Lucid Motors is exploring selling cars in China, where the US electric vehicle (EV) startup previously hired an industry veteran to prepare for the endeavor.

If Lucid does expand into China, the US company would be entering one of the world's most competitive EV markets, the CNBC report noted, adding that Lucid would be competing with a host of car companies such as BYD, Nio, and US giant Tesla.

Lucid was co-founded in 2007 by Bernard Tse, former vice president and director of Tesla, and Sam Weng, a former Oracle executive. In December 2016, Lucid's first production EV, the Lucid Air, was launched.

In July 2021, Lucid went public on the Nasdaq through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and has a current market capitalization of $14 billion.

On June 7, Chinese media outlet Jiemian reported that Zhu Jiang, a former executive at Nio, Ford, and Baidu's car-making unit Jidu Auto, has joined Lucid to head up its China operations.

China is the world's largest auto market, with annual sales of around 20 million vehicles over the past few years. The country has also become the world's largest market for new energy vehicles (NEVs), which are contributing more than 30 percent of monthly car sales.

In the January-August period, China's retail sales of passenger cars totaled 13.199 million units, up 2 percent year-on-year, according to preliminary data released yesterday by the China Passenger Car Association.