Lucid chief says “Tesla is distracted right now”

Lucid Group boss Peter Rawlinson reckons Californian rival Tesla has its eyes off the ball.

Speaking at the FT’s Future of the Car summit, the ex-Tesla chief vehicle engineer (who created the Model S) said: “I think that Tesla is distracted right now. There’s a degree of distraction which is worrisome.

"I think it’s for Lucid now to really take the mantle and to really help the technology kick off with absolute laser focus on the mission to create more electric cars to drive down the cost.”

In his keynote discussion, the Lucid chief also said we’re looking at batteries all wrong. He reckons how far the battery travels per kilowatt-hour is the more sensible way to judge the battery capacity.

There’s currently two ways of describing official battery range – the US’s EPA result and the EU’s WLTP number… and three, if you count China’s CLTC figure, too. But these lab numbers have very little to do with real-world results.

Rawlinson argues that judging the battery capacity on its density is fairer to consumers. “Almost anyone can claim to make a thousand kilometre-range car. If you stuff enough batteries in, it's relatively easy. And that's what some companies are doing. It's just not a legit exercise.”

The engineer claims the key is to go further with fewer batteries. By that token, the Lucid Air has a 4.74 miles-per-kWh capacity. (To put that into context, the Mercedes EQS has a 3.2 mpkWh capacity.)

Rawlinson says reaching 6 mpkWh capacity will enable smaller cars to be made, since they’ll be able to carry smaller (and cheaper) battery packs for the amount of daily or weekly miles they’ll need to be able to do. That, in turn, will bring the cost to a much lower price point.

Rawlinson said: “I don't aspire for us to do the $25,000 car, but if you could get a 6mpkWh car because you've got Lucid technology and if you've got a fast charging network that you know is reliable, why do you need more than 150 miles range? You’d only need a 25kWh battery bank. And the way that particularly LFP [battery tech] is going, that pack [could cost] under $3,000, maybe closer to $2,000 in a few years’ time. That is the enabler for the $20,000 car for the mass market.”

The Lucid boss has staked a lot in this new EV venture. The company got the backing of Aston Martin last year, in a deal that pulled it back from the brink of bankruptcy. But the share price has been less enthusiastic. While it’s creating a 90,000-car capacity factory in Arizona, and has dropped the cement for a 150,000-unit one in Saudi Arabia in recent days, the firm only sold 6,001 cars of the 8,428 it built in 2023 – a bit surprising when you consider how well the Lucid Air Sapphire actually drives.

Rawlinson reckons Mercedes is a bigger problem. He said: “We're up against the cache, the three pointed star, the allure of companies with a long and storied racing history. We don’t have that.”