Lucid says it is on track to enter midsize electric SUV market next year
Lucid is on track to launch its midsize electric SUV in 2026, company executives said on Tuesday, as the EV maker looks to tap an increasingly competitive segment dominated by rival Tesla's bestselling Model Y crossover.
"There are a lot of crazy things going on in the world that can affect that (timeline). But currently we are on track," said Derek Jenkins, senior vice president at Lucid.
The company targets a $50,000 price point, which will pit the model against contenders such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the upcoming Rivian R2.
Teams at Lucid have been preparing assembly lines and working with vendors to move ahead with the launch, said Emad Dlala, senior vice-president at the electric-vehicle maker.
TARIFF IMPACT
Lucid is not immune to the Trump administration's tariffs but is working to mitigate its effects, interim CEO Marc Winterhoff told Reuters.
While the EV maker does not plan any price hikes, it has signed agreements with battery cell and graphite suppliers to bring production to the United States, Winterhoff said.
"We have those agreements already. The plants are being built right now, so it's not something that we can switch on today, but it's in the near future," he said.
Former Tesla engineer Peter Rawlinson, who was the CEO of Lucid for more than five years, resigned in February.
The company, backed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund PIF, plans to launch the less-expensive Touring variant of the Gravity SUV later this year, starting at $79,900. It expects strong demand for the premium model to help double its 2025 vehicle production to around 20,000 units.
Lucid started producing its Gravity SUV at its Arizona factory last year, with customer orders for the Grand Touring trim opening in November.
(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Etihad
6 hours ago
- Al Etihad
VW's Wolfsburg plant may move to four-day week from 2027, Works Council says
3 June 2025 23:36 BERLIN (Reuters) Volkswagen's restructuring of its Wolfsburg plant from 2027 to make way for EV-only production could result in a temporary four-day working week at the plant, Daniela Cavallo, VW's Works Council Chief told workers on a central figure in negotiations with management last year over cost cuts, said unions had agreed on minimum capacity utilisation for the transition period, but urged workers to take extra shifts in the run-up to compensate for the likelihood of fewer working hours in years to come."We have to make provisions now so that we can draw on them later ... From 2027 onwards, a temporary four-day week is not an unreasonable scenario," Cavallo deal struck with unions last December to cut costs in Germany included moving production of the combustion engine Golf from Wolfsburg to Mexico in 2027, prompting concern among some employees at the carmaker's headquarters over the future of the sought to assure workers on Tuesday that the plant's future was in safer hands via plans to produce the electric Golf, as well as a successor to its T-Roc compact SUV, by the end of the decade, pointing to the steady decline in demand for the combustion engine version of the iconic VW production globally, most of which was concentrated in Wolfsburg, has declined from over a million in 2015 to just over 300,000 in 2024, a graph compiled by the Works Council and seen by Reuters showed, with just 250,000 cars forecast for this year.
Middle East Eye
7 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
US backs Syrian plan to absorb foreign fighters into national army: Report
The US appears to have backed a plan by the Syrian government to assimilate thousands of foreign rebel fighters into the Syrian national army, Reuters reported on Monday. An estimated 3,500 foreign fighters, mainly Uighurs from China and Central Asia, would join a new unit called the 84th Syrian army division, also comprised of Syrians, three Syrian defence officials told Reuters. Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and President Donald Trump's special envoy to Syria, told Reuters that the US government sought transparency and said there was an understanding between the US and Syria. Later on Tuesday, Barrack praised Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, saying he had taken'meaningful steps' on foreign fighters. Barrack said the two met in Istanbul on Saturday. Barrack said it was a better strategy to contain the fighters than exclude them, as many are "very loyal" to the new government. This approach reverses the US's previous demand that the new leadership exclude foreign fighters. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The change is seen to be a result of Trump's visit to the Middle East in May, when he agreed to meet Syria's new leader and lift the US's long-term sanctions on Syria. Syria has been under sanctions since 1979, when the US labelled Damascus a state sponsor of terrorism under the government of Hafez al-Assad, father of deposed Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. Barrack also told Turkish media that the US would be reducing its military presence in the country. Foreign fighters Syria's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and linked groups were instrumental in toppling Bashar last year after a 13-year civil war between rebel groups and the former leader. Jordan's king warned US against assassinating Syria's Sharaa before Trump meeting Read More » HTS was comprised of many Uighurs who mostly came from China during the Syrian civil war and were persecuted in China. Uighurs are one of 55 recognised ethnic minorities in China and are Turkic-speaking. They are largely Sunni Muslims and live in the country's northwest Xinjiang province, which has had intermittent autonomy over the past few centuries. Most of the Chinese and Central Asian fighters belong to the Turkistan Islamic Party, designated a terrorist group by China. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters that "China hopes that Syria will oppose all forms of terrorism and extremist forces in response to the concerns of the international community." The Chinese government is accused of detaining more than one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the eastern Xinjiang region and subjecting the community to abuses some have labelled a "genocide". China denies all allegations of abuse. Western powers have been concerned about foreign fighters in Syria. Sharaa has argued that bringing foreign fighters into the national army is less of a security risk than discarding them, as they would be more susceptible to being recruited by al-Qaeda or the Islamic State militant groups. The National reported that foreign fighters will be granted Syrian citizenship.
Zawya
11 hours ago
- Zawya
US job openings rebound in April; layoffs pick up
U.S. job openings increased in April, but layoffs picked up in a move consistent with a slowing labor market amid a dimming economic outlook because of tariffs. Job openings, a measure of labor demand, rose 191,000 to 7.391 million by the last day of April, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday. Data for March was revised higher to 7.200 million open positions instead of the previously reported 7.192 million. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 7.10 million vacancies. April's rise in vacancies was likely a correction following March's sharp decline. Hiring increased by 169,000 to 5.573 million in April. Layoffs rose 196,000 to 1.786 million. Economists say the on-gain, off-again manner in which the import duties are being implemented is making it difficult for businesses to plan ahead. A U.S. trade court last week blocked most of President Donald Trump's tariffs from going into effect, ruling that the president overstepped his authority. But the tariffs were temporarily reinstated by a federal appeals court on Thursday, adding to the uncertainty facing businesses. Consumers are increasingly becoming less confident about the jobs market and the Conference Board's labor market differential has narrowed considerably this year. That could be reinforced by May's employment report, which is scheduled for release on Friday. Nonfarm payrolls likely increased by 130,000 jobs last month after advancing by 177,000 in April, a Reuters survey of economists showed. The unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 4.2%, with greater risks of a rise to 4.3%. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao)
