(Yicai Global) Dec. 15 -- Lucid Motors is recruiting staff in China, after the US electric vehicle maker kicked off a plan to enter the Chinese market as early as next year.

Lucid Motors recently posted job adverts on a Chinese social media platform for positions including software and localization engineers, public policy and legal counsels, and others in the digitalization, logistics, supply, and residential charging product fields. The New Jersey-based firm hired a human resources head for China in May.

The automaker will build new factories in China and the Middle East in around 2025, Chief Executive Peter Rawlinson said in November last year. Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory became an important global production base for the US EV maker, helping it cut costs and boost competitiveness thanks to lower prices, Rawlinson noted.

Founded in 2007 by former Tesla executives, Lucid Motors was initially named Atieva and was mainly focused on EV battery pack manufacturing. It entered car production in 2013, renaming itself three years later.

After the rebranding, the firm released its first four-seat luxury electric sedan, the Ludic Air, priced from USD90,000. With plans to start mass production in 2018, the model only started being delivered last year because of a funding shortfall.

Lucid Motors has been described as Tesla’s biggest competitor, with the Lucid Air taking on the Model S. The firm is developing a next-generation EV platform to make cars priced at about USD50,000 apiece.

The global auto chip shortage and supply chain issues led Lucid Motors to slash its delivery target for this year to between 6,000 to 7,000 vehicles from 20,000. But in the first three quarters of 2022, the company handed over just 2,437 cars. Its net loss widened 28 percent to USD670 million in the third quarter from a year earlier.

Judging from Tesla’s development, new energy vehicle startups need to reach annual sales of 30,000 to 40,000 units to survive and 70,000 to 100,000 to make a profit, according to a report from Soochow Securities.

Similar to Chinese NEV startups, Lucid Motors also listed on the stock market through a special purpose acquisition company in July last year. Its share price [NASDAQ: LCID] closed down 3.9 percent at USD7.68 in New York yesterday, giving it a market capitalization of USD12.9 billion.

Editor: Futura Costaglione