- the makers of the lucid air sedan, first announced in 2016, now say it is going into production in late 2020.
- the air, the startup's first product, is claimed to be a 400-mile electric vehicle with a top speed over 200 mph.
- want to get in line for one of these? lucid will take your money now—$1000 deposits are being collected—but you can get it back any time until production actually starts.
building second-generation beta prototypes. talking about a late 2020 start of production. looks like it's time for another electric vehicle startup to start collecting people's money.
last year, we gave lucid motors a little better than a 50/50 chance of success, but here the company is, ready to take the next step. the california ev company has opened up the books for people who want to buy one of its sleek lucid air sedans. for now, all you need to do to reserve an air, if you're so inclined, is to make a no-obligation, fully refundable $1000 deposit on the company's website. the base price for the air is likely to be around $60,000, but a fully loaded version will crest six figures.
to prove that the air is moving along as promised, lucid published a video (above) this week, dated as having been shot in november, that shows the first lucid air beta prototype that rolled out of the trial workshop in the company's newark, california, headquarters. lucid says it has been building dozens more of these prototypes since then and plans to make 80 altogether for this go-round to conduct numerous testing and validation processes in 2020. the prototypes are basically what the final product will look like, with lucid calling them "95 percent representative of the production car."
on paper, for now, the air is listed as offering autonomous-driving technology, over 400 miles of range, 1000 horsepower, and a 200-plus-mph top speed with a zero-to-60-mph time of just 2.5 seconds. befitting the sedan's name, the air will also come with the capability for over-the-air updates.
lucid says that it will contact people who have put down a deposit once production lines at the company's $700 million factory in casa grande, arizona, get up and running and invite them to configure and then actually click "place order" for an air. lucid also says it will try to deliver airs to people based on when they put down their deposits but also that it "reserve[s] the right to resequence reservations based on delivery locations and vehicle configurations." lucid has also started a separate international waiting list for people who live outside the united states and canada.
founded as a battery-technology company in 2007, lucid didn't really get into the electric vehicle game proper until 2016 when it unveiled the first air concept. the company got a $1 billion investment from saudi arabia in 2018 and broke ground on the casa grande factory last month.