Sonora and Arizona announce 700 million dollar auto industry partnership

The governors of Sonora, Claudia Pavlovich, and Arizona, Doug Ducey, announced a partnership investment of 700 million dollars in the U.S. auto-manufacturer, Lucid Motors. The investment will benefit both states, in what the governors called an economic partnership zone.

Lucid Motors' new plant will be built in Casa Grande, Arizona, and the plant will only use suppliers located in Sonora.

Lucid Motors expects to begin production of its first electric car in 2018, and create 2,000 new jobs by 2022 in the process.

Pavlovich emphasized that when two binational states demonstrate that they can work together, they attract more investment and improve their competitiveness.

Doug Ducey said that the announcement of this investment is the result of a collaborative effort between both states over a several month period.

He also thanked Governor Pavlovich who he said “has been instrumental during this whole process; I could not have asked for a better regional partner to work with to advance the Arizona-Sonora relationship.”

Lucid Motors Director of Global Manufacturing Brian Barron said that in Phoenix, his team has access to an excellent talent pool, visionary institutions and a strong regional supply chain that includes the state of Sonora in Mexico.