California-based electric vehicle start-up Lucid Motors is going public through a merger with Churchill Capital Corporation IV (CCIV), with a transaction equity value of $11.75 billion, Kallanish reports.

The transaction includes a $2.1 billion cash contribution from the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and $2.5 billion PIPE (private investment in public equity) led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Other investors include those managed by BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and Neuberger Berman.

The deal values Lucid at $24 billion and offers the luxury EV manufacturer a platform to accelerate development of its new pure-electric luxury sedan, Lucid Air, into mass production.

The company plans to launch Lucid Air this year, followed by the Gravity performance luxury SUV in 2023. The 500-mile range sedan is already under pre-production in Arizona, in a factory with capacity of 34,000 vehicles per year.

Lucid’s ceo Peter Rawlinson says the proceeds of the transaction, which includes the largest SPAC deal to date, will also be used to support expansion at the Arizona factory. “Scheduled to expand over three phases in the coming years, our Arizona facility is designed to be capable of producing approximately 365,000 units per year at scale,” he says.

“Lastly, this transaction further enables the realisation of our vision to supply Lucid’s advanced EV technologies to third parties such as other automotive manufacturers as well as offer energy storage solutions in the residential, commercial and utility segments,” adds Rawlinson, a previous Tesla engineer.

Lucid runs six retail sites across the US and it’s expanding this network “significantly” throughout 2021. Sales expansion is planned for international markets including Europe and Middle East during 2022, and Asia Pacific thereafter.