Lucid Motors recently opened its first retail showroom in Beverly Hills and while this is just the start of the company’s ever-growing footprint across the United States, it already has its eyes set on some of the market’s most established names.
Last week, Lucid Motors chief executive Peter Rawlinson told Yahoo Finance that Lucid doesn’t consider itself a rival to Tesla and instead believes it is a competitor to Mercedes-Benz. Rawlinson has since expanded on these statements and explained what the Lucid Air has going for it that no ICE rival can match.
“We’re overtly, unashamedly targeting Mercedes-Benz,” Rawlinson said to Auto News. “For the Lucid Air, the natural competitor is an S-Class Mercedes. For the Air Dream Edition, it’s the AMG version of the Mercedes — but with a lot more performance and a lot cooler.”
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According to Rawlinson, a clear advantage the Air has over the S-Class and other rivals is the fact that it is smaller from the outside but bigger on the inside. Lucid has managed to optimize the space efficiency thanks to the Air’s compact electric powertrain components. Compared to Tesla, Lucid has also emphasized the use of luxurious materials throughout the cabin, while also spending a considerable amount of time perfecting the fit and finish.
Principal research analyst at Guidehouse Insights, Sam Abuelsamid, defined the niche the Air is going after.
“I think the Air is much more like a luxury vehicle,” he said. “Maybe not as ostentatious as a Mercedes S-Class, but going after a different sort of luxury, focusing on the technology and executing well. Can they execute to a level where people are going to spend that kind of money? We’ll see.”
During his interview with Auto News, Rawlinson added that Lucid has the funding to succeed where so many other EV startups have failed. Last year, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia invested “more than” $1 billion into Lucid. When pressed on exactly how much the fund invested and whether it was perhaps over $1.3 billion, Rawlinson suggested it’s “maybe even” more than that.
