The Lucid Air sedan, which is anticipated to enter manufacturing subsequent yr at a plant being constructed in Arizona.
Lucid
Electrical vehicle start-up Lucid is touting its all-electric Air sedan as a extra environment friendly, sooner and spacious automobile than the Tesla Mannequin S, a automotive the corporate’s CEO Peter Rawlinson helped develop.
“What we have got is a breakthrough in electrical automobiles,” he instructed media forward of the Air’s unveiling on Wednesday. “That is not simply because of batteries, it is because of an entire host of huge image considering 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 Air – priced “effectively north” of $100,000 – is 17% extra vitality environment friendly than Tesla fashions, permitting for extra vary with fewer cells.
The Air closely resembles earlier prototype fashions and an idea of the automotive, which Lucid initially unveiled in 2016. There are small modifications to the outside, together with bigger aspect mirrors to satisfy rules, 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 automotive is estimated to attain an EPA-rated range of 517 miles on a single cost, based on third celebration 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, based on Rawlinson. Tesla’s quickest automobile reportedly takes 10.four seconds.
“This has by no means been carried out earlier than,” Rawlinson stated. “An electrical automotive which has received 500-mile vary and is the quickest factor on the planet.”
The corporate says the automotive, due to a 900-volt structure, can cost 300 miles in 20 minutes. Its highest charging charge is 2 miles per minute, based on 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 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 the Air will come to market with 113 kilowatt-hour battery pack, however smaller packs with much less vary can be obtainable sooner or later, seemingly lowering the worth of the automobile.
The efficiency and vary of the automobile varies by worth. High-end fashions are anticipated to attain greater than 500 miles and provide as much as 1,080 horsepower. The corporate didn’t disclose particulars in regards to the entry-level mannequin.
Lucid says an enormous differentiator is its inside. The Air presents the area of a giant sedan in a midsize automotive, based on Derek Jenkins, vice chairman of design at Lucid. “That is the place the marvel of Lucid packaging and our area content material is kind of unimaginable,” he stated.
Inside of the Lucid Air sedan.
Lucid
The automobile incorporates a “floating” driver info display behind the steering wheel in addition to an angled management touchscreen within the decrease heart of the sprint.
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 inexpensive automobiles down the road.
The automotive is anticipated to start manufacturing early subsequent yr on the plant being constructed 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 section of manufacturing, is anticipated to have an preliminary automobile manufacturing capability of 34,000 items, which Rawlinson believes will develop to a most capability of 400,000 items towards the top of the last decade.
Lucid is amongst a number of electrical automobile start-ups and “conventional” automakers attempting to compete with Tesla, the worldwide chief in EV gross sales. Up to now, nobody has been capable of rise to the extent of the Silicon Valley automaker.
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 Formulation 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 steer its know-how improvement.
The Lucid Air sedan is the corporate’s first manufacturing automobile.
Lucid,
