Every new American EV manufacturing seedling is immediately touted as a Tesla competitor. But with the billion-dollar injection of capital by way of a deal with the Saudis confirmed toward the end of 2018, EV startup Lucid may well be positioned to be a serious contender.

The bucket of cash enabled Lucid to start express-building an 800K+ square-foot production facility in Arizona in the early part of this year. And, in a one-two punch to close out 2019, the company first revealed a beta test of the Air sedan, and then announced that the books are open, and a $1K deposit buys consumers a delivery slot for an Air when the EV finally blows down the highways of America next year.

The beta brings the Air’s R&D a step away from completion, and the sedan a hair’s breadth from production. The fundamental numbers look awfully good—1,000 horsepower, a top speed of over 200 MPH, 400 miles of range, and a not-bad ~$60K base sticker—and Lucid has produced 80 Air beta version cars that will act as experimental models as the company moves from final prototype to production version.

As a means of drumming up business, the low deposit figure may well help; in 2017, the company had initially offered spots in the Air queue at $2.5K, but considering the fact that they could not at that time distinguish themselves in any meaningful way from the number of EV startups clamoring for attention, it might have been a lot to ask. With a billion and a new factory, the story has changed. Dropping the ante from 4% of the base sticker to less than 2% is smart business for striking while the iron’s hot and building some substantial momentum ahead of first deliveries.

The Arizona factory is located in Casa Grande, a city in the southern middle of the state that also boasts a connection to Tesla: the city was jockeying to be home to Tesla’s first Gigafactory, which eventually went to big little Reno. Ah, well. All in the EV family, as far as Casa Grande is concerned.