Lucid Motors Unveils its Much-Anticipated New Electric Vehicle

Lucid Motors, which seeks to set new standards for sustainable transportation with its advanced luxury electric vehicles (EV), unveiled on Thursday production details for the highly anticipated Lucid Air. Having already set new industry benchmarks in the EV and luxury segments in key areas related to performance, efficiency, and design, deliveries of this new pure-electric luxury sedan will start in spring of 2021.

“Lucid Motors is driven to make the electric car better, and by doing so, help move the entire industry forward towards accelerated adoption of sustainable mobility. The goal of this relentless approach to developing the world’s most advanced electric vehicle is to benefit all mankind with sustainable, zero emission transportation, and to also attract new customers to the world of EVs,” said Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, Lucid Motors.

“With the Lucid Air, we have created a halo car for the entire industry, one which shows the advancements that are possible by pushing the boundaries of EV technology and performance to new levels.”

The Lucid Air is the result of a revolutionary approach to automotive packaging called the Lucid Space Concept, which capitalizes upon the miniaturization of Lucid’s in-house developed EV drivetrain to optimize interior cabin space. The concept is central to the architecture of the Lucid Electric Advanced Platform (LEAP) upon which the Lucid Air, and forthcoming Lucid vehicles, will be built. It’s a holistic, clean-sheet approach to advanced EV construction, without using existing “off the shelf” solutions so often seen in EVs from legacy automakers.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) had in 2018 invested more than $1 billion in Lucid Motors. This has allowed the fund to play a pioneering role in developing future industries.

By simultaneously making smaller yet more powerful electric motors and dramatically improving the packaging of the entire electric powertrain, Lucid is able to reclaim that space for passengers and their comfort. This extends the philosophy of hyper-efficiency embedded in every facet of Lucid Air, from energy to spatial efficiency, delivering an unprecedented combination of range, practicality, performance, and luxury, the company said in a statement.

The Space Concept also contributes to the subtly different and modern proportions for the Lucid Air, without relying on any traditional automotive design cues, instead delivering a beautiful car that looks entirely distinctive on the road.

“When we embarked on this journey at Lucid Motors and the development of our first vehicle, the Lucid Air, we refused to compromise. We decided early on that we were going to pursue every facet of performance, innovation, and luxury,” said Derek Jenkins, VP of Design, Lucid Motors. “The result is that we are building the best car in the world, the numbers simply speak for themselves. What’s more, we did all this without ever sacrificing the beauty of the Lucid Air, which will stand as the first example of a car being created from a clean sheet to leverage the total design freedom that an EV architecture provides.”

“The Lucid brand was created with a progressive, post-luxury mindset ideally suited to meet the rapidly evolving needs of the most progressive buyers. We are heading into a future where conscious consumers see sustainability, advanced design, and technical innovation as equally important to more traditional luxury values of quality and craftsmanship,” said Jenkins. “We consider Lucid to be at the forefront in a shift in consumer preferences toward new brands that offer direct relationships alongside products featuring entirely new levels of technology, performance, and design.”

With up to 1,080 horsepower available in a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive architecture, the Lucid Air is able to achieve quarter-mile times as quick as 9.9 seconds on a consistent, repeatable basis. To date, it is the only electric sedan able to achieve a quarter-mile time under 10 seconds. The power of the Lucid Air is complemented by an available extended-range capability that achieves an estimated EPA range of up to 517 miles on a single charge.

When it arrives to market, the Lucid Air will also be the fastest charging electric vehicle ever offered, with the capability to charge at rates of up to 20 miles per minute when connected to a DC Fast Charging network. For owners charging their Lucid Air in real-world conditions on the road, that can translate into 300 miles of range in just 20 minutes of charging.

Lucid Motors drew upon 10 years of experience and over 20 million miles of real-world testing in creating its in-house developed, compact 113kWh extended-range battery pack. Further developed in the world’s leading electric racing championship, Lucid’s race-proven battery technology excels with a custom Battery Management System (BMS), clever cell packaging, and world-class energy density.

