Lucid Motors brought a new prototype of its all-electric Air sedan at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance during the Monterey Car Week.
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Lucid Motors keeps surprising with the performance of its all-electric sedan – the Lucid Air.
In their latest test, they hit a new record top speed of 235 mph (378 km/h), which is an impressive speed for an electric car – or any car for that matter.
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Lucid Motors has a lot of things going for it. First impressions of its all-electric sedan, the Air, have been eulogistic and the price range has surprised quite a few people. Now they just need to bring it to market. For that, they need to close the current $700 million round of funding that they are reportedly currently working on – no big deal.
In the meantime, Lucid is showcasing one of the most appreciated feature of the Air, its interior design.
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After having us pretty excited for the Lucid Air with a lower than anticipated base price of $60,000, Lucid Motors is now further teasing the all-electric sedan’s performance with an Alpha prototype and new high-speed tests.
They managed to achieve a software-limited top speed of 217 mph (350km/h) as part of their ongoing development program.
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After we spent some time with the Lucid Air earlier this year, we determined that Lucid Motors could very well be a force for good in the EV industry and not simply a pale Tesla clone, but the biggest question mark remained its ability to produce the vehicle.
We now learn that Lucid is currently raising a Series D financing round in order to start construction at its $700 million electric vehicle factory in Arizona.
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When Lucid Motors announced its all-electric luxury sedan called ‘Air’, it was presented as a serious competitor to Tesla’s Model S, but we expected to be priced higher than Tesla’s flagship vehicle. It starts at $68,000 for a Model S 60 with 218 miles of EPA-rated range.
The startup is announcing today a more aggressive pricing structure than anticipated. The base version of the Air will start at $60,000 in the US before EV incentive for an estimated 240 miles of range.
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After seeing the Lucid Air in person this last weekend in LA, we’ve posted a little extra information about the car’s interior, autonomous drive system and interface. But the biggest question remains: Is this car the real deal? Or just another of the endless list of EV prototypes, from major and new manufacturers alike, which never see the light of day?
We’ve been looking at some details of the Lucid Air this week, after seeing the car up-close-and-personal at a private event in LA this last weekend. Now to delve into some details of the car’s interface with a little wild speculation. Hop below the jump for some pictures and analysis.
We learned a few more details of Lucid’s autonomous system at their event this weekend in LA, one of which is its apparent name: “Copilot.” This may well just be a placeholder name for development purposes and could change before production, but the instrument cluster demo showed the name clearly as you can see in the picture above. Given Tesla’s similar “autopilot” name – which has gotten them in some trouble with the authorities in Germany and California – “copilot” is definitely an interesting choice, and perhaps one less likely to result in legal questions.
As for some other details of the system, it was already confirmed that Lucid would use MobilEye for their front-facing camera and image processing system. But the car will also incorporate many other sensors, which you can see below the break.
This weekend Lucid Motors held some private events in the Los Angeles area to show off their car to VIP guests and media, and Electrek was on hand to get a first-hand look at the vehicle.
The show car definitely provided some clues as to where Lucid thought of their model name – the “Air.” The interior has a very airy feel, with windows running across nearly the entire top of the car…
Unlike gas-powered cars with their large engines, battery-powered vehicles can more easily incorporate dual motors, one on each axle. Combined with the fact that an electric motor can deliver max torque at 0 rpm, it can enable great traction if managed properly.
It’s why EVs can offer great winter driving performance and Lucid Motors is showcasing its all-electric sedan, Lucid Air, in winter conditions for the firs time.
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After unveiling its first vehicle last year, Lucid Motors is now taking a prototype of its all-electric ‘Air’ luxury sedan on the road for promotion.
The vehicle has been spotted around San Francisco and in other locations in California recently.
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Since Tesla announced back in October 2016 that all its cars from now on will be equipped with all the necessary hardware to enable self-driving capability through an over-the-air update, other automakers unveiling new cars had to step up their game since the new autonomous technology is expected to be critical to the industry going forward.
When Lucid Motors unveiled its first vehicle last month, the company announced that it would feature autonomous technology, but now it clarified that it will follow Tesla’s lead and equip all cars with the necessary hardware to enable self-driving capability and gradually release more advanced driver assist features leading to full autonomy.
The electric car startup confirmed that Mobileye, Tesla former partner for the Autopilot program, will power its autonomous system.
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Earlier this month, Lucid Motors announced a partnership with Samsung SDI to supply a custom li-ion battery cell that they developed with the Korean electronic giant for Lucid’s all-electric sedan, which they finally unveiled last week.
Today, the automaker announced that they secured a second battery cell supply contract – this time with LG Chem.
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After announcing several deals over the past few weeks to build some credibility over the prospect of bringing its first electric vehicle to production, Lucid Motors, formerly known as Atieva, unveiled its luxury sedan, now called ‘Lucid Air,’ in the Bay Area today.
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