LOS ANGELES — Lucid Motors is laying the retail and manufacturing groundwork for the launch of its battery-electric Air sedan within the coming months after years of delays, bringing the California startup’s objective of taking up Tesla and Mercedes-Benz an enormous step nearer to actuality.

Final week, Lucid introduced the tip of its preproduction section at its new Arizona manufacturing plant and mentioned it can transfer into “high quality validation builds” that may pave the best way to start producing for business sale.

On the identical time, Lucid opened its eighth company-owned showroom, in New York Metropolis’s Meatpacking District. Lucid is advertising and marketing the Air as a high-performance luxurious sedan with as much as 500 miles of vary and ultra-fast charging capabilities.

“Opening a Lucid Studio in New York, one of the vital vibrant cities on this planet, permits us to show how Lucid Air and its groundbreaking know-how completely complement the quick tempo and refined style of the Massive Apple,” CEO Peter Rawlinson mentioned in a information launch.

Below New York legislation, the Lucid showroom isn’t allowed to promote autos; it can function an immersive expertise into the posh model. Not like Tesla, Lucid will market quite a lot of customizations of the Air, with multitone interiors based mostly on California-themed colours and supplies.

Whereas Lucid affords a virtual-reality expertise on-line to consumers nationwide, it is also rolling out bodily studios in key U.S. and Canadian cities. Coming places embody Chicago, Boston, Vancouver and metro Washington, D.C. By yr’s finish, Lucid expects to have 20 studio and repair places, the corporate mentioned.

The electrical automobile startup is also growing a crossover for the tip of 2023 known as the Gravity. Lucid mentioned final week that it has greater than 10,000 reservations for the 4 variations of the Air coming this yr and subsequent yr. The reservations usually are not assured gross sales however embody a $1,000 refundable deposit.

Lucid additionally has pre-sold a restricted 500-vehicle run of a high-end version of the Air, known as the Dream Version. It was priced at $169,000, not together with delivery or the $7,500 federal tax credit score for EVs. The least costly model of the nameplate, known as the Air Pure, begins at $77,400, not together with delivery or the federal tax credit score.

Lucid is accelerating the timeline for its plant in Casa Grande, Ariz., close to Phoenix. The automaker mentioned final week that it’s pulling ahead about $350 million of funding funds earmarked for later phases of building. In consequence, Lucid is combining two coming phases into one, which is able to enhance manufacturing capability for the Air and create a devoted meeting line for the Gravity.

The stepped-up plan is made attainable by Lucid’s pending merger with Churchill Capital Corp. IV, a particular function acquisition firm. That association, which is able to take Lucid public, is predicted to shut within the third quarter, Lucid mentioned.

Lucid reiterated its expectation that current money from the merger will fund its deliberate operations by at the least 2022. By then, it expects to be producing important money by automobile gross sales. It anticipates producing about 53,000 autos a yr by 2023.

“The corporate is selecting to speed up plant capability expansions and to construct a devoted Lucid Gravity normal meeting line, which is predicted to result in greater Lucid Air gross sales volumes in 2023 whereas remaining inside the second-half 2023 Lucid Gravity launch window,” Rawlinson mentioned.

In a present of help for Lucid’s accelerated manufacturing plan, Churchill Capital Corp. inventory rose on the automaker’s information final week.