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Recently, there was a senior management change in the Chinese auto industry that attracted widespread attention.

The Korean luxury brand Genesis announced that Zhu Jiang has become the new CEO of its Chinese sales company. Taking a look at the resume of this celebrity executive, it can be said to be extremely rich.

BMW、MINI、Lexus、NIO、Ford, leaving his trace in all of them.

The most surprising part is that before joining Genesis, Zhu Jiang had been working for the company known as "TeslaLucid, the "killer", serves as its first managing director in China.

At that time, it was widely speculated that this new American car-making company was planning to enter China with all its strength.

However, contrary to expectations, Lucid has not made many substantive moves in the past year, perhaps due to various internal and external troubles. To make matters worse, with Zhu Jiang's departure, it is speculated that its overseas expansion journey has been stranded.

Of course, speaking rationally and objectively, given the current intensity of competition in the Chinese auto market, even if Lucid is able to enter the market, it is likely to be in trouble in the end. In other words, this land, which still contains huge "bonuses", will not give any chance to latecomers who are not strong in risk resistance.

So, someone will definitely ask: What happened to the protagonist of today's article? As for the answer, we can get a glimpse of it by combining it with Lucid's just-released second-quarter financial report.

Without further ado, here are the results.

In the second quarter, Lucid's operating income was $200 million, a year-on-year increase of 32%. Further breakdown, revenue from North America was $155 million, compared to $138 million in the same period last year; revenue from the Middle East was $40.65 million, compared to $6.08 million in the same period last year; revenue from other overseas countries was $4.84 million, compared to $7.27 million in the same period last year.

Correspondingly, Lucid's operating loss in the second quarter was $787 million, compared with $838 million in the same period last year; its net loss was $643 million, compared with $764 million in the same period last year. As of June 30, 2024, Lucid held $1.354 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

Looking back at the entire first half of the year, Lucid's operating income was $373 million, a year-on-year increase of 24%. Among them, revenue from North America was $270 million, a 5.6% decrease from $286 million in the same period last year; revenue from the Middle East was $95.23 million, compared with $6.75 million in the same period last year; revenue from other overseas countries was $8.24 million, compared with $7.27 million in the same period last year.

Lucid's costs and expenses in the first half of the year were $1.891 billion, compared with $1.91 billion in the same period last year. Its operating loss was $1.517 billion, compared with $1.61 billion in the same period last year; its net loss was $1.324 billion, compared with $1.544 billion in the same period last year.

At the same time, it is worth noting that Lucid delivered only 2,394 vehicles in the second quarter and 4,361 vehicles in the first half of the year. Faced with such a boring report card, it can only be said that the protagonist of today's article is still stuck in the quagmire and cannot extricate himself.

Looking back at the history of this new American car-making force, it, like Tesla, was born in California, a place that has nurtured many new American car companies.

The predecessor Atieva was founded as early as 2007 and was focused on producing batteries and power systems for other automakers. In October 2016, it was officially renamed "Lucid Motors", and began to focus on the vehicle field, and announced that it would develop a pure electric high-performance luxury model.

At the same time, Rawlinson, who was Tesla's vice president of engineering, was appointed as the company's CEO. That year, Tesla began to build its own factory in Arizona.

Since then, after a long period of sedimentation, 2021 can be regarded as a very important node in Lucid's development path.

Because it has accomplished two major things. At the beginning of the year, it successfully went public on the Nasdaq through a merger and acquisition, achieving a transformation at the capital level. At the end of the year, it started delivering its first mass-produced model, Lucid Air, with comprehensive parameter configuration and price positioning directly benchmarkedTesla Model S。

But the highlight moment didn't last long.

The cruel reality soon gave the protagonist of today's article a heavy slap in the face. Starting from 2022, Lucid ushered in an increasingly extreme stress test.

Musk once gave a piece of advice that is the most true portrayal of his subsequent situation: "It takes a lot of pain to start a new car company, and it is very difficult to turn losses into profits. What I see from these companies now is that they are jumping into the abyss and trying to expand production on a large scale without ever building a car. This is crazy."

If we turn our attention back again, after several years of continuous development, like most of its peers, Lucid cannot support itself and still needs to rely on external "blood transfusions" to survive.

However, compared with those brands that gradually burned out, it is undoubtedly lucky.

Why is Lucid lucky? It is because it found a financial sponsor who is strong enough to support it in such a turbulent environment.

In fact, as early as the first quarter of this year, this new American car manufacturer officially announced that it had reached an agreement with its major shareholder. Ayar Third Investment Company, a subsidiary of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), will purchase $1 billion in convertible preferred shares. The funds will be used by Lucid for general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures and operating funds.

In this regard, Rawlinson, the company's "helmsman", said, "We are very pleased to have the continued strong support of PIF as we work to consolidate our position as a leading global electric vehicle technology company."

He quickly added: “We continue to make long-term investments in technology and vertically integrated manufacturing capabilities, with PIF’s support being a key advantage. With their support, we will remain focused on accelerating growth through vehicle deliveries, executing key business initiatives, maintaining a relentless focus on costs, and launching the game-changing Gravity SUV later this year.”

It is undeniable that the words are very beautiful. But as an observer, combined with Lucid's financial situation, we clearly know how difficult its situation is. And with the arrival of $1 billion, Musk once again started to complain, "The Saudi tycoons are the only reason they can survive."

Indeed, this is the bloody fact.

But what was unexpected, and even made many competitors jealous, was that Lucid continued to officially announce at the same time as the release of its second-quarter financial report that its largest shareholder, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), had provided it with another US$1.5 billion in funding.

In this round of investment, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) will purchase $750 million of convertible preferred shares and provide a $750 million deferred loan through its subsidiary investment company Ayar Third Investment Company. According to relevant statistics, the cumulative investment of this "financial sponsor" has reached an exaggerated $8 billion so far.

Lucid will mainly use the latest $1.5 billion to mass-produce and deliver the Lucid Gravity SUV mentioned by Rawlinson.

However, with a price of about $80,000 and a high-end market positioning, it still seems difficult to alleviate the thorny dilemma of this new American car-making force. In the long run, Lucid is designing a smaller and more affordable model, which is planned to be put into production in a new factory in Saudi Arabia in 2026.

In addition, in the second quarter financial report, Rawlinson also said: "The company plans to produce 9,000 new cars this year." For reference, Lucid's production last year was about 8,500 vehicles.

The progress is almost negligible. But even so, with the continuous assistance of the "financial sponsor", the protagonist of today's article at least does not need to worry too much about finding money.

Just last month, Rivian, another American new car manufacturer that was suffering huge losses, also announced the establishment of a joint venture with Volkswagen Group and received a $5 billion investment from the latter.

When it comes to "competing for daddy's favor", one has to admire their extraordinary abilities.