Lucid Motors, backed by $1 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), unveiled its first vehicle, the Lucid Air electric sedan, at a virtual event from the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters.
The luxury sedan will get up to 517 miles of range, can hit a quarter-mile in under 10 seconds, packs over 1,000 horsepower, and will have a base price of under $80,000 with EV credits from the U.S. government.
Three versions of the Lucid Air will hit the market, according to the company’s website: The Lucid Air Touring, the Dream Edition, and the Grand Touring edition. The sedan is positioned as a more luxury version of Tesla’s offerings with a faster battery charging time.
As The Verge notes, The Lucid Air is over a decade in the making.
“Founded as Atieva in 2007, the company got its start making high performance batteries for all the Formula E racing teams. It changed its name to Lucid Motors in 2016 with the promise to to make a midsized sedan that feels like a massive, roomy flagship vehicle. The vehicle was supposed to be unveiled at the New York Auto Show earlier this year, but got delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.”
“It seems as if every electric vehicle that’s released these days is inevitably held up against Tesla for a comparison. But few electric vehicles have actually Tesla DNA running through their bloodstream. The Lucid Air is one of those vehicles,” the Verge notes.
Saudi Arabia’s PIF invested $1 billion in Lucid Motors in September 2018 and owns over half of the company.
