Latest news with #EmadDlala
Arab News
16-04-2025
- Automotive
- Arab News
Lucid says it is on track to enter midsize electric SUV market next year
RIYADH: 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 US, 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.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Lucid Gravity First Drive: An electric SUV that doesn't make compromises
Lucid has spent years working on its second EV — a plush van-like SUV designed to be the category killer that could take market share from the likes of other luxury EV and internal combustion people haulers like the Rivian R1S, Cadillac Escalade IQ, BMW X7, and Audi Q8. The Saudi-backed company's aim was to create an SUV without compromise — a lofty goal other automakers have tried and failed at before. After a first drive in the EV, which has a starting price of $96,550, it's clear the company did more than just focus on luxurious touches. Although there are plenty. The Lucid Gravity may just be over-engineering at its best. The EV is loaded with tech and upgrades from its predecessor, the Lucid Air sedan. Peter Rawlinson, the former Lucid CEO and CTO, who stepped aside in February, may no longer be at the company, but his engineering fingerprints are all over the new Lucid Gravity. And while customers may never see the tech under the proverbial hood, they will experience it. The Lucid Gravity has up to 450 miles of EPA-rated range, a zero to 60 mph time under 3.5 seconds, and charging times that are unheard of for current EVs. The Gravity can charge up to 200 miles in just 11 minutes on DC fast charging, according to the company, thanks to a new boost mode that leverages the rear motor as a transformer to boost charging. All of this luxury, tech, and spaciousness do come with a price. The vehicle's price tag ranges between $96,550 for the two-row Grand Touring trim to $99,450 for the three-row version. A "cheaper" $81,550 Touring model is expected to arrive later this year. Engineers working on Gravity took what they learned from Lucid Air Sapphire and the Lucid Air to create the company's new Gen 2 system that underpins the SUV. That includes a new battery developed in partnership with Panasonic (which Lucid says offers a 40% charging speed improvement over the competitive set), a new drive unit, a new thermal system, and a new charging system. Specifically, engineers created a system that allows the Lucid Gravity to charge at 225 kW on 500-volt architecture (which underpins Tesla's V3 chargers) chargers and at up to 400 kW on 1000-volt chargers (which underpins Tesla's new V4 chargers that are due to roll out this year). To do this, engineers used the Gravity's motor and inverter as a transformer to boost 500-volt charging to the battery's required voltage without adding extra hardware. They also implemented plug-and-charge for the system so that owners don't have to fuss with payment and charge initiation at certain chargers. The changes are part of Tesla's North American Charging standard that came out last year. The announcement of the standard came at a time when the development of the Gravity was nearly complete. The updated standard required a significant rethinking of the underpinnings of the Gravity when it was roughly 70% developed in late 2022 and early 2023, according to Emad Dlala, the senior vice president of powertrain at Lucid. 'When I joined in 2015, 400-volt was state of the art,' Dlala said. 'Quickly, we realized that we needed to take it to the next level,' he continued, 'so we developed a new technology that enabled charging through a legacy 500-volt charging architecture through a future 1000-volt charging architecture. What we learned from Air in 2021 has been completely changed.' The team behind Gravity also made a number of hardware changes to add in redundancy, support its infotainment system, and allow the company to eventually add more automated driving features to its advanced driver assistance system. The company is using Nvidia's Orin-X processors for AI perception and video processing for its advanced driver assistance system, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8295 for infotainment, and Infineon TC397 for vehicle dynamics and body control. Today, the Gravity offers what is known as Level 2 automated driving, a system that automates some of the driving, but still requires the driver to pay attention. Lucid is aiming to eventually offer Level 3, or L3, which typically offers hands-off, eyes-off driving on the highways in certain conditions. Its upcoming Dream Drive 2 Pro, an upgrade to its ADAS, is coming soon, according to the company, and will offer features like visualization of up to five lanes of traffic, curve speed control, lane change assistance, curb rash alert, and automated parking. The Gravity was designed to be spacious for occupants and their cargo. And engineers and designers achieved that goal. The interior is cavernous inside with a whopping 120 cubic feet of interior space, which Lucid says is 40% more than the closest competitor. It turns out an effort to avoid fuses helped them get there. The company wanted to find a way to not use fuses since they need to be regularly accessed and replaced when they blow, and they tend to take up precious interior space that could be used for cargo and passengers, according to Jean-Philippe Gauthier, the head of software engineering at Lucid. Instead, Lucid decided to use diffusers in the Gravity, which are essentially electronic switches. These diffusers reset automatically when the car is cycled off, respond faster to shorts in the system, eliminate the potential error of installing a fuse with the wrong amperage during replacement, and allow the fuse box to be buried deeper inside the vehicle instead of encroaching on interior space. Diffusers also can power down unneeded systems and reduce parasitic losses in the vehicle. To prove the Gravity was roomier than its competitors, the EV maker lined up a Cadillac Escalade IQ, Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, Rivian R1S, and BMW X7 on hand at an event in Los Olivos, California. Reporters were challenged to take boxes that filled the Gravity (including its spacious frunk) and stack them into the EQS SUV. It was an impossible task and with no other close competitor on hand. One