China, announced that the U.S. luxury electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, Lucid Group (NASDAQ:LCID), is preparing to enter the global automotive industry's biggest market.
The US EV startup currently sells its Air luxury sedans in the United States, Canada, and several European countries. The automaker plans to import its cars to China and is also considering local production in the country, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Zhu confirmed reports that the company was preparing to enter the Chinese market. However, the operations manager declined to comment on any plans for local production.
Lucid last week said it planned to raise about $3 billion through a stock offering, nearly two-thirds of which will come from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Zhu said the funding would help Lucid "bring the advanced EV technology and product experience to the industry and users globally at a faster pace."
"China is also looking forward to it," he said.
Lucid delivered only 1,406 vehicles in Q1 despite building 2,314 units during the same period. The expansion to China will likely help Lucid sell some of its surplus inventory of Air EVs, but a lot will depend on the pricing strategy in the highly competitive market.
Shares of LCID are up 3.28% in premarket trading on Thursday.