#LucidAir

Lucid makes some of the most impressive and powerful EVs, but they aren’t immune to recalls. In fact, the automaker has racked up four such actions on its debut sedan, the Air. The latest has to do with the electric motor contactors, which can open unexpectedly and cause the vehicle to lose power without warning.

The North American International Auto Show, aka the Detroit Auto Show, isn’t taking place in January anymore. It’s set for a move to September.

But that didn’t stop the traditional North American Car and Truck of the Year award ceremony from taking place at Cobo Center Huntington Place this morning.

Production of the 2022 Lucid Air started this week, adding another automaker to the North American roster. The manufacturer held an event on September 28th, inviting Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, relevant executives, big-time investors, select media outlets, and customers who dropped $170,000 to purchase the limited Dream Edition of the electric vehicle.

While often framed as a Tesla ripoff, Lucid Motors has been setting its sights so high that it hardly feels like a fair assessment. Because the Air is offering one of the most impressive all-electric spec sheets in the industry right now and should probably worry the competition.

Lucid has two new versions of the limited-edition Dream Edition in queue — one that focuses on power and one that focuses on range.

Naturally, their names reflect this focus — they are the Dream Edition Performance and Dream Edition Range.

“The times they are a-changin’” sang Bob Dylan in the early 1960s. The legacy of the song can be seen as to how, no matter the year, it always finds a way to relate to contemporary life.

Take electric vehicles, for example. In just a decade, electric vehicles went from almost non-existent to Tesla selling hundreds of thousands each year. Furthermore, numerous global automakers have released their own EVs and/or pledged to have their entire model lineup be exclusively electrified by the end of the current decade.

Minus an unpleasant amount of virtue signaling, the Lucid Air debut was pretty good. But this is technically a commercial so what else could we have possibly expected? Lucid is an electric vehicle brand so it’s required by law to succumb to the growing list of EV clichés. Building this car the way Lucid does won’t just be better for the environment, “it will be better for all mankind.” We need to rally together because the world is ending. This startup is changing by building an extravagant automobile — that was the gist of the presentation anyway.

“We’re a California company,” explained the car’s interior designer. The Golden State was apparently so important that the interior color palates are based entirely on the way the sun plays off California’s various regions at different times of the day. They even held the event on the state’s birthday and made sure to mention it.

You get the idea. It started out a complete drag. And yet the car itself was quite interesting and the technical portions of the presentation excelled at explaining why someone might actually want this car over literally everything else that’s on the market right now.

There’s no shortage of fledgling electric automakers peddling their future wares, so how does an embryonic car company avoid becoming just a face in the crowd? If you’re Lucid Motors, you aim for big numbers. The kind that matter to motoring enthusiasts, not environmentalists.

With its first model, the Air, Lucid plans to wow would-be buyers not just with an impressive driving range, but also power and acceleration specs. Those early numbers arrived today, one week ahead of the production model’s public debut.

Getting something for nothing always feels good, like when the dealer serves up complimentary air freshener or a water bottle during your regularly scheduled servicing. Alright, so you’re paying for it in a roundabout way, but it’s still nice. Even the complimentary coffee in the waiting grotto counts as something.

For buyers of the Lucid Air, a very long-range electric sedan due to arrive in driveways early next year, a three-year perk awaits. This week, Lucid announced buyers will be table to tap into Electrify America’s charging network for free.

The Lucid Air, an unabashed luxury electric expected to roll out of an Arizona factory early next year, just got the PR boost it needed.

Working with FEV North America at the firm’s Auburn Hills, Michigan test center, Lucid and its partner put the Air to the test, applying standard EPA testing procedures to wring out the vehicle’s maximum driving range. The resulting number was impressive, to say the least.

On Wednesday, Lucid Motors announced plans to open 20 retail locations and service centers across North America by the end of 2021. They’ll be called “Lucid Studios,” helping the company herald in what it considers “new standards for sustainable transportation” via the sale of luxury vehicles.

You know as well as we do that this type of language is customary among EV startups trying to sell you on the concept of shopping your way into a healthier environment. Yet the strategy appears to be working. Electric vehicle firms seem to enjoy nothing but victory on this continent right now — even if they seem to be dying off in places like China — and are poised to make big moves over the next few years.

Are your ready for Air?

It’s been a long time coming, but funding and an actual assembly plant have a way of making things happen. And such is the case at Lucid Motors, which plans to reveal its production Air sedan on September 9th.

First came the renderings, then the concept car, then the money, then the factory, then the braintrust. Now, Lucid Motors has a supplier to power it all.

On Monday the Silicon Valley electric vehicle startup, which hopes to shake up the premium EV market with its plush and powerful Air sedan, announced a partnership with a trustworthy battery maker.

A substantial car with a name that implies nothingness will soon have a home.

Lucid Motors, which positioned its vastly powerful Air sedan near the front doors of the 2017 New York International Auto Show, has broken ground on an assembly plant in Casa Grande, Arizona. With suppliers lined up and braintrust in place, all Lucid lacked was a plant — and, for a considerable time, the cash to pull it all off.

Thank the Saudis for riding to the rescue with a check.

The Saudi Arabian investment fund Tesla CEO Elon Musk hoped to tap has instead showered all over Silicon Valley startup Lucid Motors. On Monday, the California automaker announced a $1 billion deal with Saudi Arabia, with the investment going towards the final stages of development, and production, of the Air — an upscale electric five-door expected to come to market in 2020.

The cash should cover the construction of an Arizona production facility the fledgling automaker couldn’t afford to build. Suffice it to say, the domestic, independent car scene just became a little more interesting.

It’s not a done deal just yet, but a high-tech Tesla rival, headquartered just a few miles away from Elon Musk’s Palo Alto, California base of operations, might receive the Saudi funding the Tesla CEO so desperately craves.

According to sources who spoke to Reuters, PIF, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, is ready to pour $1 billion into Newark, California-based Lucid Motors. The two entities have reportedly drawn up a term sheet for the deal, which would see the the Saudis become a majority owner of the private automaker.

What does Lucid have to offer the Saudis in return for the investment? A large, technologically advanced automobile.