Luxury electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid Motors has opened a major expansion to its Casa Grande factory, quadrupling its size in anticipation of its entrance into the large market for SUVs.
The AMP-1 plant now covers 3.85 million square feet.
The company officially brought a 3 million square feet facility online in January during a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Gov. Katie Hobbs and Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson, along with other industry representatives, local officials and employees.
The added space encompasses a new general assembly line, expanded body and paint shop, a relocated and expanded powertrain facility, a relocated logistics center and what’s described as one of the most advanced stamping facilities in the world, used to form fenders, hubcaps and other components out of sheet metal. It also includes a warehouse, consolidating space and employees from a Tempe location.
“In just a few short years, the Lucid team has evolved our manufacturing footprint into one of the few highly integrated electric vehicle manufacturing plants in the U.S.,” said Steven David, SVP of Operations at Lucid.
“This expanded state-of-the-art plant will bring greater operational efficiency to our manufacturing process and allow us to continue to deliver our high-quality, groundbreaking electric vehicles to our customers.”
The expansion followed the layoff of almost 1,000 workers from the Casa Grande facility in March 2023. Production of Lucid Gravity, an all-electric SUV with a projected range of 440 miles and seating for up to seven, is set to launch late this year.
Final $95M Piece to I-10 Widening Puzzle Falls into Place
A $95 million grant awarded to the state of Arizona from the U.S. Department of Transportation is expected to close the funding gap for the long-awaited widening of Interstate 10 through the Gila River Indian Community, clearing the way for a third lane to be added in each direction to improve traffic flow and safety.
The money is coming from the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects program, which backs projects along U.S. highways to improve safety, efficiency and reliability. A Jan. 22 announcement of the grant award from Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office quoted Gila River Indian Community President Stephen Roe Lewis about the process for securing the funding:
“When we learned last year that Arizona would not be receiving a federal grant for this project (from a different grant program), I immediately contacted Gov. Hobbs, and together we rolled up our sleeves and got this new grant proposal together, focusing largely on the importance of this road to our community, and we presented it together to (U.S. Transportation) Secretary (Pete) Buttigieg, a first in our state, and probably in the entire country,” Lewis said.
Hobbs said the $95 million will be pooled with $695 million in state funding and $221 million from the Maricopa Association of Governments to fully fund the approximately $1 billion project. Casa Grande Mayor Craig McFarland said the addition of the MAG funding and a reduction in cost estimates also improved the project’s bottom line from a $360 million gap last year.
Along with the additional lanes improvements, the project will include replacement of the bridges over the Gila River, which is scheduled to begin this spring.
