Lucid’s Tesla Model Y competitor expected within a few years [Update]

Update: ‘Future launches of Lucid Motors’ and ‘TopElectricSUV says’ sections added.

Lucid Motors’ journey in the auto market began with the launch of the Lucid Air electric sedan in the second half of 2021. In 2024, the Peter Rawlinson-led California-based startup will launch a Tesla Model X rival – the Lucid Gravity, and a few years later, it plans to release smaller models.

Like Tesla, Lucid Motors charts a top-down approach by releasing large, upper-class models before moving to smaller models like mid-size cars that have a large volume potential. In February 2021, Lucid Motors held a conference call in which executives revealed plans to launch many new EVs in the future, including more Lucid SUVs and a Lucid pickup truck.

Beyond Project Gravity, we have a beguiling range of products planned for the next decade, and that will encompass multi-platforms. And there’s one thing I really want to emphasize here. Please do not mistake Lucid for a niche player. We’re starting overtly high-end deliberately to establish the brand. I want Lucid to be huge. Over the next decade, we’re gonna make hundreds and hundreds thousands of cars.

Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, Lucid Motors

Future launches of Lucid Motors

Tesla Model Y-like SUV

A Lucid mid-size SUV competing with the Tesla Model Y could turn out to become its best-selling model when it arrives later this decade. It would be quite suitable for gaining a share of the European markets where the Lucid Gravity, in comparison, is deemed too big. It could have a longer range than the Tesla Model Y, between 350-400 miles (EPA). Like the Gravity, expect a fluidic yet masculine exterior and an interior that is more futuristic and lavish than all competitors.

As we look out to the end of the decade to the 2030 calendar year, we will have an expanded vehicle line-up, including products at lower price points, which, when combined with the expected growth in the vehicle market, really opens up the size of our potential market to above 15 million units annually.

Michael Smuts (Mike Smuts), Vice President of Finance, Lucid Motors

Mid-size sedan/coupe

Speaking to analysts and investors during Lucid Motors’ Q3 2022 earnings conference call on November 8, 2022, Rawlinson said the first Lucid mid-size EV will arrive “towards sort of late mid-decade.” That will be an “awesome” and “much more affordable” model, he added.

Lucid is likely to launch a mid-size sedan/coupe before the mid-size SUV, as the company has already teased such a model. The picture below shows Rawlinson in front of what looks like a mid-size Lucid coupe or coupe-styled sedan.

The teased Lucid mid-size EV is visibly shorter than the Lucid Air. It has a slippery exterior that should result in a coefficient of drag of 0.20 or lower. The roofline steeply tapers from behind the B-pillar, much like on the Hyundai Ioniq 6. The first Lucid mid-size model appears to have a sleek greenhouse and a full-width tail light bar as well.

The design work of the future Lucid model is in the hands of Derek Jenkins, Senior Vice President, Design, Lucid Group, so it should turn out just as stunning and desirable as the Air. The silhouette strongly indicates this car will be more aggressive, though, compared to the rather poised Lucid Air.

TopElectricSUV says

The Lucid mid-size SUV will likely make the brand much more accessible and potential Tesla Model Y customers a fresh choice in the segment. It will likely be the best-looking model in its segment, and perhaps the most technologically advanced, too.

Lucid mid-size SUV FAQs

Featured Image Source: Lucid Motors