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Lucid hints its first EV will have Tesla-beating range
It has an estimated EPA range of 517 miles.
Lucid Motors will give owners access to VW's charging network
Lucid Motors' first electric car won't roll out of the factory until 2020, but you'll at least know where to charge it when it does arrive. The company has signed a preliminary deal that will give Lucid Air drivers access to VW's Electrify America charging network through a cross-country charging plan. You won't win any prizes for guessing the reason why: it's all about the scale and performance of the network. Electrify America is promising more than 2,000 chargers with power levels up to 350kW. The chances are good are that you'll have access to numerous quick-charge stations in your state.
Lucid Motors gets $1 billion to help build its EV
Lucid Motors, a struggling electric car startup, has just won itself a reprieve. Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund invested $1 billion in the Tesla competitor; the money will be put towards the company's first production vehicle, the Lucid Air, which is due out in 2020.
Watch Lucid Air's EV reach 235MPH on the track
Electric cars are quick off the line by their very nature (they have gobs of torque available at all times), but what about top speed -- how are you supposed to know how quickly they can go when they're usually capped at an artificial 155MPH ceiling? Lucid Motors is happy to help... sort of. The fledgling electric car maker has posted video of a Lucid Air prototype reaching a whopping 235MPH on a test track after removing its speed limiter, or 18MPH more than it managed in April. That's performance you rarely see from supercars, let alone a luxury sedan. That doesn't mean that it would beat a conventional supercar in a drag race (gas-powered vehicles tend to catch up once they hit their peak torque levels), but it's impressively fast for a company's first car. At least, until you realize that you won't see those numbers on the street.
Lucid's luxury electric car will start at $52,500
When the Lucid Air made its debut late last year, all the hype over the electric car's trick features was countered by one overriding question: would the price be anywhere near competitive with that of the Tesla Model S? Apparently, the answer is a solid "yes." Lucid has revealed that the Air will start at $52,500, slotting it in well under the Model S (which starts at $71,300 as of this writing) and above the upcoming Model 3. You'll get quite a bit for the money, too, although there will clearly be incentives to splurge.
Riding inside the Lucid Air luxury EV
Exposed wires and metal beams are typically not what you want to see in a car. But as a Lucid engineer punched the accelerator (only Lucid employees are allowed behind the wheel), the preproduction Air I sat in tore down the road of the Fremont industrial park. The vehicle was only operating at half power.
