- 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 therefore lengthy.
- The automobile’s chief engineer says the Gravity’s ramp-up will probably be sluggish 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 unit 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. However 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 patrons 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 “Undertaking Midsize,” a roughly $50,000 crossover, will mark Lucid’s Tesla Mannequin Y second—when it might probably hopefully hit the size wanted to earn greater than it spends.
Till then, the Gravity must be a success. And that begins with ramping up manufacturing from a couple of models to 1000’s after which tens of 1000’s—no small feat.
“The secret’s to carry all the weather and areas collectively on the identical time, on the proper high quality,” Eric Bach, Lucid’s chief engineer, advised InsideEVs in a latest interview. “And that’s what a ramp is about.”
Listed here are these components, in line with Bach. First off, you want a product that’s mature and sturdy and gained’t lead to countless guarantee repairs as soon as it begins going out to clients. 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 unit and logistics system. Bach says ramping up manufacturing is hectic for any automobile firm, however he believes Lucid is prepared for it.
“The second ramp is all the time 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 probably 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. However it’s removed from alone there.
Famously, Tesla practically went bankrupt throughout early Mannequin 3 manufacturing in 2017 and 2018, a interval Tesla CEO Elon Musk known as “manufacturing hell.” Even well-oiled automakers which have been 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 concentrated on ramping up the Gravity slowly and with top quality, Bach mentioned, echoing Lucid CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson’s feedback on a latest 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 unit.
“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 strategy to assembly buyer expectations with the standard as we ramp up.”
As manufacturing will get underway, Bach’s crew is hammering away on future over-the-air updates for the Gravity. And it’s engaged on homologating the SUV for international markets. It’s additionally been conducting testing with Tesla Superchargers, seeing because the Gravity will ship from the manufacturing unit with Tesla’s beforehand unique charging port design. (It’s one of many first such fashions for the reason that whole auto business introduced it could migrate to Tesla’s plug.)
Lucid hasn’t formally introduced entry to Tesla’s charging community for its house owners, however Bach says that can occur upfront of the primary Gravity deliveries.
The opposite large problem dealing with Lucid right here, and Rawlinson referred to it on that very same earnings name, considerations demand and model consciousness. The startup bought 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 prime of that, a number 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 areas 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 massive numbers anymore, which has held Lucid again. It’s a disgrace, in a means, as a result of the Air is among the finest—if not one of the best—electrical automobiles you should buy in America as we speak. 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 all the time the important thing place to begin” for constructing a model, he mentioned.
On paper, the Gravity is certainly a mind-blowing car. The Grand Touring mannequin, the primary to launch, will supply a whopping 450 miles of EPA-rated vary, over 800 horsepower and over 900 pound-feet of torque. It’s fairly extraordinary in particular person as effectively, as I discovered throughout a take a look at drive in Malibu, California this month.
The factor seems to be like nothing else on the highway, drives higher than any hulking SUV ought to, presents a blinding digital interface and has as a lot room inside as your common New York Metropolis condominium.
Photograph by: InsideEVs
A teaser of Lucid’s upcoming midsize crossover.
It has the potential to be a slam dunk. However it’s but to be seen whether or not individuals will embrace that oddball, minivan-like form. After which there’s the worth; 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 rather a lot driving on the Gravity. However Lucid can also be steaming towards its subsequent venture, a smaller, extra reasonably priced household of automobiles anticipated to begin manufacturing in 2026. About half of Bach’s crew is engaged on that, he mentioned.
“It by no means stops in my function,” Bach mentioned.
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