Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson has had a lot to say after his company signed a deal to supply Aston Martin with its electric vehicle (EV) technology, including comments about the hype around Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS), as well as discussing the automaker’s plans to take on the Model 3 and Model Y with lower priced, and lower range EVs.
Lucid has so far struggled to gain traction with its debut Air, a luxury electric vehicle with an industry leading driving range of 520 miles (840km), and also a premium price tag. Its next EV, the Gravity SUV, is also expected to land in the premium segment. However the automaker is planning to launch lower priced EVs to take on the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y.
In an interview with AutoExpress, Rawlinson said that after Gravity the company will launch “Model 3 and Model Y competitors.” Rawlinson did not provide more details, or a timeline for when these cars will launch, but Gravity isn’t expected to launch until the second half of 2024, so it won’t be any time soon. Despite no definitive timeline, Rawlinson said the target price will be “around $50,000, maybe $48,000 – something like that.”
To reach that price point, and even lower, Lucid will have to work on improving the efficiency of its electric motors further. Despite building itself around the claim of having the longest range EV on the market, Rawlinson said future EVs will only require 250 miles (402km) of range.
“The biggest impact on the mass market car will be with smaller battery packs. My vision is could we get to six miles per kilowatt-hour? We’re at 4.6 now. Could we get to six miles per kilowatt-hour with a fast-charging infrastructure, with overnight charging? The electric car of the future only needs 250 miles. We don’t need 500-mile cars in the future, 10 years from now.”
Whether those future EVs will feature NACS remains up in the air, although with several major automakers climbing on board it seems like it would be inevitable for Lucid to eventually follow suit. They will do so reluctantly however, as Rawlinson says the hype around NACS is “bizarre,” calling it “just a plug.”
“What we’re really comparing is, is it a screw cap or is it a cork on the bottle, not the quality of the wine. It’s rather bizarre,” Rawlinson told Bloomberg.
Rawlinson is also concerned with the emphasis on fast chargers, and he suggests that government funding for charging infrastructure should prioritize slower charging options for overnight use. He highlights the environmental benefits of such an approach.
“Why do you have an EV? Partly because it’s better, but partly because you care about the environment. The best thing for the environment is to have the power stations running more evenly on a 24-hour cycle. The worst thing for the environment is going charging daytime when the factories are running, everybody’s cooking.”
