American EV maker Lucid Motors in July this yr has acknowledged its goal of manufacturing rivals to the Tesla Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y, together with right-hand-drive variations of these fashions, and now its CEO Peter Rawlinson has instructed Autocar that the corporate’s upcoming will likely be priced from round US$50,000 (RM231,650) to drastically enhance its gross sales volumes.

“We now have to go along with quantity, as a result of that’s what we’re about,” the CEO instructed Autocar, saying that the upscale Air and Gravity EVs had been launched first as a result of prices concerned in establishing a brand new automotive firm.

Particulars of the upcoming, higher-volume fashions stay but to be confirmed, nevertheless Rawlinson prompt that their arrival to market could be earlier than anticipated. Being high-volume fashions meant to rival the aforementioned Teslas, the Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y, these mid-sized fashions are to be smaller than the Air sedan and Gravity SUV.

“I’ve formally acknowledged mid- to late-decade, and that has been fully misquoted as the tip of the last decade, [as in] 2030. What I imply is ‘not 2025’. It’s a number of years away, however it’s shut. It takes three and a half years to do a automotive, and we’ve began; and that wasn’t yesterday,” he mentioned.

The model’s upcoming mid-sized mannequin line “goes to be overtly a Tesla competitor” within the high-volume household automotive market in opposition to the Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y, Rawlinson mentioned.

Lucid can compete “as a result of we’ve acquired essentially the most superior expertise, which suggests we are able to go farther with much less battery, and the battery is essentially the most high-cost merchandise of an electrical automotive,” and by making a automotive in a position to obtain a goal battery vary with much less battery capability, that automotive could be made cheaper, he mentioned.

Responding to a query if Lucid would construct vehicles with the megacasting methodology as utilized by Tesla, which minimises the variety of particular person elements in a automotive to cut back value and manufacturing instances, Rawlinson mentioned he “would do something that I see as technically useful.”

Manufacturing of right-hand-drive variations – which opens the door to getting into markets resembling Malaysia – is prone to be in 2025, which is the model’s goal date for getting into the UK market.

“We’ve acquired to do [the Air in right-hand-drive]. To do this might be going to take us 18 months and we’re completely slammed, as a result of I’ve acquired all my fundamental engineering crew doing all of the design and growth for Gravity. So, realistically, it’s two years away,” Rawlinson mentioned of the businesses RHD product plans.

GALLERY: Lucid Gravity

GALLERY: Lucid Air Sapphire

GALLERY: 2021 Lucid Air

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