{"id":28499,"date":"2021-12-29T15:22:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T19:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=28499"},"modified":"2021-12-29T15:22:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T19:22:16","slug":"payne-inside-lucid-teslas-silicon-valley-ev-arch-rival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/payne-inside-lucid-teslas-silicon-valley-ev-arch-rival","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Inside Lucid, Tesla’s Silicon Valley EV arch-rival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newark, California \u2014<\/em>\u00a0Located just 11 miles up the San Francisco Bay from Tesla Inc.’s Fremont factory, Lucid Motors is the third electric vehicle maker in California\u2019s Big Three.<\/p>\n

With a market capitalization hovering near $100 billion \u2014\u00a0more than Detroit\u2019s Big Three of General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co.\u00a0and Stellantis NV \u2014\u00a0the brand joins Tesla and Irvine-based Rivian Automotive Inc. as highly-valued, 21st-century automakers delivering a new breed of luxury performance.<\/p>\n

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With ex-Tesla chief engineer Peter Rawlinson at the helm, the Bay Area startup wants to be beat Tesla at its own game. With a stunning, 1,111-horsepower sedan as its flagship, Lucid is coming to a studio showroom near you.<\/p>\n

Boasting the industry\u2019s longest range and most-efficient electric motors, it aims to be an American icon. Significantly, Lucid does not offer Tesla\u2019s secret sauce: A proprietary charging network. Instead, it boasts technology-partner Atieva, which produces the battery packs for the international Formula E electric racing series that is pushing the boundaries of battery performance.<\/p>\n

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Lucid is headquartered in an unassuming office park here, its sans-serif logo glowing atop a low, glass building. Inside, the lobby is dominated by the Lucid Air\u2019s 900-volt, skateboard architecture\u00a0\u2014\u00a0its batteries slung low between the four wheels. As the first, $169,000 Air Dream Edition models\u00a0come down\u00a0<\/strong>the line at the company\u2019s Casa Grande, Arizona, assembly plant, the company dreams of 500,000-a-year production volumes by 2030 \u2014 including production of the Gravity SUV in 2023.<\/p>\n

But first it needs to sell the Air, one of the most stunning cars on the market, whether gas-or-electric powered. After wowing the 2017 New York Auto Show, the Air prototype has been methodically prepared for production while Rawlinson & Co. raised capital, a production facility, and performance expectations.<\/p>\n

Designed by ex-Mazda design chief Derek\u00a0Jenkins, Air uses the skateboard chassis to full advantage. Without a gas engine up front, the sleek sedan sits on a wheelbase for a mid-size BMW 5-series \u2014\u00a0but with interior room similar to a full-size BMW 7-series, including a rear seat fit for 7-footers.<\/p>\n

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The sci-fi nose features a thin chrome brow stretching the width of the fascia \u2014\u00a0an even thinner line of LED headlight underneath it. Clam shell hoods reveal big cargo spaces for rear and front trunks. The car wouldn\u2019t be out of place in a Tron movie.<\/p>\n

The cabin is dominated by twin console and instrument screens, the latter a 34-inch, curved piece of glass that remind of the Porsche Taycan EV. A panoramic glass roof spans the cabin.<\/p>\n

The years after he helped bring the Model S to market, engineer Rawlinson hopes the Air will be the EV standard for the next decade.<\/p>\n

Rawlinson took the helm of battery-maker Atieva in 2014 with the promise of building an EV brand. In addition to Jenkins, the Welsh-born engineer has attracted top industry talent to Lucid including ex-Tesla Model 3 and Audi manufacturing veteran Peter Hochholdinger and ex-Apple and Rivian software engineer Michael Bell.<\/p>\n

\"Lucid<\/p>\n
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In the back of Lucid\u2019s HQ, doors open to a big development bay where workers fuss over Air models in various states of undress. Atieva\u2019s Formula E manufacturing is also done under the building\u2019s roof,\u00a0a reminder of the importance of race track-to-production technology transfer which has been key to gasoline engine development over the last two centuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of talk of racing technology transfer in the industry, but this is the real deal,\u201d said Justin Berkowitz, Lucid Public Relations Manager for Technology who came over from BMW. Rawlinson himself was Lotus chief engineer, a company with deep roots in racing, before his stint at Tesla.<\/p>\n

Beginning in 2018, Ateiva has been the sole manufacturer of batteries for Formula E \u2014\u00a0its high-performance cells riding in Jaguar, Audi, Porsche, and other racers. Similar battery cell tech sits in the belly of the Air,\u00a0achieving an industry first 500-miles plus of range (520 miles in the Dream Edition and Grand Touring models).<\/p>\n

The batteries drive\u00a0Rawlinson\u2019s prized, electric drive unit. With a power density of 9.05\/kilogram \u2014\u00a0three times that of the Tesla Model S \u2014\u00a0at 20,000 RPM, the small, 163-pound drive unit efficiently integrates the electric motor and differential into one housing. The result is not only more power \u2014\u00a0the Air Dream Edition\u2019s horsepower rivals that of the $3.8 million Aston Martin Valkyrie hybrid supercar \u2014\u00a0but space efficiency that allows class-leading front trunk space.<\/p>\n

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Lucid is ambitious. After the Air Dream\u2019s launch \u2014 Grand Touring and base Pure models will follow \u2014\u00a0Lucid\u2019s Gravity SUV will go toe-to-toe with the gull-winged Tesla Model X. Lucid plans to expand into Canada, Europe in 2022, and China in 2023.<\/p>\n

The Air\u2019s beauty, performance, and startup appeal earned it a nomination for North American Car of the Year versus affordable, more established models like the Honda Civic and VW Golf GTI.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an effortless vehicle. Interior is a knockout. The performance is extraordinary,\u201d said NACTOY juror Lindsay Brooke, publications editor for the Society of Automotive Engineers. \u201cAnd for being such a big machine it really handles better than I thought it would. If they can build up this brand it will be a powerhouse in electric vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It has gained the reputation as the \u201cnext Tesla\u201d here in Silicon Valley, but some analysts are wary.<\/p>\n

\u201cTesla also enjoyed a first-mover’s advantage in the EV market. Today, the EV market is much more saturated,\u201d writes Motley Fool consumer goods analyst Leo Sun. \u201cIn addition to competing against Tesla, Lucid will need to fend off traditional automakers like Ford, BMW, and Volkswagen. That saturation will make it tough for latecomers like Lucid and Rivian to replicate Tesla’s growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intriguingly the Air Dream Edition begins customer deliveries at about the same time as Tesla\u2019s own 1,000-horsepower beast, the Model S Plaid, which hits the market at $134,490. The Lucid boasts 124 miles range more than the Tesla while still providing shocking power. The Plaid hits 60 mph in 2 seconds, the Air in 2.5.<\/p>\n

Game on.<\/p>\n

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newark, California \u2014\u00a0Located just 11 miles up the San Francisco Bay from Tesla Inc.’s Fremont factory, Lucid Motors is the third electric vehicle maker in California\u2019s Big Three. With a market capitalization hovering near $100 billion \u2014\u00a0more than Detroit\u2019s Big Three of General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co.\u00a0and Stellantis NV \u2014\u00a0the brand joins Tesla and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28500,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28499\/revisions\/28500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}