Pasadena’s Department of Transportation is seeking authority from the City Council to execute a contract with Lucid Group USA, which manufactures the much-touted new electric vehicle Lucid Air, to lease nine reserved parking spaces in the City-owned Schoolhouse Garage for use as a location to park and charge vehicles the company uses for test drives.
Published reports describe the Luicid Air as the car industry’s first serious challenger to Tesla’s dominance in the high-end luxury EV market.
Schoolhouse Garage was identified as the most feasible location because of its close proximity to Lucid Motors’ planned showroom on Colorado Blvd. in Old Pasadena and the amount of space available in the garage.
The contract will be for an initial five-year term at $24,784 per year, or $123,930 for five years. The annual amount will be recalculated at the beginning of each additional five-year term, the Transportation Department said in a preliminary report.
The recommendation has been endorsed by the City Council’s Finance Committee and will be taken up as an action item in Monday’s City Council meeting.
In January, the City approved a Minor Use Conditional Use Permit (MCUP) permit for Lucid Motors to open an Old Pasadena sales office. The new office would be located on the first floor of a 4,386 square-foot three-story commercial building previously occupied by a fast-food restaurant at 32 West Colorado Blvd.
The MCUP is required for Vehicle Services-Sales and Leasing land uses within Old Pasadena and is intended to maintain and reinforce the historic character of the area and support the area’s long-term viability as a regional retail and entertainment attraction.
The City started negotiations with Lucid Motors in April to look for a suitable parking and EV charging garage.
Get our daily Pasadena newspaper in your email box. Free.
Get all the latest Pasadena news, more than 10 fresh stories daily, 7 days a week at 7 a.m.
One thought on “City Department Wants to Lease Parking Spaces for Lucid Motors’ Test Drive Cars”
What is the city doing? Why would the city have any business preferring one EV company over any other? The reporting of the PR “hype” from other “publications” about this firms place in competition with Tesla is “filler”, and just bad journalism. This whole thing stinks of another really “hip and cool” deal with a vendor by the “hip and cool” transportation department, and not necessarily a sound decision in the public’s interest. How many spaces should be set aside for BMW, or Volkswagen, or Cadillac (don’t they now offer a “high end” electric vehicle too?)? How much revenue would the parking spaces generate and how much in sales for the other businesses in Old Pasadena would be lost?