Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson has shared his plan to launch a extra inexpensive mannequin within the coming years. The California-based start-up presently provides the Air luxurious sedan, whose costs vary from $82,400, excluding taxes and charges, for the Pure variant, to a whopping $249,000 for the Air Sapphire.
In an interview with ABC Information, Rawlinson coated a number of matters in regards to the present automotive panorama, sharing his perspective on vary anxiousness, charging infrastructure, and the model’s objective of launching a comparatively inexpensive EV. He added {that a} high-end product in the beginning was mandatory to draw funding.
The model introduced in June 2023 that it was elevating $3 billion, the vast majority of which might be sourced from Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund – the most important stakeholder in Lucid Motors with over 60 p.c of its shares. Rawlinson then shared the goal worth of its future EV, which he indicated would make it aggressive.
His imaginative and prescient is to launch an EV at round $50,000, “proper within the coronary heart of the Tesla Mannequin 3, Mannequin Y territory.” As per the present costs, that’s near the higher finish of the Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y costs. We’ve seen on a number of events that the Mannequin 3 can price nicely underneath $30,000 after making use of the federal tax credit score and state-level incentives.
Despite the fact that Rawlinson agreed that the world wants a $25,000 EV, a $50,000 mannequin is one of the best the model can obtain between the mid- to late-decade timeframe. Rawlinson, a former Tesla engineer, led the Tesla group that designed the North American Charging Customary (NACS) plug.
He added that it was uncommon for EV prospects to drive over 500 miles in a single day, and expressed the necessity for wider Degree 2 charging infrastructure in areas like condo buildings and road parking heaps. DC quick charging is detrimental to the atmosphere, to the grid, and to the automobile’s battery, he stated, encouraging extra in a single day charging.
Lucid is among the many few automakers to not have adopted the Tesla charging normal but. A number of main manufacturers adopted Ford after it introduced NACS adoption from 2024 with an adapter, and ultimately with a built-in connector. Rawlinson added that he was “open-minded” about it, and was contemplating “the whole lot.”
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