fellow journalist who happens to be 6-foot, 6-inches was able to lie down in the rear of the Gravity comfortably and close the rear hatch without any issues. The Gravity is big and measures a whopping 198.2 inches in length and 87.2 inches wide. That puts the EV SUV slightly below the Chevrolet Suburban in size. Still, the vehicle is massive, which helps boost the interior space. Typically, full-size SUVs with that kind of footprint tend to be boomy inside and giant rollie-pollies on the road, making them uncomfortable to hustle, especially on winding roads. Not so with the Lucid Gravity. I drove the Gravity from Nipomo, California on the Central Coast along Cuyama Highway and Tepusquet Road, a steep, one-lane, sharply winding road, to Los Olivos for my test drive and it was surprisingly enjoyable and, dare I say, fun to drive. The Gravity is heavy (6,000-plus pounds in the three-row option I drove). I did feel some of that weight on the road. However, once I placed the vehicle in its comfort setting known as 'Smooth,' it handled highway cruising and wide sweepers with ease. I toggled it up to Swift for Tepusquet Road, and the adaptive dampers and air springs ate up the rough undulations and curves without unsettling the vehicle, or getting nauseatingly rolly at any point. It was so smooth on that winding road in the Swift setting that my passenger fell asleep. The Gravity gets rear-wheel steering when outfitted with the Dynamic Package (which adds around $,2900 to the base price), which gives you an additional 3-degrees of rear-wheel steering — both in phase and out of phase, depending on how quickly (or slowly) you're moving. That rear-wheel steer increases the agility of the vehicle and take up less of the road as it drives on single-lane mountain roads and even dirt track, which I did try out at a local ranch where Lucid set up a rally cross experience for us. Even when pushed (and sliding) through the dirt, the Gravity stayed remarkably flat and comfortable. And yes, you can do some very light off-roading with the Gravity as it gets 7-inches of ground clearance that can go up to 9-plus inches of clearance when raised. One of the surprising things that I liked the most about Gravity was the so-called 'squircal' steering wheel. Having driven other vehicles with (dumb) yokes, the squared-off circle wheel makes the Gravity feel even more agile and responsive, and the electrically-assisted rack and pinion steering is adjusted to be absolutely spot on: where you point the wheel, the vehicle goes without any mushiness. Lucid also tuned one pedal drive to be so intuitive that I didn't have to touch the brake once on the winding roads around Los Olivos. All in, it's clear that after more than four years in development, the seven-passenger all-electric SUV delivers remarkable range and efficiency, agility, and functionality for a wealthy buyer looking for an 'American-made' vehicle that isn't a Tesla.
Zawya
15-04-2025
- Automotive
- Zawya
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)
Reuters
15-04-2025
- Automotive
- Reuters
Lucid says it is on track to enter midsize electric SUV market next year
April 15 (Reuters) - Lucid (LCID.O), opens new tab 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 (TSLA.O), opens new tab 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 (F.N), opens new tab Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai ( opens new tab Ioniq 5 and the upcoming Rivian (RIVN.O), opens new tab 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.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
New luxury EV has a game-changing feature that may grab Tesla's attention: 'Next-level fast charging speeds'
A luxury automaker's first electric SUV took advantage of Tesla's robust Supercharger network beginning Jan. 31. As detailed by Electrek, when Lucid rolled out the Gravity before the end of last year, the spacious SUV became the first non-Tesla sold with a native NACS port. The Gravity, which seats seven people, boasts an incredible range of 450 miles on a single charge, and its port is on the rear driver's side — like Tesla EVs — allowing it to seamlessly charge at Tesla's V3 and V4 Superchargers. The NACS port is also compatible with Electrify America's network, further supporting drivers itching to take their EVs for a spin. Even though electric vehicles are much cheaper to maintain and power — and don't spew toxic planet-warming gases — worries about charging station availability can hinder their uptake. Drivers also frequently cite slow charge times as a hassle or safety concern. However, Tesla has more than 60,000 Superchargers worldwide. And Lucid VP of powertrain Emad Dlala said that Gravity features "next-level fast charging speeds" of up to 400 kilowatts on a 1,000-volt charger, thanks to its 926V powertrain and 123-kilowatt-hour battery, per Electrek. In other words, drivers could add 200 miles of range in less than 12 minutes. Ultimately, in order for Gravity's drivers to capitalize on this technological advancement, the charging network in the United States will need to evolve, as Electrek explained. That's because most chargers max out at 400V, with a small yet growing number of 800V options also available. Tesla's V3 Supercharger is 500V, giving the Gravity a sustained charging speed of around 225 kW. A 225 kW charging speed is nothing to sneeze at, leading one Electrek commenter to declare, "Lucid just seems to get things right." "Man, I can't wait for my lease to end on my EV9," another said. "I love it, don't get me wrong, but I'm putting one of these in my garage, pronto." If you were going to purchase an EV, which of these factors would be most important to you? Cost Battery range Power and speed The way it looks Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. While EVs are getting cheaper all the time, Lucid is still a high-end luxury brand with a small production capacity as its business matures, so it's not exactly cheap. That said, the Gravity will definitely have a lot of interested buyers with that whopping 450-mile range. The Grand Touring model can be ordered for $94,900, according to Electrek, and the Touring version, slated for later in 2025 with a projected lower range on one charge, will come in at $79,900. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
