We Finally have a 500 Mile Electric Vehicle, and It’s Not a Tesla
Lucid Motors has achieved the feat, but how promising is Lucid’s future and how did they do it?
It’s still unclear whether Lucid Motors will flourish in the very competitive auto industry. However, its technological advantages are undeniable: The Lucid Air sedan, with an EPA-rated range of up to 837 kilometers (520 miles), can drive further and charge faster than any other electric vehicle in history.
Aside from YouTube drag races, the Lucid’s main selling point is its unrivaled efficiency of up to 4.6 miles per kilowatt hour. A 924-volt design (against 400 volts for Tesla and 800 for Porsche’s Taycan) helps the car run more efficiently, restoring up to 300 miles of range in 20 minutes using a 350-kilowatt DC fast charger. That’s a new peak for the industry. (In addition, purchasers will receive three years of free refills on Electrify America’s expanding public network.) Six versions of the Air, with ranges ranging from 726 to 837 kilometers (451 to 520 miles), have snatched the top six spots in the EPA’s range rankings, with Tesla’s finest offering only 652 kilometers (405 miles).
So, how can you get 837 kilometers (520 miles) of range out of a large 2.5-ton luxury sedan? A factory tour demonstrates the company’s unwavering commitment to downsizing and in-house technology. Peter Rawlinson, Lucid’s founder and CEO/CTO, is in charge of this. As the car’s lead engineer, Rawlinson played a vital part in the development of the game-changing Tesla Model S. Rawlinson was previously the chief engineer at Lotus, whose Elise sports car was the inspiration for Tesla’s first automobile, the Roadster.
On Wednesday, the Silicon Valley-based business announced a “Dream Delivery Day” for Oct. 30, during which the first 13,000 booked clients will get Air Dream Editions, which are priced at $170,500 and limited to 520 copies. On news of the first deliveries, the now-public business, which is flush with $4.5 billion in new investment funding and is 65 percent owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, saw its stock soar to 47 percent.
A 650-horsepower Air Touring will be available for $96,500, while an 800-horsepower Grand Touring will be available for $140,400 later this year. A single-motor, 480-hp Air Pure will be available next year for $78,900, which is roughly $12,000 less than a Tesla Model S Long Range and $31,000 less than Mercedes-Benz’ electric EQS. A $7,500 federal tax credit is available to all buyers, bringing the most affordable Air to $71,400.
Some of the initial productions are shown to us. Airs are rolled off the line at this cutting-edge facility, with its unique procedures playing a key role in energy conservation from manufacturing to final product. The chassis and body of the Air are almost entirely made of aluminum, with extrusions and castings linked together with rivets, screws, and adhesives (and very few welds) to save weight. Structured battery packs of 22 modules and 6,600 cylindrical cells, a Lucid/LG variant of the 21700 cells used in Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y, are assembled by whirring robots. A Lucid innovation uses a thin aluminum ribbon instead of wire to link cells, saving an estimated 80 horsepower that would otherwise be squandered in electrical resistance. The adhesive is applied to the battery cells and allowed to cure for 26 minutes. A metal cooling plate, the new standard in EV packs that Tesla will soon adopt, distributes heat from terminal ends and eliminates a space-wasting thermal circuit.
The distinctive power units from Lucid are among the highlights.
Each unit produces 650 horsepower, with one per axle for all-wheel-drive Airs. The entire equipment, which includes a 20,000-rpm permanent-magnet motor, gearbox, inverter, and differential, weighs only 74 kilograms and fits within a regular roller bag. The result is a gravimetric power density of 6543 watts/kg, which is more than double that of Tesla’s units (3.98 horsepower per pound). The 924-volt architecture comes into play once more, allowing the inverter and electronics to run as efficiently as possible. In an interview with IEEE Spectrum, Rawlinson mentioned a cooling approach that brings liquid closer to the motor core, as well as an inverter whose silicon-carbide MOSFET chip “actually thrives on high voltage.”
Lucid wanted to reduce mechanical and aerodynamic friction as well as electrical impedance. The results of Lucid’s wind tunnel tests have yet to be independently verified. The streamlined Air, on the other hand, is expected to have a 0.21 coefficient of drag, which is an industry record for any luxury car. With fewer massive ducts needed to cool the powertrain and electronics, smart thermal management plays a role. Consider the 933-horsepower Dream Edition Range variant for an example of the “every little thing” approach — and unsung heroes like aero, unsprung weight, and tire resistance: The EPA-rated range drops to 774 km (481 miles) with the more attractive 21-inch wheels and taller, wider tires, against 837 km (520 miles) with the base 19-inch wheel set. That’s an extra 63 kilometers (39 miles) of range with only the wheels and tyres, with no changes to the body or motor.
The Air could have gotten even more mileage if it had used the kind of frugal-yet-flabby tires found on a Toyota Prius, for example. However, for a high-style luxury sedan with drastically huge wheels and roadholding and handling comparable to European sport sedans, this wouldn’t work. As a result, Pirelli and Lucid produced the world’s first “HL” rated tire, engineered to safely accept the weight of EVs — and the Air’s top speed of 270 km/h (168 mph) — while minimizing rolling resistance. The Lucid also has an onboard “Wunderbox,” which is a charging unit that allows for future bi-directional, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) or vehicle-to-vehicle charging. Another industry first is the 120-degree Lidar onboard, which is part of a suite of 32 sensors that includes 14 cameras, one of which is a driver monitor. Elon Musk, whose cars don’t integrate either, continues to disagree with a near-consensus of autonomy specialists who regard Lidar and driver monitoring as vital to really self-driving cars.
What about Lucid Gravity?
The Gravity, an SUV set for production in 2023, is the next make-or-break move for Lucid. Next year, the business plans to produce 20,000 Airs, bringing in $2.2 billion in sales. A plant extension, which is currently in the works, will increase capacity to 90,000 units by 2023, with a long-term objective of 365,000 units. Lucid intends to expand its manufacturing operations in Europe, China, and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi facility might operate as early as 2024, as the country works to lessen its reliance on oil and convert to electric vehicles.
Lucid, of course, has a long way to go before it can compete with Tesla, which is currently valued at $1 trillion and on target to sell roughly 1 million cars this year. The Air’s major showroom targets, according to Lucid, are premier European ICE sedans like the Mercedes S-Class, not Tesla’s Model S. Regardless of future business prospects, Lucid has already provided an important public service: The popular thinking, broadcast on every news channel, investment call, and tech website, was that Tesla’s lead was unbreakable, and that its technology would be unrivaled for years, if not decades. In the time it takes to recharge the Air or drive 520 miles, Lucid has upended and exposed conventional knowledge.
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