- The Lucid Gravity is the automobile that this groundbreaking EV startup hopes will carry it into the longer term.
- Lucid’s gross sales have struggled for under providing a sedan, the Air, for thus lengthy.
- The automobile’s chief engineer says the Gravity’s ramp-up will likely be gradual at first to get high quality sorted out.
Smooth, futuristic Lucid Gravity SUVs began trickling off the manufacturing line on the startup automaker’s Arizona manufacturing facility final week after years of growth and some delays. Lucid Motors hopes its second-ever mannequin will ignite gross sales like by no means earlier than and pave the way in which for long-term monetary well being. Nevertheless it has a hill to climb earlier than any of that may occur.
Quickly, Lucid should begin churning out extra automobiles extra shortly than it’s ever needed to earlier than. That ramp-up course of has confirmed fraught for brand spanking new automakers, like Tesla. And that’s solely half the battle. There’s not even a assure that consumers will line up in droves, given Lucid’s prior challenges with model consciousness.
Photograph by: Lucid Motors
The launch of the Gravity is a make-or-break second for Lucid, which has but to show a revenue and has relied on billions in infusions from its majority shareholder, the Saudi Public Funding Fund. It’s the SUV that can drive income till Lucid’s true mainstream EV hits the highway later this decade. The arrival of “Challenge Midsize,” a roughly $50,000 crossover, will mark Lucid’s Tesla Mannequin Y second—when it will probably hopefully hit the size wanted to earn greater than it spends.
Till then, the Gravity must be successful. And that begins with ramping up manufacturing from a couple of items to hundreds after which tens of hundreds—no small feat.
“The bottom line is to convey all the weather and areas collectively on the identical time, on the proper high quality,” Eric Bach, Lucid’s chief engineer, informed InsideEVs in a current interview. “And that’s what a ramp is about.”
Listed below are these components, in response to Bach. First off, you want a product that’s mature and sturdy and gained’t lead to infinite guarantee repairs as soon as it begins going out to prospects. You additionally want a provide base that’s dialed in and may ramp up manufacturing alongside the principle meeting plant.
Photograph by: Lucid Motors
Lucid Gravity and Lucid Chief Engineer Eric Bach
The third leg of the stool is a reliable manufacturing facility and logistics system. Bach says ramping up manufacturing is anxious for any automobile firm, however he believes Lucid is prepared for it.
“The second ramp is at all times higher than and simpler than the primary ramp as a result of we have constructed extra capabilities. I am not afraid of the ramp in any respect,” he mentioned. “Certainly, there will likely be some hiccups and ache, however that is regular.”
Photograph by: Lucid Motors
Lucid ran up in opposition to all method of supply-chain and manufacturing points when it began producing the Air sedan, its first and up to now solely mannequin, at scale in 2022. Nevertheless it’s removed from alone there.
Famously, Tesla almost went bankrupt throughout early Mannequin 3 manufacturing in 2017 and 2018, a interval Tesla CEO Elon Musk referred to as “manufacturing hell.” Even well-oiled automakers which were doing this for a century have hit snags in manufacturing new electrical fashions. Basic Motors spent months fixing battery-production bottlenecks because it launched its new EVs just like the Chevrolet Blazer EV and Cadillac Lyriq final 12 months.
Lucid is targeted on ramping up the Gravity slowly and with top quality, Bach mentioned, echoing Lucid CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson’s feedback on a current earnings name. Though manufacturing has begun, Lucid hasn’t mentioned when buyer deliveries will begin.
A Lucid Air on the meeting line on the EV maker’s Arizona manufacturing facility.
“I anticipate that we’ll be manufacturing-constrained subsequent 12 months within the buildup of Gravity,” he mentioned in early November. “We have to get the standard proper and take a considered and really prudent method to assembly buyer expectations with the standard as we ramp up.”
As manufacturing will get underway, Bach’s staff is hammering away on future over-the-air updates for the Gravity. And it’s engaged on homologating the SUV for world markets. It’s additionally been conducting testing with Tesla Superchargers, seeing because the Gravity will ship from the manufacturing facility with Tesla’s beforehand unique charging port design. (It’s one of many first such fashions for the reason that whole auto trade introduced it could migrate to Tesla’s plug.)
Lucid hasn’t formally introduced entry to Tesla’s charging community for its homeowners, however Bach says that can occur prematurely of the primary Gravity deliveries.
The opposite huge problem dealing with Lucid right here, and Rawlinson referred to it on that very same earnings name, considerations demand and model consciousness. The startup offered simply 6,001 Air sedans in 2023, and it’s projecting manufacturing of 9,000 automobiles this 12 months. That’s a far cry from the place it had anticipated to be by this level.
Photograph by: Lucid Motors
In 2021, Lucid predicted that it would make 90,000 automobiles in 2024, together with 41,000 Airs and 49,000 Gravity SUVs. That was based mostly on the Gravity beginning manufacturing in 2023, which it didn’t. In order that delay accounts for about half the shortfall. On high of that, a lot of individuals merely don’t know what a Lucid is or that they need to even think about shopping for one.
“I’ve said earlier than that we’re not manufacturing-constrained,” Rawlinson mentioned on the corporate’s third-quarter earnings name. “We’ve been market-constrained.”
Rawlinson mentioned that Lucid’s model consciousness has been enhancing and that the Gravity ought to profit from that momentum. Plus, the model is planning an promoting blitz and extra brick-and-mortar places as a part of the Gravity’s launch.
Photograph by: Lucid Motors
Bach is satisfied that the Gravity itself will do wonders for the Lucid model.
Sedans just like the Air do not promote in giant numbers anymore, which has held Lucid again. It’s a disgrace, in a method, as a result of the Air is among the greatest—if not the perfect—electrical automobiles you should purchase in America at this time. The Gravity, a seven-seat SUV, ought to unlock six occasions the addressable market of the Air and get Lucid on much more radars, Bach mentioned. Then word-of-mouth can take over.
“I am very constructive that a greater product is at all times the important thing place to begin” for constructing a model, he mentioned.
On paper, the Gravity is certainly a mind-blowing automobile. The Grand Touring mannequin, the primary to launch, will provide a whopping 450 miles of EPA-rated vary, over 800 horsepower and over 900 pound-feet of torque. It’s fairly extraordinary in individual as nicely, as I realized throughout a check drive in Malibu, California this month.
The factor appears to be like like nothing else on the highway, drives higher than any hulking SUV ought to, affords a blinding digital interface and has as a lot room inside as your common New York Metropolis condo.
Photograph by: InsideEVs
A teaser of Lucid’s upcoming midsize crossover.
It has the potential to be a slam dunk. Nevertheless it’s but to be seen whether or not individuals will embrace that oddball, minivan-like form. After which there’s the value; the Gravity Grand Touring begins at $94,900, greater than tried-and-true gas-powered rivals just like the BMW X7 or Volvo XC90. A $79,900 Touring mannequin ought to arrive someday subsequent 12 months.
There’s quite a bit using on the Gravity. However Lucid can be steaming towards its subsequent venture, a smaller, extra inexpensive household of automobiles anticipated to begin manufacturing in 2026. About half of Bach’s staff is engaged on that, he mentioned.
“It by no means stops in my position,” Bach mentioned.
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