Saudi Arabia’s Lucid Motors has unveiled Lucid Air, its first production electric car, that rivals Elon Musk’s Tesla Model S in the market.
The pure-electric luxury sedan was launched from the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters on Thursday, with deliveries expected to start in spring 2021.
A part of the project, amounting to $1 billion, was funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) which also has a stake in Tesla. A full range model is priced below $80,000, the company said in a statement.
Prices of the car range from about $80,000 for a base model to $169,000 for a limited-volume “Dream Edition.” Top-end models offer up to 1,080 horsepower.
The company claims it is the only electric sedan able to achieve a quarter-mile time under 10 seconds. In comparison, Tesla’s Model S sprinted a quarter-mile in 10.4 seconds after it received a “cheetah stance” update this May. With a top speed of a little over 320 kmph, the car can hit zero to 100 kms in less than 3 seconds.
The Air is estimated to achieve an estimated EPA range of up to 517 miles on a single charge. That tops Model S’ 402 miles.
Lucid Motors also claims it will be the fastest charging electric vehicle with the capability to charge at rates of up to 20 miles per minute when connected to a DC Fast Charging network. This equals providing 300 miles of range in just 20 minutes of charging. It has a 113 kWh extended-range battery pack. The Model S takes 15 minutes to charge to provide a range of 163 miles.
Using Space to Create the Air
The Lucid Air is the result of 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 and provide large frunk.
The car features a “floating” driver information screen behind the steering wheel as well as an angled control touchscreen in the lower center of the dash. To complement the digital displays, physical controls are present, including ribbed turbines for steering wheel functions, a volume control roller, and alloy toggle switches for tuning climate settings.
The Lucid Air’s advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), Lucid DreamDrive, is a first-of-its-kind platform combining a sensor suite with a Driver Monitoring System (DMS), all standard on the Lucid Air Dream Edition. It offers 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.
Alexa Voice Natively Integrated into Lucid Air
In addition, Lucid has collaborated with Amazon to bring an advanced Alexa Built-In implementation directly into Lucid Air. This enables the driver and passengers to navigate, call, stream media, provide smart home control, and add items to a shopping cart or to-do list – all while keeping their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel. It also provides localized vehicle control features of Lucid Air including HVAC, with a simple voice command. When a driver uses Alexa there will also be visual support for commands via the Lucid Air’s Glass Cockpit display. Over time, the available feature set will continue to grow via Lucid’s built-in Over-the-Air (OTA) updates.
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.
