The Lucid Air sedan, which is predicted to enter manufacturing subsequent yr at a plant being constructed in Arizona.LucidElectrical automobile sta
The Lucid Air sedan, which is predicted to enter manufacturing subsequent yr at a plant being constructed in Arizona.
Lucid
Electrical automobile start-up Lucid is touting its all-electric Air sedan as a extra environment friendly, quicker and spacious automobile than the Tesla Mannequin S, a automobile the corporate’s CEO Peter Rawlinson helped develop.
“What we have is a breakthrough in electrical vehicles,” he advised media forward of the Air’s unveiling on Wednesday. “That is not simply on account of batteries, it is on account of an entire host of massive image pondering that is added up.”
Rawlinson, who was the Mannequin S chief engineer and vice chairman of engineering at Tesla from 2009 to 2012, claims the high-end model of the Air is 17% extra vitality environment friendly than Tesla fashions, permitting for extra vary with fewer cells.
The Air closely resembles the prototype fashions and an idea of the automobile, which Lucid beforehand unveiled in 2016. The corporate made small modifications to the outside since, together with bigger aspect mirrors to satisfy laws, in addition to curved screens within the inside.
Exterior of the Lucid Air sedan, which debuted Sept. 9, 2020 as the corporate’s first manufacturing automobile.
Lucid
The automobile is estimated to attain an EPA-rated vary of 517 miles on a single cost, in line with third social gathering testing. That simply tops Tesla’s industry-leading 402 miles with a model of the Mannequin S. It can also obtain 1 / 4 mile in 9.9 seconds, in line with Rawlinson. Tesla’s quickest automobile reportedly takes 10.four seconds.
“This has by no means been accomplished earlier than,” Rawlinson mentioned. “An electrical automobile which has obtained 500-mile vary and is the quickest factor on the planet.”
The corporate says the automobile, because of a 900-volt structure, can cost 300 miles in 20 minutes. Its highest charging price is 2 miles per minute, in line with Lucid.
Beginning pricing for the Air will vary from about $80,000 for a base mannequin to $169,000 for a limited-volume “Dream Version.”
The corporate plans to promote a Grand Touring model of the Air with a 517-mile vary for $139,000, and a Touring model of the sedan with a 406-mile vary for $95,000.
The efficiency and vary of the automobile varies by worth. High-end fashions supply as much as 1,080 horsepower. Lucid plans to make the Air in black, white and gold.
The upper priced automobiles are anticipated to go on sale within the second quarter of subsequent yr, adopted by decrease priced fashions within the fourth quarter and into 2022.
Lucid says an enormous differentiator for any model of the Air is its inside. The Air provides the house of a big sedan in a midsize automobile, in line with Derek Jenkins, vice chairman of design at Lucid. “That is the place the marvel of Lucid packaging and our house content material is sort of unimaginable,” he mentioned.
Inside of the Lucid Air sedan.
Lucid
The automobile includes a “floating” driver data display screen behind the steering wheel in addition to an angled management touchscreen within the decrease middle of the sprint.
The corporate says the Lucid Air “frunk” can match as a lot cargo as 4 of any competitor’s.
Rawlinson expects the Air to be the catalyst for a lineup of future all-electric automobiles, together with an SUV beginning manufacturing in early 2023 and extra reasonably priced automobiles down the road. On Wednesday night time, the corporate shared photographs of its SUV, dubbed the “Gravity,” nonetheless in improvement. It didn’t talk about specs for the SUV, nonetheless.
Lucid Motors SUV
Lucid Motors
Executives additionally revealed that Lucid is growing an “ESS” product line of stationary vitality storage methods for dwelling, enterprise and grid-scale use. The technique is paying homage to Tesla’s, minus the SolarCity acquisition and entry into photovoltaics.
However not like Tesla, Lucid isn’t constructing or managing its personal electrical automobile charging infrastructure presently. As an alternative, the corporate has partnered with Electrify America. Early prospects who purchase the Lucid Air will get three years of free charging at Electrify America stations, the corporate mentioned.
The Air is predicted to start manufacturing early subsequent yr at its plant, which continues to be below building in Casa Grande, Arizona, southeast of Phoenix. Manufacturing was scheduled to start late this yr however was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The $700 million facility, together with $300 million for the primary part of manufacturing, is predicted to have an preliminary automobile manufacturing capability of 34,000 models, which Rawlinson believes will develop to a most capability of 400,000 models towards the tip of the last decade.
Lucid is amongst a number of electrical automobile start-ups and “conventional” automakers trying to compete with Tesla.
Lucid was based in 2007 as Atieva, a reputation it now makes use of for its engineering and tech arm that provides batteries to electrical racing circuit Components E. The corporate first centered on electrical battery know-how earlier than altering its title and shifting to an electric-vehicle producer in 2016, three years after Rawlinson joined the corporate to guide its know-how improvement.
The Lucid Air sedan is the corporate’s first manufacturing automobile.
Lucid,