Just 48 hours after Chevrolet officially commenced deliveries of the first US-built, affordable, long-range electric car, the Bolt, Lucid Motors -- a new company with manufacturing facilities in Arizona -- has taken the wraps off an electric car of its own: the Air.
But while the $30,000 Bolt is aimed at drivers who would otherwise be sizing up a Mazda3 or a Honda Civic, this car has far loftier ambitions.
The Lucid Motors Air wants to be a direct rival not only to the Tesla Model S but to cars like the BMW 7 Series and even the Porsche Panamera Executive. In other words, those with $100,000 to spend.
That's because, when deliveries officially start in 2018, it will offer owners 1000hp -- that's more than a McLaren P1 -- plus the sort of acceleration times that only hypercar owners currently experience on a daily basis.
Lucid says the car will rocket to 100km/h in just 2.5 seconds and that despite such potent performance, thanks to a battery pack that's been 10 years in the making (and co-developed with Samsung SDI) it will go the distance -- 400 miles to be precise. That's a better range than any plug-in car currently on sale anywhere.
But the reason why it will be a genuine competitor to the best luxury executive sedans on the road is the attention to interior detail. The rear seats (two, separated by a console) offer 55 degrees of recline and the sort of leg room that usually requires opting for a long wheel base car.
The extra space is thanks to batteries rather than an engine and transmission tunnel providing propulsion.
And of course, it couldn't truly compete with a BMW or Tesla if it didn't come with autonomous smarts. Lucid says that the car will be "autonomous-ready" when it arrives and that its capabilities will continually improve via over -the-air software updates.
If Lucid can deliver on all of those promises -- from luxury to performance and range -- then $100,000 is a very reasonable price indeed for a car that's as comfortable as a German sedan and as fast as an Italian supercar.
However, by 2018, those in the market for an executive electric car could be potentially spoiled for choice. Volkswagen, Porsche and Mercedes have all signaled their intention to launch their own EV models by that time, as has Henrik Fisker, the former Aston Martin designer who's developing a 400-mile range luxury plug-in sportscar of his own, the Fisker Emotion.
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