Yahoo Autos Lucid Air First Ride | Our closest look yet at the $139,000, 517-mile EV
After an eight-year odyssey and frustrating delays, Lucid Motors (finally) has everything in place to stake an electric claim in America: Cars, an Arizona factory, 2,000 employees and a growing network of “studio” showrooms. Now all Lucid needs is customers, including New Yorkers who’ve been poking curious heads inside the automaker’s just-opened studio in Manhattan’s trendy Meatpacking District.
It doesn’t hurt to park a Lucid Air out front, in gallery-white paint that highlights this Dream Edition’s fresh lines, dramatic Glass Canopy and evidently electric approach. I’m here for a shotgun ride in one of about 110 pre-production models that have rolled off the assembly line in Casa Grande, Ariz. The $169,000, 1,080-horsepower version of the electric sedan appears “this close” to production, with cars currently undergoing final validation for software, craftsmanship and road testing. Lucid executives are determined to shrug off pandemic delays and produce fewer than 1,000 cars — including an initial run of 500 Dream Editions — by year end. The company claims it has more than 9,000 fully refundable reservations.
“We would have liked to have had cars in customers’ hands earlier this year,” said Derek Jenkins, the former Mazda designer and Lucid’s senior vice-president of design and brand. “But getting it right is what’s important, not putting a car out there that’s plagued with issues. We have one shot to make a great first impression.”
Next year brings the real test, with Lucid targeting production of 20,000 cars and a restorative $2.2 billion in revenue. The 20,000-unit goal is an ambitious number for any high-end luxury automobile, let alone an electric newcomer: the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, typically America’s best-selling model that transacts above $100,000, hasn’t sold 20,000 units in America in a single year since 2015. Mercedes found about 12,500 S-Class buyers in 2019, and only 6,600 in a pandemic-rocked 2020.
To get there, Lucid is playing up the Air’s luxury, performance, spaciousness and EV efficiency, including the $139,000 Grand Touring model’s expected 517 miles of driving range. If the EPA concurs, that would be the longest range of any EV in history. Air Pure and Air Touring models (at a respective $77,400 and $95,000) are slated to follow, which will be on closer financial par with Tesla’s Model S. Exactly when those more-affordable models will arrive is a subject of great interest, with Lucid now saying they’ll reach showrooms sometime in 2022.
Pure and Touring versions (with 480 or 620 horsepower) harness single-motor, rear-drive powertrains with 406 miles of estimated range, versus dual-motor, AWD Grand Touring and Dream Editions. Lucid hasn’t settled on a destination charge, but every Air is eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit, in addition to state or local incentives.
“We’re trying to get the people in transition,” from fossil-fueled models that still hold 97% of the market, Jenkins said. “It’s elegant and clearly electric, but not so futuristic or jarring that you’d alienate a traditional Benz or BMW buyer. We want them to see a beautiful car and say, ‘I’d gladly replace my gasoline car with that.’”
To help close the deal, Lucid’s Manhattan studio features a naked display of the Air’s electric skateboard platform. Side-by-side car seats are equipped with HTC virtual-reality headsets for sales prospects. Strapping on a headset with Zak Edson, Lucid’s senior director of retail operations, I configure a virtual Air with an especially handsome backdrop, parked onshore near the Golden Gate Bridge. I watch the sedan’s virtual “Pilot Panel” console screen retract and unfurl from the dash; and admire a 34-inch, high-resolution 5K curved display called the Glass Cockpit. (It’s actually three separate panels, including two touch-sensitive units that bookend the driver’s display).
Lucid is strategically locating its studios in bustling areas with heavy foot traffic, including some malls. The New York studio is Lucid’s seventh, with Chicago, Boston and Phoenix locations slated to open by year-end, and 21 total by mid-2022.
“That covers about 90% of America’s key EV markets and demographics,” Jenkins said.
