The upward arc of EV maker Lucid Motors continues Oct. 30 when it delivers the first Lucid Air Dream editions to a group of customers at an invitation-only event in California.
It’s unclear how many will be delivered the day before Halloween, but the company plans to produce 520 this year. The number is a clear nod to the maker’s Dream Edition Range model, which was EPA certified in mid-September to travel 520 miles on a full charge.
“Creating the Lucid Air has truly been a labor of love, with customer deliveries representing the culmination of years of endeavor from the entire Lucid team,” said Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, Lucid Group, in a statement.
“So I’m truly excited to hand the keys to our first dear customers and accompany them on an inaugural drive through the iconic California countryside.” After one of the quietest vehicle rallies ever, specifically designed to highlight the Air’s best qualities, the new owners will be free to take their vehicles home.
Deliveries a sign of ongoing progress
The first deliveries come a little more than 30 days after the company announced it would begin production at its 590-acre facility in Casa Grande, Arizona, near Phoenix.
Lucid’s currently producing two versions of the Air Dream Edition: the aforementioned Range model as well as Performance model, which sees a cut in range to 471 miles on a charge, but a boost in horsepower to 1,111 hp from the 933 hp the Range offers.
The Performance puts the extra ponies to good use, launching from zero to 60 mph in just 2.41 seconds and running the quarter mile in just 9.67 miles — both faster than most gas-powered monsters, including the Dodge Demon Hellcat, but lagging the vaunted Tesla Model S Plaid, which sprints to 60 mph in 1.99 seconds.
All Dream Edition models are equipped with a specially developed 118 kWh version of Lucid’s long-range battery pack, featuring 22 modules totaling 6,600 cells. These cylindrical cells are engineered for the Dream Edition with a chemistry that maximizes both performance and range.
The future is now … and a bit in the future
There are two more versions of the Air to follow, the Grand Touring and Pure models. The Grand Touring will be next up for delivery followed by the Pure. Deliveries for those versions begin in 2022, according to the company.
The Grand Touring model is expected to have a top range of 516 miles using 19-inch tires. That drops to 469 on larger 21-inch rubber. It’s the most efficient model the company will produce in the first round of vehicles delivering 4.6 miles per kWh. The car is rated at 800 hp and 885 pound-feet of torque and is the “slowest” of the early Air editions, handling zero to 60 mph in 3 seconds.
The first two version of the Dream start at just a little more than $160,000. However, the Pure, rated at 406 miles, is planned with a starting price of around $69,000. Officials say the company has 13,000 reservations for the Lucid Air.
Lucid noted last month it plans to add another 2.85 million square feet to the AMP-1 factory that will not only allow it to expand production of the Air sedan but launch its first SUV, dubbed Gravity, by 2023.
