Upstart Tesla challenger Lucid revs up after Churchill Capital merger

Electric vehicle startup Lucid Group Inc, led by Englishman Peter Rawlinson, was given a warm welcome on its Wall Street debut overnight after completing its merger with special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Churchill Capital Corp IV. Lucid had a pro-forma equity value of US$24bn before listing, then saw its shares end its first day up more than 6% at US$26.83. The merger gives the carmaker a fuel injection of US$4.4bn in new funding. Rawlinson, a graduate of Imperial College, London, was previously vice president of vehicle engineering at Tesla and chief engineer of the Model S, and before that was chief engineer at Lotus and principal engineer at Jaguar. Churchill Capital Corp IV,  a SPAC set up by investment banker Michael Klein, was one of the most bought shares by UK investors in the first half of the year. The merger between the two was agreed in February. “Today marks a defining milestone for Lucid, as we join Nasdaq and become a public company,” said Rawlinson. “We are on track to meet our projected customer deliveries this year, the next, and into the future.” He said the new funding in the bank means the company can “significantly accelerate our trajectory”, adding 2.7mln square feet of additional space at its greenfield factory in Arizona to add a separate line for its Project Gravity electric SUV.