Lucid plans EVs at more affordable levels

Lucid executives have said they are developing a smaller, less expensive vehicle on a new platform, but haven’t offered details. Lucid Group, majority- owned by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, is planning a factory in Saudi Arabia and has a deal to sell 100,000 vehicles to the Saudi government over 10 years.

Like Tesla and Rivian, Lucid’s business plan is to first make more expensive vehicles to fund the company until it can make more mainstream luxury ones. Obvious targets for Lucid would be the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla’s best-selling vehicles.

Gravity: Lucid has been preparing its Arizona factory for its next chapter with the Gravity SUV. The model will likely leverage the automaker’s in-house battery technology that’s leading the industry. The Lucid Air has the longest range of any EV at 520 miles and is the most efficient electric vehicle in its segment. It also has a 900-volt architecture (compared with 400 volts for Tesla) for ultrafast charging on road trips. Lucid hasn’t released details on the Gravity, except that it’s using the same cutting-edge platform as the Air. So big numbers for range, efficiency and power are expected by analysts.

Lucid is expected to unveil the Gravity and open the order banks this year or early next year for delivery in 2024.

Air: Lucid launched its first vehicle, the Air executive sedan, with the limited-run Dream Edition, starting at $169,000 before shipping. Those started trickling out last year from its Arizona factory, which has ramped more slowly than the EV startup had first forecast. The second Air trims delivered this year were the $139,000 Grand Touring and the $179,000 Grand Touring Performance.

As summer ended, Lucid was still planning to deliver the Touring at $107,400 and the Pure at $87,400 before the end of 2022. But with 37,000 reservations reported as of August and production of just 1,405 vehicles in the first half, it’s going to take the company a while to catch up to demand.