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Lucid Motors Still Working On Getting Full Funding For $700 Million Casa Grande Investment

Published: Thursday, December 1, 2016 - 3:58pm
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(photo by Carrie Jung - KJZZ)
Production of Lucid's electric cars is expected to begin in 2018.

Gov. Doug Ducey and other state officials this week lauded the decision of California-based Lucid Motors to invest $700 million to build a manufacturing plant in Casa Grande.

But the company admits it doesn’t yet have the $700 million to invest. A spokesman says Lucid has a few hundred million from investors and will be going out for another round of funding. He says the $700 million total is through the year 2022.

But state officials don’t seem too worried about that.

Gubernatorial spokesman Daniel Scarpinato says, "The governor personally, obviously, toured the (California research) facility, met with them on multiple occasions. And so we always do due diligence with these issues."
 
Scarpinato points out Arizona had competition from other places for this facility, which shows it’s a good get for the state.

Tim Kanavel, program manager with Pinal County’s Economic Development Department, says even though the deal calls for the county to buy the land, it still doesn’t pose that much risk.
 
"If for some reason this company, between now and when they purchase the property, they really don't want it, well then we own 493 acres of prime industrial real estate in south central Casa Grande. And, you know, we can always sell that. So we feel that the risk is very minimized on that," Kanavel said.
 
Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services has been reporting on this and looking into the company a bit more.

Ducey and others made a big deal about Lucid coming to Arizona, and Fischer explains how are they responding to questions about whether or not this company is financially viable.

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