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Eric Bach, chief engineer of US electric car maker Lucid, said at the 2023 Munich Motor Show that the company is exploring the sale of electric vehicles in China, but has not yet determined when to enter the Chinese market, CNBC reported. "China is the largest auto market in the world, and every automaker must or has conducted in-depth research on the Chinese market," Eric Bach said. China is likely to become the largest and fastest-spreading electric vehicle market in the world. "

From this point of view, it is only a matter of time before Lucid enters the Chinese market. "We haven't decided when to enter the Chinese market because we need to do better," Eric Bach said. If you enter the Chinese market in the wrong way, you may make a lot of mistakes. " Bach added, "We need a run-in adjustment to understand how to enter the Chinese market." What is the pricing strategy? What is the production strategy? As a young manufacturer, we are studying everything that should be done, and we will do well in the future. "

Lucid's entry into the Chinese market to sell electric cars is in full swing.

In November 2022, Lucid said in its financial report that it planned to enter the Chinese market in 2023. The following month, Lucid began recruiting in China, covering 14 positions in digital information, hardware engineering, law, logistics management, supply chain, retail and other fields, but did not disclose the number of recruits. Most of the positions require proficiency in both Chinese and English or two or more years of working experience in a Chinese company. In June this year, Zhu Jiang, a former vice president of customer development and operations of Jidu Automobile, joined Lucid to take charge of the Chinese market business and began to prepare for entering the Chinese market.

The first difficulty for Lucid to take root in the Chinese market is to launch a model that can be mass-produced on a local scale. The price of its first production car, the Lucid Air, is about 610000 yuan, surpassing the Mercedes-Benz EQE and comparable to the high-end version of the Xilai ES8, plus import taxes and fees. The final landing price is not a small amount. Further, the competitive environment faced by Lucid is very different from that when Tesla first joined China. At that time, Tesla stood out. Now the power pattern of car building has initially stabilized, and the new energy brands of traditional carmakers are making efforts.

Different from the rapid development of new domestic car-building forces, the American electric car market is dominated by Tesla. Lucid has encountered double bottlenecks in sales and production capacity in its local development. In the US market alone, it is difficult to guarantee delivery of Lucid output, and it is even more difficult to export overseas on a large scale. Lucid reported a net loss of $764 million and operating income of $151 million in the second quarter. In terms of sales volume, Lucid delivered 1404 Air models, and the high price may be one of the key reasons for poor sales of Air models, after which Lucid announced a reduction in Air prices and expects to boost delivery and market performance in the third quarter with lower prices and increased production capacity.

Generally speaking, it seems inevitable for Lucid to enter the Chinese market, which can bring a wider range of consumer groups to Lucid. Of course, the challenge is also particularly fierce. The competitive environment faced by Lucid is very different from that when Tesla first joined China. Now the market pattern of new energy vehicles has been initially stable, and the new energy brands of traditional automakers are making efforts. Lucid needs to be prepared to fight for a long time if it wants to get a piece of the fierce Chinese market.

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