Lucid’s Peter Rawlinson has brazenly criticized Tesla for dropping its focus and its technological lead within the automotive business. The previous chief automobile engineer of the Tesla Mannequin S now believes Lucid now has the world’s most superior automotive know-how, showcased by the Lucid Air, which is faster, extra environment friendly and faster to cost than Tesla’s high sedan.
In a current interview with Liz Claman on Fox Enterprise, Rawlinson stated Lucid now has “essentially the most superior know-how on the planet.” He factors to a model of the Air sedan having not too long ago achieved a outstanding effectivity of 5 miles per kilowatt-hour, which he claims “nobody is even shut” to matching.
Making extremely environment friendly autos is a part of the corporate’s ethos, and the purpose is to attain 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) per kilowatt-hour, which he deems “the holy grail” of EV effectivity.
Lucid CEO says his firm is an business chief
Peter Rawlinson has by no means been shy to boast about Lucid’s 900-volt structure, super-fast charging and noteworthy effectivity, all of which can stay true for the upcoming Gravity SUV.
The upcoming Gravity SUV was additionally an enormous speaking level within the interview. The Lucid boss made some daring claims concerning the Air’s upcoming taller sibling, which is constructed on a separate, devoted SUV platform, so he says it’s not associated to the sedan in the identical method the Tesla Mannequin X is said to the Mannequin S. He even implies this makes the Mannequin X not a “true” SUV however merely a bigger Mannequin S that sits greater off the bottom.
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He additionally touted the Gravity’s wonderful packaging, stating that regardless that it’s solely about two inches longer than the Air when it comes to complete size, it has much more area inside. It could apparently match basketball player-sized folks behind each other in every of its three rows on the identical time—that sounds superb, and we’d like to see an indication.
Offering an enticing driving expertise in an EV is one thing most producers are nonetheless scuffling with, however Lucid is likely one of the few that appears to have dialed it in. The Air provides a stellar mixture of energy, enjoyable and effectivity, and this sporty character will probably be carried over to the far more sensible and succesful Gravity, whose driving expertise Rawlinson stated will rival that of a Lamborghini Urus.
The quickest model will hit sixty from a standstill in 3.5 seconds, but when Lucid ever makes a Gravity Sapphire, it’s going to certainly dip under the three-second mark.
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It would supply “the stature of a Vary Rover” and “the inside area of an Escalade.” Concerning the Gravity’s frunk, it has been designed to work as a bench the place you’ll be able to sit down, calm down and admire the gorgeous vista that you just simply drove as much as. You must be capable to attain some moderately distant spots due to the Gravity’s raised suspension, which is about two centimeters (nearly an inch) taller than within the Air sedan.
Providing a variety of real-world vary will probably be a key promoting level for the Gravity, which guarantees to ship as much as 440 miles on one cost due to Lucid’s powertrain effectivity and a low drag coefficient of simply 0.24 Cd. With its 900-volt structure, will probably be ready so as to add 200 miles of vary in simply quarter-hour from a strong sufficient Stage 3 charging station.
It guarantees to not solely be good at carrying folks but in addition cargo, with a most payload of 1,500 kilos and a towing capability of 6,000 kilos.
Rawlinson was coy about asserting when the Gravity was going into manufacturing, however he did say it was going to occur by the tip of the yr. He additionally stated essentially the most reasonably priced model of the Gravity will price below $80,000, though if it’s just like the Air, the automobile will launch with the dearer variants at first.
