Lucid CEO Rawlinson: EV efficiency is the key to lower costs, lower prices

Lucid Group's first vehicle, the Air sedan, has broken records for EV range and efficiency and that's by design, said CEO Peter Rawlinson on Friday at the Automotive News Congress in Los Angeles.

Extracting more miles per battery pack will allow the California-based startup to produce more affordable vehicles in the near future and share its technology advantage with other automakers, Rawlinson said.

"Lucid's mission is not just to do EVs and jump on this EV bandwagon," said Rawlinson, who was chief engineer for the Tesla Model S a decade ago.

"Our mission is to advance the state of the art of the possible of the EV," he said in a question-and-answer session with Automotive News Publisher KC Crain.

"We've done that with ultrahigh-voltage, 920-volt architecture; faster charging, 300 miles in 21 minutes; the longest range, 520 miles; the most space in the interior for the exterior [size]; the largest frunk in the world [for a sedan]," Rawlinson said.

A frunk is a front trunk made popular by Tesla models.

Having essentially solved the question of range anxiety through efficiency and big batteries, Rawlinson said, the next goal is to translate that into lower costs for the automaker and lower prices for consumers.

For EV makers, elevated costs are directly tied to battery packs that can cost $20,000 or $30,000 for larger vehicles that need enough range to satisfy American buyers.

But with smaller vehicles, battery packs could be much smaller and efficiency could be much greater due to lower weight and ongoing technological advances, Rawlinson said.

Lucid recently took a first step toward reducing costs and prices with its Air, a luxury sedan priced at $169,000 excluding shipping when it launched a year ago. This week, Lucid launched the entry-level Air Pure trim level with 410 miles of range starting at $87,400, Rawlinson said.

Later this decade, Lucid will roll out a smaller "midsize" platform with the goal of producing vehicles for as low as $50,000, Rawlinson said. That's possible through greater efficiency — fewer electrons per mile — and smaller battery packs.

Lucid will remain a luxury automaker with pricing ranging from around $50,000 to $250,000, including the high-end Gravity SUV launching in 2024, Rawlinson said.

But Lucid can also help mainstream automakers — by licensing its technology — to produce a $25,000 EV, which is something the world needs, Rawlinson said.

"I think it's really important that I have this role to try and create a narrative as well, pushing toward efficiency," he said. "I want to go as far as possible with the smallest battery possible."

Rawlinson said a few automakers have inquired about licensing but that Lucid is still focused on scaling its own production and scaling up its factory in Arizona.

"The vision for getting the price down is so important," he said.