Pretty surefire way to get more eyeballs on its product lineup, that’s for sure.
American EV marque Lucid Motors has been on something of a hiatus for some time now, as it wound down to as small a form as possible as the company searched for money to continue its efforts to become a dominant force in the EV marketplace. With US$1-billion in funding on the horizon, courtesy of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), Lucid is back on track to getting its Air luxury saloon out on the market by late-2020, though that doesn’t seem to be the end of it.
It seems that despite Lucid’s focus on getting the Air to market, they haven’t been caught unaware of the growing popularity of SUVs. However thanks to the general flexibility and modularity of EV platforms, the Air’s bones can very easily and very quickly be repurposed to make an SUV. And that’s exactly what Lucid isn’t saying they won’t do.
Yes, we know that line was vague, but so was Lucid’s CTO Peter Rawlinson, who didn’t say Lucid was going to make an SUV, but also didn’t say they wouldn’t.
“We have a plan for future models in mind, and we can hopefully be in a position to clarify that plan later this year. Certainly with the Lucid Air platform, we have a platform that is ideally suited for more vehicles than just the Air. And of course, we want to exploit that.” – Peter Rawlinson, Chief Technology Officer, Lucid Motors
Lucid previously intended to take things kind of gently in terms of expanding the lineup, but the urgency to expand has come from the new investors, according to The Verge. With SUVs picking up in sales globally, it would make sense for Lucid to jump on the wave. A lot of niche carmakers like Lamborghini and Maserati have gone from ‘healthy’ to ‘obscene’ sales numbers following the introduction of their SUVs, and Lucid’s cashflow could be greatly-improved with the introduction of a high-riding crossover. Think Tesla Model X, or indeed Model Y.
The company will not be reckless with its money though, as they’ll be balancing their expenses between its various commitments prudently. They’ll begin work on their Casa Grande, Arizona factory sometime this year, and continue to refine their Air prototypes continually, ahead of its production commencement in late-2020. And critically, between now and then, Lucid Motors doesn’t expect to have to raise any more funding.
Now that’s how you startup, Faraday Future.
For the best deals on a new car, check out our Showroom.
