All proper, we get it.
You are sick and uninterested in each electrical car firm in creation being described as a “Tesla (TSLA) – Get Free Report rival.”
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However Lucid (LCID) – Get Free Report CEO Peter Rawlinson is absolutely severe about competing with the EV large. Simply ask him.
Rawlinson, who as soon as labored for Elon Musk’s firm, mentioned not too long ago that in a couple of years the corporate could be debuting automobiles that compete with Tesla’s Mannequin 3 sedan and Mannequin Y midsize SUV. The Lucid automobiles will include beginning costs of about $50,000.
“The midsized [line] goes to be overtly a Tesla competitor – Mannequin 3, Mannequin Y,” he mentioned in an interview with Autocar. “That is the primary time I’ve ever mentioned it: We’re going to compete in that market – high-volume household automobile.”
“And the way can we compete? As a result of we’ve received essentially the most superior expertise, which suggests we will go farther with much less battery, and the battery is essentially the most high-cost merchandise of an electrical automobile,” Rawlinson mentioned.
“So in case you can go a sure distance with much less battery, you can also make that automobile extra cheaply than anybody else.”
Lucid: Driving down the price of EVs
In an interview with InsideEVs, Rawlinson pushed again towards the notion that Lucid is “this niche-playing, super-expensive firm that simply panders to the rich.”
“The imaginative and prescient of the corporate is to actually drive down the price of electrical automobiles as a result of it is crucial for the planet,” he mentioned. “We simply have to start out with high-end merchandise as a result of the economics are such you simply cannot do it another method.”
Particulars of what to anticipate from the subsequent Lucid intro stay below wraps, however Rawlinson did recommend that it will seem a lot sooner than has beforehand been reported.
“I’ve formally said mid-late-decade, and that has been utterly misquoted as the tip of the last decade – 2030. What I imply is ‘not 2025’. It’s a couple of years away, nevertheless it’s shut. It takes 3 1/2 years to do a automobile, and we’ve began … and that wasn’t yesterday.”
Final month, the corporate debuted the Lucid Gravity on the L.A. Auto Present. That is Lucid’s follow-up to the Air sedan and its first SUV.
Automobile and Driver, by the best way, named the Lucid Air Pure to its 10 Finest listing, describing it at as a “recent take” on electrical automobiles.
Lucid opened a plant in Saudi Arabia in September, with preliminary capability to supply 5,000 EVs a yr, after the Saudi authorities pledged to purchase as many as 100,000 automobiles from it over 10 years.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund, Public Funding Fund, owns greater than a 60% stake in Lucid.
Investing sooner or later
Like many electrical car startups, Lucid has confronted some challenges.
Whereas deliveries have remained comparatively even, Lucid’s manufacturing numbers have been constantly falling.
The automaker produced 3,493 automobiles within the remaining quarter of 2022, 2,314 automobiles within the first quarter of 2023, 2,173 within the second quarter and 1,550 within the third.
In November, Lucid mentioned it anticipated to supply 8,000 to eight,500 automobiles this yr, down from its earlier forecast of greater than 10,000.
The corporate mentioned it was reducing the manufacturing forecast “to prudently align with deliveries.”
Lucid additionally mentioned on Dec. 10 that Sherry Home, its chief monetary officer, could be stepping down instantly.
Rawlinson dismissed notions that the corporate was “dropping this loopy amount of cash per automobile.”
“It is so deceptive,” he mentioned. “Our funds are dominated by the funding we’re placing in for the longer term. We have got a manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia, we have the massive enlargement in Arizona for Gravity. We’re spending a fortune on the tooling now for Gravity to make this improbable machine right here in America.”
Rawlinson added that “all that’s on our books. … [That] is the funding for the corporate’s future.”
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