The production version of the Lucid Air has just been unveiled, the first production model of the Lucid Motors brand that, unhindered by any modesty, sees itself as the new Tesla. The Air can do everything better, says Lucid.
Put Peter R. de Vries, Mart Smeets and Ivo Niehe in a blender and the result will be a dose of self-righteousness that Lucid Airs CEO Peter Rawlinson laughs at. Of course, every carmaker is convinced of its products, but the number of times Rawlinson lisped ‘never seen before’ and ‘better than anything on the planet’ during the sneak preview last week at its California headquarters has never been seen before. The Air is faster, charges faster and goes beyond what Rawlinson calls ‘the market leader’ and ‘main competitor’. And admittedly, he knows something about that, because he still has a stack of Tesla paychecks in the drawer. In fact, Peter Rawlinson was one of the brains behind the Model S.
But now that Rawlinson is leading his ‘own’ brand, the Model S has to pay for it. The Lucid Air takes a completely different approach, with a range of 832 kilometers and a quartermile time of 9.9 seconds. For the non-drag racers: 0-95 km / h in 2.5 seconds. To achieve that, Lucid has pulled out a whole battery of innovations. For example, the modular battery package (113 kWh) is a modified version of the package that has been supplying all Formula E cars with energy for two seasons. The system works with 924 volts. “Tesla does 400 Volt, Porsche 800 Volt”, Rawlinson puts his work into perspective. The direct current is converted by an inverter into three phases using so-called silicon-carbide Mosfed technology, which, according to Rawlinson, no one has achieved before. “Porsche uses IGBT technology (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor, ed.) In the Taycan at 800 Volt, that’s not the way,” said Rawlinson.
The electric motors each deliver 670 horsepower, while being compact enough to fit in a suitcase, says Rawlinson: “The closest, the industry leader and big beast in electrification, needs 2.5 times this size for the same power output.” There is one on each axle, but Rawlinson already reveals that the rear axle configuration can easily be replaced by a variant with two engines, which together deliver 1,300 hp. “That will be our Performance model that we will present by the end of 2021”.
The Lucid Air is on the Lucid Electric Advanced Platform, called LEAP for short. The carriage has a Cw value of 0.21. Lucid’s ADAS systems are given the almost Efteling-like name Lucid DreamDrive and embraced 32 sensors in the Dream Edition.
There will be a total of four implementation levels. The entry-level Air will be below $ 80,000 in the US and will be available in 2022. The Air Touring will be available at the end of next year for $ 95,000. In mid-2021, the Air Grand Touring will start from $ 139,000 in the United States and the aforementioned Dream Edition will be a reality for $ 169,000 from spring 2021. All this applies to the US. Dutch specifications will be announced later.
The Lucid Air will be equipped with an on-board charger that has been given the promising name Wonderbox by the makers. It can handle 19.2 kW and also works plug-out, so that your Air can be a mobile power plant as well as a car. Rawlinson even pretends to handle peak loads in the electricity grid with the joint Air owners. The Lucid Air charges fast at a maximum of 32 km per minute, in 20 minutes you have 480 km more.
According to Rawlinson, the high range is not only the result of a lot of battery capacity: “That would be dumb range. We are from the smart range. So also better efficiency and less weight. The Air uses 17 percent less energy for the same distance than the main one. That means that we can also cover shorter distances than those 500 miles with a 17 percent smaller battery. Cheaper, lighter, more space. That paves the way for more affordable EVs and we are going to allow more people to drive electrically. offer competition to the market leader in order to accelerate the race towards sustainable mobility. “
But before those smaller Lucids come, an SUV first follows on the same platform to assist the Air. Until then, the Lucid Air should pave the way for the new brand. All boast? It may sound like that, but let’s face it: we once thought that of the Paypal billionaire with his big mouth.