Lucid Motors has enthusiastic strategies to defy doubters and handle Tesla

DETROIT – It’s been almost a years considering that Peter Rawlinson took the phase at the 2011 Detroit car program to expose the Tesla Model S sedan. There was an issue though. The automobile wasn’t all set, so he rather revealed the automobile’s body shell. 

“I was almost a laughing stock. I was derided,” Rawlinson, who was the Model S chief engineer and vice president of engineering at Tesla, informed CNBC. “No one took me seriously.”

The reveal came at a crucial time for Tesla, which required to show itself after going public at $17 a share and acquiring its existing Fremont plant in California.

“It’s hard to relate to that time now. Tesla is the most valued car company in the world,” Rawlinson stated throughout a Zoom interview. “Who would have bet on Tesla? Let me tell you, I knew that we had the core engineering talent and the technology in-house and that would come shining through at the end.”

Rawlinson, who left Tesla in 2012,  is now seeking to defy doubters once again with a comparable playbook as CEO of Lucid Motors, a start-up electrical car maker he states has the money, innovation and skill to turn into one of the very first genuine competitors to his previous company.

Rawlinson is taking lessons gained from his 3 years at Tesla in addition to other experiences with British automobile producers Lotus and Jaguar in an effort to separate and verify Lucid from a growing list of electrical car start-ups assuring to alter the world and bring brand-new electrical cars to market in the coming years.

Sam Abuelsamid, primary research study expert at Navigant Research, stated he’s bullish that Lucid has “the prospects to be a successful company.”

“Not necessarily to be the next Volkswagen. I see them as having potential to be small volume, high-end player,” he stated. “The challenge right now is there are so many companies trying to break into the auto industry.”

Lucid’s very first item is anticipated to be a high-end sedan – priced “well north” of $100,000 – called the Lucid Air. The business has actually constructed about 40 models of the car. It prepares to reveal its last variation of the automobile on Sept. 9, followed by production and client shipments next year.

Rawlinson, who was called CEO in April 2019, supported his claims of contending versus Tesla previously today by revealing the automobile is approximated to accomplish an EPA-rated series of 517 miles on a single charge. That quickly tops Tesla’s industry-leading 402 miles with a variation of the Model S.

Rawlinson anticipates the Air to be the driver for a lineup of future all-electric cars, consisting of an SUV beginning production in early 2023 and more inexpensive cars down the line.

“We started with that high-end product because I believe the first product defines the brand, just as Model S defined Tesla,” he stated. “And you have to create a technological tour de force to define the brand with your first product and that’s what we’re doing with Lucid Air.”

It’s a strategy comparable to how Tesla pertained to market. It’s one lots of business have actually stated they would follow with little to no success.

Lucid, like Tesla, likewise is going into the marketplace with a sedan rather of an SUV or pickup like lots of other start-ups are preparing to do. While there’s anticipated to be less competitors in the all-electric automobile market, sedan sales have actually plunged in the last few years with the increase of crossovers.

Abuelsamid sees the Air as what the Model S “could have been” if Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk had the resources and skill throughout the advancement and production of the car for a “real, high-end electric sedan.”

“For all the good stuff about the Model S in terms of electric drive technology, a lot of which can be credited to Peter Rawlinson … the reality is at its price point, $100,000 they were costing in the early days, it wasn’t much of a luxury car,” he stated. “The Air is completely different. It is if you actually tried to build a real 21st century luxury sedan.”

Rawlinson, an engineer who likewise functions as Lucid’s primary innovation officer, understands the business needs to show itself prior to any of those his strategies are even near to pertaining to fulfillment. He revealed as much aspiration as pragmatism when he discussed them.

“We have to approach this with a degree of humility because until we’ve got that car into production, we really haven’t achieved anything,” he consistently kept in mind to CNBC. “I tell the team that every day.”

Lucid was established in 2007 as Atieva, a name it now utilizes for its engineering and tech arm that provides batteries to electrical racing circuit Formula E. The business initially concentrated on electrical battery innovation prior to altering its name and moving to an electrical car maker in 2016, 3 years after Rawlinson signed up with the business to lead its innovation advancement.

“Right now, there’s one electric car company in a preeminent position,” Rawlinson stated. “No one’s really giving it some serious competition. Competition will improve the world, improve the breed.”

Lucid had some problem getting capital to money its strategies till September 2018 when it got $1 billion from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

The financial investment was anticipated to money the building of a factory in Arizona in addition to the launch of the Lucid Air in 2020. But that timeframe was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Rawlinson stated.

The automobile is now anticipated to start production early next year at the plant in Casa Grande, Arizona, which lies southeast of Phoenix.

The $700 million center, consisting of $300 million for the very first stage of production, is anticipated to have a preliminary car production capability of 34,000 systems, which Rawlinson thinks will grow to an optimum capability of 400,000 systems towards completion of the years.

Lucid, according to Rawlinson, has a four-stage strategy to grow the volume of cars and trucks produced at the plant in addition to a “Lucid manufacturing process” that takes lessons gained from his experiences at Tesla.

“Tesla is process adverse. I welcome process where it’s appropriate,” he stated. “We will have a production cosmos, not production chaos.”

Rawlinson, speaking opportunistically, revealed goals for the business to develop 1 million cars a year by 2027, which would imply the addition of a minimum of one extra production center and a number of brand-new items.

Lucid prepares to begin producing extra models of the Air at the factory by the end of the month, followed by complete pre-production test designs in December.

The California-based business just recently worked with Peter Hochholdinger, a longtime Audi executive who most just recently led Tesla’s production, to head production operations.

Companies have actually created innovative methods to explain their battery cells and packs. Rawlinson explains Lucid’s as “Lego blocks.”

Battery cells enter into the packs to power the car. The higher number of cells a pack has, the even more the car can normally go on a single charge.

Rawlinson stated Lucid has actually labored over every information of the batteries to get the best effectiveness to accomplish a greater variety with less cells. He likewise mentioned a “nerd-like” fixation relating to the business’s internal electrical motors and style and aerodynamics of the Air, to name a few things.

“The real measure of an EV company’s technology isn’t range per se, it’s efficiency,” he stated. “By that I mean how many miles can I travel per kilowatt hour.”

Lucid’s has to do with 4 miles per kilowatt hour, according to Rawlinson. That compares to the Tesla Model S Long Range Plus at 3.4 miles per kwh, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Rawlinson stated Lucid had the ability to accomplish this due to the fact that it brought as much innovation in-house as possible for the Air, something he likewise did at Tesla, however much more so now. The business is getting battery cells from LG Chem.

“They have put a lot of emphasis of maximizing that overall system efficiency,” Navigant Research’s Abuelsamid stated. “That’s going to be key for everybody to be successful in the EV space.”

Abuelsamid stated the power electronic devices to transform energy from the grid to power for the batteries is “one of the most crucial areas” a business can acquire effectiveness. Rawlinson stated the business has a highly-efficient “wonder box” to do this.

Rawlinson stated the business would ultimately like to certify its electrical car innovations, however for the time being, he’s focused on introducing the Air.  

“Others are really giving grand visions, but it’s not really based on anything. I’m kind of the nerdy engineer who doesn’t ever go and promote anything,” he stated. “But this is where we’re at today, and we haven’t’ done anything yet. But look, when we’ve done that, this is what I want to do.”

— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny added to this post.