After announcing several deals over the past few weeks to build some credibility over the prospect of bringing its first electric vehicle to production, Lucid Motors, formerly known as Atieva, unveiled its luxury sedan, now called ‘Lucid Air,’ in the Bay Area today.
There are not many surprises about the vehicle’s performance and specs, as the company has talked about the powertrain on several occasions in the past through its development program in the ‘Edna’ van, but now we get to see the design.
Lucid hit the mark with design. The camouflaged prototype that the company was parading around in the last few weeks looked boxy, but the final version looks quite elegant. It’s not a big sedan, but Lucid’s platform pushed everything to the edges of the car, leaving a roomy interior.
And the interior is where Lucid’s design truly shines. There’s nothing I can write that will do it justice, so here’s a gallery:
To be fair, those are press pictures; the prototype unveiled to the press today had a stripped interior.
As for the specs, Lucid is talking about two battery pack options: 100 kWh and 130 kWh. As we reported earlier this week, the company claims that this is enabled through a new battery cell they developed with Samsung SDI. It will bring the range of the car to up to 400 miles.
The dual motor powertrain delivers 1,000 hp and a 0 to 60 mph acceleration in 2.5 seconds, according to the company. That’s equivalent to the current version of the Tesla Model S P100D – though Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that there’s a software update coming that will bring the 0-60 time down to 2.4 seconds.
The Lucid Air is certainly not a family car, and we wouldn’t expect it to compete directly with, for example, the Tesla Model S—it’s going to be a popular comparison, as sedan + electric = Tesla in the minds of many consumers currently—but it is an interesting “executive sedan.” The price reflects that since Lucid is talking about “more than $100,000” for a model with decent options.
The first 255 cars, which the company is referring to as ‘Launch Edition’, will be fully equipped and cost around $160,000. Lucid Motors opened the first reservations for those cars today and it is asking for a pricey $25,500 deposit. Keep in mind that Tesla was asking $40,000 for ‘Signature reservations’ of the Model S and X – though the company had already delivered a product at that point.
The company claims that a less expensive version with a standard backseat is also coming. It could start around the same price of the Model S: ~$65,000. The company is currently taking reservations for those with a $2,500 deposit.
Lucid aims to bring the vehicle to production in 2018 at its upcoming factory in Arizona, which was announced last month. It remains to be seen if they will be able to secure the financing for the ~$700 million project, but the unveiling of the Lucid Air could encourage investor, if not, I guess they will regret the name ‘Air’.
Here’s also a gallery of the exterior, which less impressive than the stunning interior, but beautiful nonetheless:
Let us know what you think in the comment section below:
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