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Every investor wants to find the next Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA). Shares have risen more than 20,000% since 2010. A single $5,000 investment would have turned you into a millionaire if you had invested early.
On many metrics, Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) appears to be a worthy successor. There are two reasons in particular that Lucid could mimic Tesla's rise, minting many new millionaires along the way. But there's one catch that every potential investor should also be aware of in order to maximize your potential gains.
2 reasons this company might be the next Tesla
We must first understand what made Tesla so successful in the first place. Luckily, the company released a "Master Plan" nearly 20 years ago outlining its exact strategy. Written by Elon Musk, it included three simple steps:
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Build a sports car
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Use that money to build an affordable car
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Use that money to build an even more affordable car
In hindsight, Tesla executed this plan flawlessly. It released its powerful yet limited-sales-potential sports car, the Roadster. It reinvested its funds and growing reputation into two luxury models that were a bit more affordable: The Model X and the Model S. Then it used those funds, leveraging its even greater reputation, into two vehicles affordable to the masses: The Model Y and the Model 3.
It's still early, but Lucid is well on its way to replicating this strategy. Currently, it has two high-priced models: The Lucid Air and the Lucid Gravity. These models roughly translate to Tesla's Model X and Model S variants. But just like Tesla, Lucid is planning even more affordable models. Instead of just two models, however, it's planning three -- all expected to debut under $50,000. Production is expected to begin in 2026, but anyone familiar with electric vehicle (EV) production timelines should expect a more conservative launch date, perhaps sometime in early 2027.
There's more to like about Lucid than just its ability to replicate Tesla's growth strategy for vehicle launches. Lucid has also done a great job catching up to Tesla in terms of research and development, at least if you believe management's take on the situation. According to Lucid's former CEO, the company is now "many years ahead" of other EV manufacturers -- Tesla included -- when it comes to next-gen technology investment.
While I'm not totally buying management's take given Tesla's gigantic capital and data advantage, Lucid has clearly put its money where its mouth is, investing more in research and development over the past 12 months than its entire sales base over that period. On a percentage of sales basis, Lucid is reinvesting far more than Tesla at this point, despite its significantly smaller size.