- Lucid’s paint shop could fit an electric truck, but CEO says it won’t happen
- Lucid CEO Says There’s No Business Case for an Electric Truck With Current Technology
- The problem with electric trucks is efficiency and usability, according to Lucid CEO
Buyers hope Lucid will create a pickup truck focused on efficiency about to be left out in the cold.
At Lucid’s manufacturing and technology day on Tuesday, founder and CEO Peter Rawlinson said, “I don’t want Lucid to start thinking about pickup trucks.”
The issues surrounding an electric truck for Rawlinson all stem from efficiency, battery sizeand a business case.
Rawlinson has changed his mind about electric trucks. In 2020, the CEO told Green Car Reports that “if we wanted to build a longer vehicle like a pickup or something like that, which we might want to build in the future, the paint shop would be The future of pickup trucks.” At the time, Rawlinson said Lucid had no plans to sell the car, at least not yet, but it was an idea. team is considering.
That idea is outdated, as Rawlinson’s comments on Tuesday showed.
“I actually think it would be very difficult to build a working electric pickup truck today,” Rawlinson said.
The main problem with making an electric truck work is having to “usable and cost effective“, Rawlinson said.
Rawlinson notes that towing is not an efficient activity, and truck owners admit to towing and that it impacts driving range. That means big batteries, which add to the cost and price.
Rawlinson said a 120 kWh battery would be needed to achieve a 300-mile range for the pickup, but that’s not enough for towing. “I think the minimum threshold for a usable pickup truck is probably 150 kilowatt-hours,” the CEO said. The Lucid Air Sedan in its base Pure trim has an EPA-rated range of 420 miles using an 84-kWh battery pack.
Rawlinson said, “Now, how can you do that with like $50,000, $55,000, $60,000 and create a business opportunity?”
Rawlinson is focused on getting the most range from the smallest battery pack. The CEO said in August that it would lost many years of competition to catch up. Lucid sells most efficient car on sale today in the US with the Air, achieving 5.0 miles per kwh and 146 MPGe in EPA testing.
During the manufacturing and technology event, Lucid also revealed Mid-size electric SUV coming soon. The automaker said its Tesla Model Y rival will launch in late 2026 and cost less than $50,000. Lucid said the unnamed vehicle will have the same range as its competitors, although it will have a smaller battery.
Lucid is currently focused on ramping up production Gravity Electric SUVPre-production units are rolling off the assembly line, and customer deliveries are expected to begin later this year. Lucid says the Gravity will have a NACS charging port by 2025.
