This week, Lucid Motors unveiled its expanded manufacturing unit, known as AMP-1 in Casa Grande, Arizona. The addition brings the manufacturing unit dimension from 800,000 sq. toes to over 3.8 million, including an entire new manufacturing line meant to provide the forthcoming Gravity EV crossover. After all, that was the primary draw right here. However amid the speeches from Lucid executives and hobnobbing amongst Arizona politicians, Lucid itself slipped one other piece of data out about its subsequent undertaking, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it type teaser in a presentation given by CEO Peter Rawlinson.
Lucid’s once-rumored midsize automobile undertaking is coming fairly quickly, a truth confirmed by two of the most important individuals within the model’s management. “That is very actual, this isn’t some [theoretical], we-might-be-working-on-something-soon. No, we’ve been engaged on midsize for fairly some time,” Rawlinson mentioned.
Get Absolutely Charged
Lucid’s growth plans
Lucid’s EV tech is extraordinarily spectacular (and so is the Air’s vary), however the startup had an up-and-down gross sales yr in 2023 and sometimes discovered itself dealing with intense money burn. However the brand new Gravity SUV will assist get extra Lucid EVs on the highway, as will this new midsize automobile—each of which the corporate wants for future survival.
The Lucid midsize undertaking is extraordinarily essential. At the moment, its lineup consists of the Air sedan—by all accounts, among the best EVs available on the market—however given its massive sedan kind issue and a price ticket that may attain properly into the six-figure vary, its market is considerably restricted.
Individuals are determined for extra fairly priced EVs, particularly in the event that they’re crossover-shaped. Likewise, Lucid desperately must get quantity.
The midsize undertaking, which has a focused beginning value of $50,000, needs to be the automobile to just do that. Consider this as a Tesla Mannequin 3 or Mannequin Y competitor, albeit marginally dearer than the Mannequin 3’s present $38,990 base value.
Till now, undertaking midsize was largely restricted to semi-confirmed rumors, obscure statements, and social media rumblings. But, throughout certainly one of Rawlinson’s speeches at Lucid’s manufacturing unit growth ribbon chopping, an untitled slide with a veiled silhouette was proven to the viewers. There’s not a lot to establish from the silhouette, the automobile is a two-box design, nevertheless it’s not clear if it’s a crossover, hatchback, or some combination that straddles the 2.
Lucid senior vice chairman of design and model Derek Jenkins, did affirm that work was actively underway. “We’ve received to get [the Gravity] on the highway first, however we’re capable of lastly work on a number of [vehicle] packages, in sync,” Jenkins mentioned.
Jenkins informed us that he’s spent the final 18 months engaged on Lucid’s midsize program. “The midsize program goes to the beneficiary, of all of the learnings of effectivity, efficiency, house, packaging, efficiency, and superb experiences which have gone into the [Gravity and Air], and we’re going to carry all that studying right down to a extra mainstream, accessible product priced on the candy spot of the market,” he continued.
All of those statements observe with previous claims Lucid executives have made—together with to InsideEVs—concerning the model eager to go for extra quantity and mass enchantment. In an interview final November, Jenkins even mentioned the corporate is “not simply right here to make luxurious automobiles.”
Equally, Rawlinson additionally confirmed that he was deeply concerned within the strategy of Lucid’s midsized automobile. Rawlinson mentioned that the car’s closing styling wasn’t confirmed, however Lucid’s engineering groups in addition to its design and styling studio had been engaged on the undertaking. Rawlinson informed us that he too has finished design critiques of clay fashions and prototypes with Lucid’s design staff, as just lately as just a few weeks previous to the Lucid manufacturing unit growth ribbon-cutting.
Though Rawlinson and Jenkins had been adamant that they’re arduous at work on that subsequent mannequin, neither would give an actual date as to after we can count on to see the fruits of Lucid’s labor. Nonetheless, a dialog with Rawlinson does give us an concept of after we can count on one thing, offered we do the maths.
“It takes about three-and-a-half years to do a automobile… that’s how lengthy the Tesla Mannequin S took, the Air was a bit of shorter as a result of we actually, actually pushed, however that’s how lengthy the Gravity took, and the midsize is about that as properly,” mentioned Rawlinson, who served as that Tesla’s chief engineer.
40 Photographs
Rawlinson wouldn’t outright affirm something, however he did say that some estimates within the media had been nearer than others. “The tooling to make the stampings, you’ve received to permit 15 to 16 months for these issues to be made, so that you’ve received to launch the ultimate design no less than 15 to 16 months earlier than you may make it,” Rawlinson mentioned.
The automobile’s design hasn’t been finalized, based on Rawlinson, but when the model is sticking to its three-ish yr timeline, the design is probably going near completed. If Jenkins has been engaged on the automobile for 18 months, and Rawlinson says it takes roughly three and a half years to totally develop a automobile, that might put Lucid’s midsize automobile on roads someday subsequent summer time, on the very earliest.
After all, we’ll possible see some kind of teaser earlier than the automobile formally goes on sale, maybe by the top of this yr.
Contact the creator: [email protected]
correction 1/26/2024 11:11AM – Lucid AMP-1 manufacturing unit edited to three.8 million sq. toes, from 2.8 million.