- Lucid Motors held a factory-commissioning ceremony in Casa Grande, Arizona, today to celebrate the start of production of the Lucid Air sedan.
- The first customer-quality cars were driven off the line, indicating the Lucid Air has received full EPA and FVMSS safety certification.
- Customer deliveries of the 2022 Lucid Air Dream Edition are set to begin in late October, with other variants to follow.
An excited group of Lucid Air Dream reservation holders, Lucid dignitaries, and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey were on hand today to watch the first customer-quality 2022 Lucid Air cars roll off the assembly line today. Analysts, investors, and members of the media, including Car and Driver, were also present. The move signifies that the Lucid Air sedan has received full FPA and FMVSS safety certification, and it paves the way for the first 2022 Lucid Air Dream Edition customer deliveries in late October.
Lucid's facility, dubbed the Advanced Manufacturing Plant (AMP-1), not only builds the cars themselves, but an adjoining Lucid Powertrain Manufacturing (LPM-1) facility also assembles major powertrain components such as the electric motors, power electronics, and battery packs. A Lucid representative told C/D that complete control over both powertrain design and manufacturing is one reason why the Dream Edition can produce as much as 1111 horsepower and deliver up to an EPA-certified 520 miles of driving range.
The limited production cap of the waitlisted Dream Edition is now set at 520 cars to celebrate that maximum range achievement, but the Casa Grande, Arizona, plant will also build the $139,000 Lucid Air Grand Touring. This model makes some 800 horsepower and has been certified to have a range of 516 miles when equipped with the standard 19-inch wheels and tires. Production of the lower-cost Touring and Pure models will follow after they receive their EPA certifications.
In 2023 the AMP-1 plant is set to begin production of an SUV that is known by the name Project Gravity. Little else has been made public, and a reservation portal for the SUV has not yet opened on the Lucid website. This delay seems like a strategic decision to allow the new AMP-1 plant to ramp up smoothly before a potentially higher-volume SUV is added to the production mix.
Currently, Lucid has some 13,000 reservation holders. It will be interesting to see how that changes now that the plant is up and running. It's common practice for high-end models to be produced first, so it will be interesting to see what happens once production of the $77,400 Lucid Air Pure gets underway.
Production is an important milestone, and Lucid should be congratulated for this achievement. But the realities of sustained sales, delivery, build quality, and after-sale service are still big unknowns. These have proven to be challenging for all-new car companies, so let's hope the Lucid Air sedan's impressive power and range specs are harbingers of how the customer experience will pan out.