Lucid’s next car will be a smaller, sub-$50k electric crossover

A new Lucid is coming, and it’ll be the cheapest and mass-markety one yet. At the company’s tech and manufacturing day – for announcements, not so everyone can chip in on the production line – Lucid revealed its third car would be a... Medium electric crossover.

A Medium electric crossover that’ll be on the roads in 2026, and will cost less than fifty thousand American dollars. A sub-$50k midsize car? That’s a very profitable pool to swim in. Think Tesla Model Y.

It’s early stages of course, and the company noted how the new crossover “will use the efficiency and cost advantages enabled by Lucid technology to deliver the same range as competitors while using a smaller battery”.

That tech centres around the company’s next-gen ‘Atlas Drive Unit’ – confirmed for this new crossover and any other cars spun off the midsize platform – which is essentially a mini-me of the one currently in use.

Lucid reckons miniaturising the drive unit allows for more interior room and greater efficiency, which in turn allows for a longer range and fewer batteries.

“A proprietary software stack enables the full potential of the advanced drive units,” said Lucid. Potential that includes torque vectoring, traction control and better battery management.

Judging by how supernaturally good the Lucid Air saloon is to drive – and how good the Gravity SUV looks – this could be a bit of a breakthrough moment for the American EV company. And it follows its own breakthrough: it’s already sold more cars this year (up to the end of August) than all of 2023 combined. More as we get it.