Startup Lucid Motors has revealed more details about its first long-range electric car, the Lucid Air.
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A startup headed by a former Tesla exec said its Model S rival will have a 240-mile range
Lucid Motors said its base vehicle be priced at $52,500 after federal tax credits.
Autonomous-driving company Mobileye, which was recently acquired by Intel for $15.3 billion, is supplying Lucid Motors with its cameras.
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The base Lucid Air vehicle will start at $52,500 after federal tax credits and have a range of 240 miles, Lucid Motors announced on Wednesday. That would put the sedan in closest competition with the Tesla Model S 75, which has a range of 249 miles and starts at roughly $70,300 after federal tax credits.
Lucid Motors, formerly Atieva, was founded by Bernard Tse, a former Tesla vice president and board member who was ousted as CEO following friction with the company's largest shareholder, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding, in April 2016, The Guardian reported at the time.
Peter Rawlinson, the former vice president and chief engineer for Tesla's Model S, is Lucid Motors' chief technology officer. Lucid Motors, which is based in Menlo Park, has yet to name a new CEO.
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Scroll down for a closer look at the Lucid Air:
The base Lucid Air is a 400-horsepower electric sedan that comes with real-wheel drive.
Like Tesla cars on the road today, it will come equipped with the hardware necessary for autonomous driving, though the company didn't say what kind of self-driving features the car will offer.
However, the startup has said the car will come with lidar, radar, and cameras. Tesla cars do not use lidar, which is known to be expensive.
As mentioned earlier, this puts the base Lucid Air in closest competition with the Tesla Model S 75 with Autopilot. The Model S 75 is more expensive than the Lucid Air even before you tack on the additional costs for Autopilot.
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However, without any details on the Lucid Air's autonomous capabilities, it's too soon to compare the two beyond basic specs. Lucid Motors also hasn't said whether activating the car's autonomous features will cost more.
The car comes with self-adjusting LED lights and a 10-speaker audio system. It has two trunks, one in the back and one in the front, and seats five people.
Inside, the car comes with four touch screens that were engineered in-house. Lucid Motors has said the car will offer voice control to manage the vehicle's systems.
The base Lucid Air will also come with 19-inch wheels, an aluminum roof, and accommodate over-the-air software updates. Customers can place a $2,500 deposit to reserve the car.
Lucid Motors is also offering a number of additional upgrades, like a panoramic sunroof.
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Interested buyers can also upgrade the car's battery to achieve 315 miles of range or 400 miles of range.
Other upgrades include a 1,000-horsepower, twin motor configuration with all-wheel drive...
... a 29-speaker audio system with active noise cancellation...
... And front seats with heating, ventilation, dynamic bolsters, and a massage feature. Seats in the back can recline 55 degrees.
A Lucid Air with all the optional upgrades will be priced above $100,000.
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Interested buyers can currently reserve a Launch Edition that will be priced above $100,000. It comes with some of the upgrades mentioned earlier, like: 315 miles of range, 1,000 hp with all-wheel drive, autonomous driving hardware, 21-inch wheels, and the upgraded audio system.
Lucid Motors has said that production will begin in late 2018. The base Lucid Air deliveries will begin after the Launch Edition run. The startup plans to deliver 10,000 units in its first 12 months of production.
Lucid Motors has partnered with Samsung to supply the batteries it will use in its production vehicles.
It's too soon to tell whether the Lucid Air will pose real competition for Tesla. But Lucid Motors is starting to look like the first electric car startup gaining traction in the space.
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