Rising electric vehicle maker announces ‘technology race’ against Elon Musk’s Tesla
The CEO of electric vehicle startup Lucid says the company is ready to compete at the top of the EV market as it’s poised to start delivering luxury electric sedans to customers in late October.
California-based Lucid kicked off production of its previously delayed Lucid Air vehicles at its factory in Casa Grande, Ariz., Tuesday.
The electric carmaker says customer deliveries of its Lucid Air Dream Edition — priced at $169,000 — will begin late next month, followed by less expensive models.
The Air Dream Edition received an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) range of 520 miles, beating out Tesla’s Model S by more than 100 miles and making it the longest-rated EV.
While the Lucid Air Dream Edition is significantly more expensive than Tesla’s Model S, Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson plans to release the Air Pure with a price tag of $77,400 late next year.
“Do not think of Lucid as just a niche ultra-lux player; that’s our starting point. My passion is to bring the price point down to make our world-class EV tech available to more people,” Rawlinson told Fox Business’s “The Claman Countdown” Wednesday.
“This is a long-term play. There’s only been one winner in this game to date and that’s Tesla,” he said.
“Tesla has its technology, world class technology, in-house developed and vertically integrated in its manufacturing. As far as I’m aware, there are only two companies that do that in the world, Tesla and Lucid. This is a technology race and the others do not appear to be in that race,” he told the news outlet.
The company says it has received more than 13,000 reservations for Lucid Air and plans to produce 520 of the Lucid Air Dream Edition.