Lucid is the Tesla of electric-vehicle startups, and the stock is set to soar nearly 60%, Bank of America says

• Bank of America initiated coverage of Lucid Motors on Wednesday with a "buy" rating and price target of $30.
• Analysts led by John Murphy compared the newly public company to Tesla and Ferrari.
• Lucid has fallen nearly 25% since going public through a SPAC merger with Churchill Capital in July.

In the vast universe of electric vehicle startups, Lucid Motors is one of the most legitimate.

That's according to Bank of America, which initiated coverage of the EV maker on Wednesday with a "buy" rating and price target of $30. That's a 58.3% price jump based off of Lucid's close on Tuesday.

Analysts led by John Murphy compared the newly public company to Tesla and Ferrari, noting that Lucid's business model "takes a page out of" the books of the two established auto makers.

"We are initiating coverage of Lucid (LCID) with a Buy rating and $30 PO, based on an EV/Sales of ~3.0x and EV/EBITDA of ~37x on our 2025 estimates," said the analysts." These are a premium to TSLA's early trading multiples and to average multiples from EV OEM SPAC peers, but still a notable discount to TSLA's recent trading multiples (forward five-year basis), reflecting our view of LCID as one of the most legitimate start-up EV automakers."

Lucid supplies components for Formula E, the motorsport championship race for electric cars. That part of their business model is similar to Ferrari, which supplies parts for Formula 1, said BofA. Meanwhile, Lucid's business strategy also mirrors Tesla's, the analysts said, in that it launches early vehicles at the luxury level before expanding into the mass market.

Lucid jumped to 5.6% to an intraday high of $20.02 Wednesday. The stock has fallen nearly 25% since Lucid went public through a SPAC merger with Churchill Capital in July.