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By Hyunjoo Jin and Joshua Franklin
SAN FRANCISCO, February 23 (Reuters) – Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson told Reuters on Tuesday that the luxury electric car maker plans to launch a rival of TeslaInc’s Model 3 in 2024 or 2025.
The company, led by the former Tesla engineer, follows the same strategy as Tesla, starting with a luxury car to create a halo around the brand and then expanding into the mass market.
This week, he announced plans to go public with the merger with a bank account company, a move that marks a market capitalization of $ 56 billion, before the first model of Lucid Motors’ first production begins.
Rawlinson said the production of a mass car needs to be increased.
“I can not wait to do that,” he told Reuters, referring to the version of Tesla’s Model 3, which is the most expensive sedan. But first, Rawlinson said he would focus on the more luxurious, larger car, which paradoxically takes up fewer resources.
“Making a smaller car requires more capital because there is a need for a larger factory and more automation,” he said.
Experts believe it may be too late for Lucid to launch the affordable model, as legacy makers such as Volkswagen, Hyundai Motor and Ford are already launching affordable models to challenge Tesla.
“There is a question mark over whether there is a market for Lucid left after four to five years,” said Mel Yu, an automotive analyst.
Lucid Motors’ first electric car, the luxury Air, will now only start in late 2021, later than the spring in 2021 that was initially planned.
Rawlinson said the carmaker expects production of an expensive, sub- $ 70,000 version of the luxury sedan in 2022, followed by a sports utility vehicle called Project Gravity in 2023. He said he is interested in picking up pickups and commercial vehicles developed, but it is a few years away and can be built with partners.
“The world urgently needs $ 25,000 cars. Lucid has not been able to do this realistically for eight years,” he said, adding that even Tesla has not yet introduced such a model.
He also said that six well-known car manufacturers have issued him in the past month and have shown interest in Lucid Motor Technology. The collaboration with another company could lead to the production of a $ 25,000 car in the next three to four years.
He also said that it is still too early for the company to make its own battery cells, adding that he has contracts with suppliers LG Chem and Samsung SDI. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Peter Henderson in San Francisco and Joshua Franklin in Miami; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Richard Pullin)