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Lucid Motors Introduces Refundable Deposit Plan

Lucid Motors, a company that wants to sell an electric sedan with 1,000 HP, has announced the introduction of a “no-risk purchase plan.”
Lucid Air 18 photos
Photo: Lucid Motors
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The program consists of accepting fully refundable deposits of $25,500 for the launch edition models made by Lucid Motors, which will be limited to 255 units. Delivery of those cars is expected to begin in early 2019, so you will have to part with a considerable amount in exchange for a promise that you will get an electric car in two years.

The trickiest part of the acquisition is that the company has not finalized the production version of its first model, an electric sedan called Air. It is expected to cost about $160,000, so this Tesla-fighter is significantly more expensive than the top-of-the-line Model S, and it even exceeds the price of the Model X with a comparable specification.

Lucid Motors wants to attract buyers with a 1,000 HP powertrain, which will be fed from a 100 kWh battery pack. The said configuration should provide over 300 miles (482 km) of range with a single charge, which is not more than what Tesla’s Model S and Model X currently offer.

Shortly after the first series of the Air enters production, the company wants to offer a 130 kWh battery, which is supposed to supply enough energy for a 400-mile range (643 km). Samsung SDI is the maker of both battery packs, which are claimed to be engineered to withstand repeated fast charging without any loss in capacity over time.

Fortunately, Lucid Motors will not focus on just a high-end sedan, so clients with lesser expectations will be offered a model with fewer amenities. This will be the genuine Tesla-fighter, because it will be at a similar price with the Model S. By 2019, Tesla will have a cheaper car in showrooms, the Model 3, which will bring it the sales figures Elon Musk provisioned.

Curiously, the cheaper model will be available with the same powertrain, but it is expected to start at $85,000 without any options. To be eligible to buy one of those, a potential client has to pay a refundable deposit of $2,500.

According to Automotive News, Lucid Motors will build a factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, where it will manufacture the Air. The facility’s construction process will begin in early 2017. The first year of production has a target of 8,000 to 10,000 units, while the next two years should bring between 50,000 and 60,000 cars a year.

While it is easy to be skeptical of this new company, which is a start-up at the end of the day, you must all remember that Tesla Motors was once a start-up. Competition is healthy for the electric car market, and we can only hope that all challengers will significantly improve their products by the time the Air comes to market.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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