Range-topping Lucid Air is now available to Saudi buyers as construction on Lucid's second factory gets underway.
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The Lucid Air Dream Edition is now on sale in Saudi Arabia and the first deliveries have already taken place. We heard about this through unverified Tweets last week but it wasn't officially confirmed until a recent keynote presentation by Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson.
Rawlinson gave the presentation via Zoom as part of the Winter Enrichment Program at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. The program's major focus is on sustainability and climate change viewed through the lenses of technology, food and water, energy, healthcare and the environment. During his speech Rawlinson played up the aligned visions shared by Lucid and the government of Saudi Arabia with regard to energy and transport.
Rawlinson went on to thanks the Saudi Public Investment Fund for its continued support of Lucid before showing a video of construction work well underway on the company's AMP-2 facility. Starting with an empty stretch of desert we see the building's underlying structure assembled before the video moves to the ribbon cutting ceremony for Lucid's Studio in Riyadh.
Lucid's second factory will at first assemble knock-down Air kits from the US before moving into production proper at a later date. The new factory is located just 25 minutes from the university which will give Lucid the ability to cooperate with educators and cherry-pick talent.
Artist's rendering of the finished AMP-2.
Efficiency: The New Imperative for Electric Vehicles
The majority of Rawlinson's presentation centered around the need for better efficiency in electric vehicles, giving him a nice opportunity to show off some of Lucid's proprietary EV tech. First up is the battery, followed by the individual components of the drive system with explanations of how the engineers eked maximum efficiency from each.
Rawlinson lauds the power density of his company's motors, claiming that the Air's power units make 9 hp/kg while the competition only manages about 3.5. He then shows off the dual-motor rear drive unit from the upcoming Lucid Air Sapphire which weighs 148 kg and makes 1340 horsepower.
Bringing in the dual-motor rear drive unit from a Tesla Model S Plaid, Rawlinson notes that it's 100 kg heavier than the Sapphire's, but only produces 10 horsepower more than the 670 hp single-motor drive units from the rest of the Air range. Skip to 36:45 in the video below to see a man very happy about sticking it to Tesla.
The Lucid Air is a great achievement in the story of the electric vehicle and its efficient technology pushes its genre forward. The Air Dream Edition going on sale in Saudi Arabia and the ongoing construction at AMP-2 are great signs towards permanence for Lucid, which has suffered from nose-diving share prices and problem after problem in the past year. As one commenter on the WEP stream put it: "You build a better car, now build a better stock." Moves like this certainly make it look like Lucid is intent on doing just that.
Related Story: Lucid Air Gets Glowing Review From Consumer Reports
Images by Lucid Motors licensed by CC BY 4.0.
James Walker is an Automotive Journalist at Torque News focusing on Lucid Motors. If it's got wheels he's interested, and he's looking forward to seeing what kind of cars the EV revolution brings us. Whether it's fast, slow, new, or old, James wants to have a look around it and share it in print and on video, ideally with some twisty roads involved. You can connect with James on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
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