Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
EV maker Lucid Motors said late Thursday it won a bankruptcy auction to acquire Nikola’s former plant, headquarters/ product development center in Arizona. The Coolidge-based truckmaker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last February.
Lucid said its acquisition, made as part of Nikola’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, includes “development equipment such as battery and environmental testing chambers, a full-size chassis dynamometer, machining tools,” among others.
Saudi-backed EV maker Lucid’s plant in Casa Grande is less than a 30-minute drive from Nikola’s former facility in Coolidge. The acquisition allows Lucid to expand its presence in Arizona as it prepares to launch a mid-size platform next year that will underpin several new models.
Lucid’s Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff described the transaction as “an opportunity to strategically expand our manufacturing, warehousing, testing, and development facilities” while it prepares to start U.S. customer deliveries of its second model by the end of the month.
The company said it “plans to offer employment to more than 300 former Nikola employees” in roles that include “manufacturing engineering, software, assembly, vehicle testing, and warehouse support.”
Lucid clarified that the deal does not include Nikola’s business operations, customer base, or hydrogen fuel cell truck technology.
“As we continue our production ramp of Lucid Gravity and prepare for our upcoming midsize platform vehicles, acquiring these assets is an opportunity to strategically expand our manufacturing, warehousing, testing, and development facilities while supporting our local Arizona community,” Winterhoff said in a statement.
“We are delighted to extend employment offers to more than 300 former employees, who bring valuable industry experience, and together with our outstanding teams, will continue powering Lucid’s industry-leading innovation,” he added.
Nikola filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February and continued “certain limited directly provided (non-dealer) service and support operations for trucks currently in the field” until the end of March.
In a statement, the former chief executive Steve Girsky said the company took “significant steps to move zero-emissions transportation forward, including bringing the first commercially available Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks to market in North America and developing the HYLA hydrogen refueling highway, connecting Northern California to Southern California.”