This is how EV rivals are and are not the same

Porsche, Audi, General Motors and other established carmakers are trying to tackle Tesla with new electric vehicles, but the first real competition from an advanced one may come from Lucid Motors, a company run by a former Tesla engineer Model S.

Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson is following in the footsteps of his former boss Elon Musk in terms of production, technology, dealerships and services. But it is charting a different path to electric vehicle charging stations, automated driving systems and advertising.

Below is how Lucid, who last week announced plans to go public through a SPAC deal, and Tesla, compare each other:

Unlike some newer electric vehicle companies, Lucid plans to manufacture all of its internal vehicles as Tesla does today.

Rawlinson believes that “vertically integrating manufacturing is the way forward,” he said in an interview. The comments echoed the statements of a lucid investor call last week.

“The simple fact is that manufacturing, ensuring the quality of our product is right, is an activity too prized, too critical, to trust a third party,” he told investors. “We have to control our own destiny.”

Lucid is building a new “green” car plant in Arizona that costs billions of dollars. When Tesla began its own vehicle assembly, it took over the NUMMI factory that was the headquarters of General Motors and Toyota Motor in California.

Lucid reached an agreement with LG Chem to supply battery cells, the most expensive part of any electric vehicle, for its standard battery packs for Air. The company said it will announce additional suppliers in the future.

Tesla already has deals with Panasonic, Samsung, LG and CATL for supplying cells for both its battery packs and energy storage products, including the Powerwall.

Lucid has said it also plans to manufacture energy storage products, both household batteries and large-scale devices. But Lucid won’t have the distraction or the capital burdens of running a solar business, as Tesla has done since acquiring SolarCity in the fall of 2016.

Tesla’s history with battery supply partners could be a short-term advantage for Tesla.

Through its long-standing collaboration with Panasonic, Tesla included undisclosed pricing terms as well as investments from the Japanese battery maker. Together, they own and operate a huge battery plant outside of Reno, Nevada.

Tesla manufactures the battery packs of its vehicles on one side of the factory, while Panasonic produces cells on the other side. However, Tesla told investors in September that it also began producing its own cells at a pilot plant in Fremont, California.

Lucid expects to produce more than 500,000 vehicles a year by 2030. Musk, known for declaring ambitious plans but for lack of self-imposed deadlines, has said Tesla will “probably” produce 20 million electric vehicles a year by 2030.

Last year, Tesla produced 509,737 electric vehicles, with deliveries of half a million even amid a global slowdown in car sales due to the Covid pandemic.

Rawlinson expects Lucid Air to be the catalyst for a range of future all-electric vehicles, including an SUV that will begin production in early 2023 and more affordable vehicles on the line.

For starters, Lucid plans to sell a high-end version of its Lucid Air sedan, the Dream Edition, for $ 169,000.

In comparison, Tesla sells its Model S sedan for $ 79,990 for the base model and $ 139,990 for the high-end Plaid + version (without adding the $ 10,000 Tesla software update).

In 2022, Lucid is expected to offer a version of the Air starting at $ 77,400, which would compete directly with several Tesla models. Prices do not include federal tax credits worth up to $ 7,500 that are available to Lucid customers, but not to current Tesla buyers.

At this time it is unclear to what extent lucid prices could drop after their first two vehicles hit the market.

Rawlinson said the next vehicle platform planned by the company will be the basis for less expensive models in the $ 40,000 to $ 45,000 range. But he’s not sure the company will ever offer a vehicle for about $ 25,000, which Musk said Tesla intends to do.

“In the longer and broader term, we make a $ 25,000 car, like Tesla plans to do with its Model 2?” Said Rawlinson. “My point is, as a company, I think we’re probably seven or eight years away from being able to contemplate something like that. This is a huge company.”

Rawlinson claims Lucid has industry-leading battery technology for its vehicles. Its main measure is the efficiency of Lucid batteries in kilometers per kilowatt hour driven.

Lucid claims its vehicles are capable of exceeding 4.5 miles per kilowatt hour, while the company claims Tesla’s S Long Range model is over 4.

Lucid has no plans to build and operate its own charging network, as Tesla has done with its Superchargers, according to Rawlinson. “Do we want to have the capital charge of a fast charging network? No, we can take advantage of the light. This is where we can save money,” he said.

Instead of building its own vehicle charging infrastructure, Lucid has partnered with Volkswagen-owned Electrify America, which expects to have 800 charging stations in total with about 3,500 chargers by the end of this year.

Tesla currently operates more than 20,000 superchargers worldwide, according to its website.

Lucid, like Tesla, says it will offer customers home charging devices.

When it comes to developing driverless vehicle technology, Elon Musk has famously known the lidar, or distance sensors and light detection, “a silly command.” Sensors work using pulse lasers to create a kind of live 3D map of the vehicle’s environment that can be read by on-board computer systems.

Many autonomous systems engineers believe that dealing is key to making cars truly driverless. Instead of dealing, Tesla’s driver assistance systems and expected self-promotion features depend on a plethora of other built-in cameras and sensors, including radars. Rawlinson believes choosing is a mistake.

“Do we think lidar should be part of the set of sensors for autonomous vehicles? Yes, we do,” Rawlinson said.

Lucid has said the Air sedan, which was delayed from this spring until the second half of this year, will use lidar in its sensor suite for advanced driver assistance systems. The company hopes the technology will set a “new benchmark” for the industry.

Tesla is selling an advanced and advanced automatic driving system for its vehicles for $ 10,000 today, and also plans to launch a subscription option. Although marketed as “Full Self Driving,” the system’s features don’t allow for a truly driverless, hands-free, unsupervised ride.

Instead, FSD enables features beyond Tesla’s standard autopilot package. These include smart navigation, automatic lane change, and smart calling. With Smart Summon, a driver can call his car from a parking spot using his cell phone as a remote control.

Tesla vehicles do not have a robust driver control system, which can detect if a driver is using their systems responsibly.

Meanwhile, Lucid is committed to including a driver control system in its vehicles that will ensure that drivers use their automated and advanced driving systems as prescribed, that they are attentive to the road and its surroundings, ready. to steer manually at any time.

Tesla has become one of the most well-known automotive brands in the world without the use of traditional advertising. Instead, it has generated hype and attention through emaciated events, non-traditional interaction with social media, Tesla online forums and owner clubs, and Elon Musk’s almost constant interaction with fans and shareholders. Musk has garnered about 50 million followers on Twitter, for example.

Lucid, on the other hand, carried out a national television campaign from December 25 to the end of January for Air to raise awareness of the company and the vehicle. Rawlinson said this campaign was not necessarily part of Lucid’s plans until last year’s coronavirus pandemic forced the company to cancel several events.

“I thought, well, damn, we’re going to have to do it because we couldn’t get the message out,” Rawlinson said. “So we’ve had a little foray into that, and I think it’s been very positive. So I don’t rule it out just because Tesla doesn’t.”

Lucid also adopts Tesla’s direct-to-consumer service and sales models rather than selling it through traditional franchise dealerships.

Lucid already has six outlets open in California and Florida. It plans to operate 20 malls and services in North America by the end of this year, in addition to selling its vehicles online. According to its website, Tesla has about 160 outlets in the US.