American EV maker Lucid will launch in the UK within the next two years before expanding its range with an affordable mid-sized model line to rival the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y.
Lucid launched the Air saloon in 2021 and earlier this month revealed its long-awaited SUV sibling, the Gravity, which are both priced from around $80,000 (£64,000) and aimed at the luxury end of the market.
But the next model line to be introduced will take the brand boldly into more mainstream territory, with CEO Peter Rawlinson suggesting to Autocar a starting price of “about $50,000” (£40,000) and laying bare his ambition to drastically increase Lucid’s sales volumes.
“We have to go with volume, because that’s what we’re about,” he said, explaining that Lucid had to launch the high-end Air and Gravity first because of the costs involved in setting up a new car company.
Details of what to expect from the next Lucid remain under wraps, but Rawlinson did suggest that it would appear much earlier than has previously been reported.
He said: “I’ve formally stated mid-late decade, and that has been completely misquoted as the end of the decade – 2030. What I mean is ‘not 2025’. It’s a few years away, but it’s close. It takes three and a half years to do a car, and we’ve started… and that wasn’t yesterday.”
Rawlinson – who previously led development of the Tesla Model S while serving as chief engineer at the pioneering EV maker – also revealed to Autocar that the new products are designed to take on his former employer.
He said: “The mid-sized [line] is going to be overtly a Tesla competitor – Model 3, Model Y. This is the first time I’ve ever said it: we’re going to compete in that market – high-volume family car.
“And how can we compete? Because we’ve got the most advanced technology, which means we can go farther with less battery, and the battery is the most high-cost item of an electric car. So if you can go a certain distance with less battery, you can make that car more cheaply than anyone else.”
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Interesting that he says there are two really big markets for luvury EVs, bigger than anywhere else, and the UK is one of those. The cost of living crisis really doesn't touch a significant number of people here it seems.
So they forgot to include 73 countries and 2.2 billion people in their original design planning...
As well as forgetting to benchmark the activities of their largest competitor...
Why do US companies have such 'blinkers' on when it comes to the rest of the world?
If they say two years, that means four years, and that's if they see demand slowing in their existing markets.