The scuttlebutt about Lucid Motors has been that its sleek 1,000 horsepower electric sedan called the Air will have a starting price of $100,000. Not so, Lucid said today. The base price for the Air will be $52,500—after federal tax credits are applied. Granted, you’ll have to pay more for four-digit power, but the base price sounds pretty good.
In a blog post published Wednesday, Lucid’s director of marketing, Zak Edson, said the car being shown off to the public in recent months “represents a well-optioned Lucid Air, leading to confusion regarding the price range.” Still, Edson said, the base model car will be “well appointed and enjoyable to drive.”
But there’s definitely a difference here. According to Edson, the base model will be a 400 HP RWD version with a claimed range of 240 miles; the model being shown off to the public has been touted as a potential Tesla-killer, with 1000 HP and a claimed range of 400 miles. (By contrast, a base Tesla Model S 60, with a 218 mile range, starts at $71,300 these days; a top P100D is nearly $140,000.)
Still, if the performance level matches what we experienced during a test drive in January, the base model should be a rock-solid vehicle. Edson said the base model Air will be equipped with all the necessary hardware for autonomous driving, along with significant interior space that was prevalent in the alpha prototype we experienced at this year’s CES conference.
From there, Edson says, the options to build on the base model are vast and “will allow the Lucid Air to compete with the best of the large luxury cars.” That includes a 315 or 400 mile range battery option, and an up to 1,000 HP twin-motor configuration with all-wheel drive.
The price of a fully-loaded Air, Edson said, will climb north of $100,000, “but we are not yet able to provide specific top-of-the-line pricing.”
But I think the takeaway here is: Lucid seems dead serious. We’ll see if it can steal some hype from Elon Musk’s shop.