The Lucid Air is the world’s most aero-efficient luxury car, with tests completed at Windshear’s advanced rolling-road wind tunnel verifying a coefficient of drag of 0.21.

The Lucid Air’s advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), Lucid DreamDrive, is a first-of-its-kind platform combining the most comprehensive sensor suite on the market with a cutting-edge Driver Monitoring System (DMS), all standard on the Lucid Air Dream Edition. It is the first system of its kind to offer 32 sensors, covering vision, radar and ultrasonics, plus the world’s first standard high-resolution LIDAR in an EV, all working alongside the standard DMS and geo-fenced HD mapping to provide the safest possible approach to Level 2 and Level 3 driver assistance technologies.

The Lucid Air will be available initially in North America, offered in four model ranges: The Air, the starting point for the lineup, available in 2022 and starting below $80,000; the well-equipped Air Touring model, available late 2021, from $95,000; the fully equipped Air Grand Touring, available mid-2021, from $139,000; the all-inclusive, limited-volume Air Dream Edition, available spring 2021, at $169,000.

Reservations are open now for customers across the US and Canada, as well as in select countries in Europe and the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Production at the Lucid Motors factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, will begin in the coming months, with deliveries of the Lucid Air to North American customers to commence in spring of 2021.

PIF’s investment in Lucid Motors reflects its goals to expand and diversify its international investments. This investment also supports the efforts emphasized in Vision 2030 to build a sustainable future economy that is environmentally-friendly.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said Mexico won't be required to pay tariffs on any goods that fall under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade until April 2, but made no mention of a reprieve for Canada despite his Commerce secretary saying a comparable exemption was likely.

"After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This Agreement is until April 2nd."

Earlier on Thursday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the one-month reprieve on hefty tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and Canada that has been granted to automotive products is likely to be extended to all products that comply with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.

Lutnick told CNBC he expected Trump to announce that extension on Thursday, a day after exempting automotive goods from the 25% tariffs he slapped on imports from Canada and Mexico earlier in the week.

Trump "is going to decide this today," Lutnick said, adding "it's likely that it will cover all USMCA-compliant goods and services."

"So if you think about it this way, if you lived under Donald Trump's US-Mexico-Canada agreement, you will get a reprieve from these tariffs now. If you chose to go outside of that, you did so at your own risk, and today is when that reckoning comes," he said.

Nonetheless, Trump's social media post made no mention of a reprieve for Canada, the other party to the USMCA deal that Trump negotiated during his first term as president.

Lutnick said his "off the cuff" estimate was that more than 50% of the goods imported from the two US neighbors - also its largest two trading partners - were compliant with the USMCA deal that Trump negotiated during his first term as president.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Lutnick's comments "promising" in remarks to reporters in Canada.

"That aligns with some of the conversations that we have been having with administration officials, but I'm going to wait for an official agreement to talk about Canadian response and look at the details of it," Trudeau said. "But it is a promising sign. But I will highlight that it means that the tariffs remain in place, and therefore our response will remain in place."

Lutnick emphasized that the reprieve would only last until April 2, when he said the administration plans to move ahead with reciprocal tariffs under which the US will impose levies that match those imposed by trading partners.

In the meantime, he said, the current hiatus is about getting fentanyl deaths down, which is the initial justification Trump used for the tariffs on Mexico and Canada and levies on Chinese goods that have now risen to 20%.

"On April 2, we're going to move with the reciprocal tariffs, and hopefully Mexico and Canada will have done a good enough job on fentanyl that this part of the conversation will be off the table, and we'll move just to the reciprocal tariff conversation," Lutnick said. "But if they haven't, this will stay on."

Indeed, Trudeau is expecting the US and Canada to remain in a trade war.

"I can confirm that we will continue to be in a trade war that was launched by the United States for the foreseeable future," he told reporters in Ottawa.

Lucid Motors Unveils its Much-Anticipated New Electric Vehicle