The Rivian R1T (left) is a sporty pickup truck designed for off-road adventures. The Lucid Air (right) is a luxury sedan that aims to lure buyers away from the Mercedes S-Class. Both are produced by new electric startups that have attracted a lot of investment.
Elliot Ross / Courtesy of Rivian / Courtesy of Lucid Motors
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Elliot Ross / Courtesy of Rivian / Courtesy of Lucid Motors
The Rivian R1T (left) is a sporty pickup truck designed for off-road adventures. The Lucid Air (right) is a luxury sedan that aims to lure buyers away from the Mercedes S-Class. Both are produced by new electric startups that have attracted a lot of investment.
Elliot Ross / Courtesy of Rivian / Courtesy of Lucid Motors
Rivian and Lucid are not family names. But, somehow, these two electric startups are both worth more than Ford.
Both companies are cash-strapped, and they’ve hit a big milestone: They’re actually building and delivering cars to customers.
That has put them in front of an epic race to recreate Tesla’s incredible success story, as the auto industry accelerates its transition to electric vehicles.
Production numbers are still small – just a few hundred pieces each to date. But they have big ambitions to scale up in the coming years.
And a lot of smart investors are banking large sums of money that they will be able to withdraw. Lucid is funded by a Saudi Arabian wealth fund, while Rivian receives investments from Amazon (which is also buying 100,000 of its delivery trucks) as well as Ford.
Both have executive teams that investors and analysts praise for their focus on fundamentals, in an area often seen as hype rather than substance.
Lucid is led by Peter Rawlinson, who has a long history in the auto industry, including a key role at Tesla in engineering support for the Model S.
Meanwhile, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe didn’t have a long automotive background when he founded the company, but he does have a Ph. in mechanical engineering.
Still, there are doubts about whether either can become a real player in the auto industry – especially as established companies like Ford and GM quickly move to electric. gasification of their most popular car models.
Here’s a closer look at Rivian and Lucid.
Rivian: The self-described Patagonian pickup truck
America loves pickup trucks, and Rivian hopes to profit from that passion.
Rivian’s R1T truck is the first electric pickup truck sold in the US.
Competition is fast-moving on Rivian’s heels. Ford is rapidly scaling production of its upcoming F-150 Lightning, a pickup designed for practicality (starting at $40,000, it can serve as a backup power source for the house). when the power goes out and Ford is stressing that it can run site-level power tools.)
But Rivian is marketing to a different audience, someone eager to pack a tent, skateboard, or hiking pack in their truck, rather than wood and toolboxes.
Features include a “gear tunnel” for storing adventure gear, a built-in flashlight that pops out the door, a detachable bluetooth speaker so you can blast tunes at your campsite, and a kitchen optional with sink and induction hob – for cooking -road.
A Rivian R1T electric pickup truck is on display outside the Nasdaq MarketS Website in Times Square, New York, on Nov. 10. Shares of the electric truck maker surged in its first day of trading. after the completion of the IPO.
Bing Guan / Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Bing Guan / Bloomberg via Getty Images
A Rivian R1T electric pickup truck is on display outside the Nasdaq MarketS Website in Times Square, New York, on Nov. 10. Shares of the electric truck maker surged in its first day of trading. after the completion of the IPO.
Bing Guan / Bloomberg via Getty Images
The truck, which starts at $69,000, is also luxurious and airy at the same time.
It has creature comforts like heated and cooled “vegan leather” seats, and an adjustable air suspension that can raise ground clearance by almost 15 inches for off-road adventures.
Recent Edmunds Automotive Data Site declare that the R1T “accelerated, cornered, and brake hard every truck we tested.”
“If you think Tesla is the right person for Brooks Brothers, we are Patagonia,” said James Chen, vice president of policy and regulation at Rivian. “You won’t wear a Brooks Brothers suit to go camping, adventure or ski hills, but you will wear your Patagonian suit.”
When he’s not a management attorney in DC, he’s a ski patrolman in Pennsylvania. That, in and of itself, is the sum total of the whole Rivian vibe.
The company also has plans to bring an SUV to market, and is targeting the enterprise market with upcoming delivery vehicles.
Lucid: A luxury sedan aimed at the Mercedes S-class
If Tesla was a nice suit, and Rivian was an expensive Patagonian coat, then Lucid would be such a luxury clothing brand. most ordinary people have never heard of it.
Strictly speaking, a company executive said Lucid’s equivalent outfit would be James Perse. It’s a California-based company that sells recycled cashmere wool coats for $350.
Lucid’s favorite phrase for their aesthetic is “post-luxury” – meaning super-premium materials and performance, but more minimalism than luxury.
Lucid Air takes the stage at the LA Autoshow 2021 on November 17, 2021. The luxury electric sedan won the award for Car of the Year 2022 this month.
Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images
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Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images
Lucid Air takes the stage at the LA Autoshow 2021 on November 17, 2021. The luxury electric sedan won the award for Car of the Year 2022 this month.
Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images
CEO Peter Rawlinson said in an interview with NPR earlier this year while driving around the streets of DC: “It’s a shame to be a premium product. It’s a great machine.
Lucid Air Dream Edition costs $169,000. Lucid said it is trying to compete with the Mercedes S-class, the famous luxury sedan, rather than any electric vehicle on the market today.
The first version of the Lucid Air featured a unibody glass roof that extended over the driver’s head and a cabin made from materials such as “silver eucalyptus”, Napa full-grain leather and “naturally colored alpaca wool”.
The car also boasts some record-setting specs for an electric vehicle: a range of more than 500 miles and claims of unprecedented fast charging speeds. According to Lucid, with the right charger, the car can go an additional distance of nearly 300 km in 20 minutes.
The Lucid Air just won Motortrend’s Car of the Year award and the Dream Edition is already sold out. Cheaper models, which have not yet begun shipping, will start at $77,000.
A Lucid Air Grand Touring luxury electric vehicle is on display at Lucid Motors’ studio and service center on February 25 in Beverly Hills, California. The company is looking to compete with the luxury Mercedes-S class.
Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
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A Lucid Air Grand Touring luxury electric vehicle is on display at Lucid Motors’ studio and service center on February 25 in Beverly Hills, California. The company is looking to compete with the luxury Mercedes-S class.
Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
But major challenges remain for both Rivian and Lucid
They may be garnering a lot of buzz, but the two models still face enormous challenges.
Rivian and Lucid needed to scale up from producing a few hundred cars to tens or hundreds of thousands.
And they face stiff competition from the major automakers, who are also racing to catch up with Tesla – and who are planning to mass produce the vehicles. much cheaper than the luxury cars that Rivian and Lucid are starting.
Some investors argue that the auto giants cannot move as quickly as the disruptive new startups because they are still so committed to producing gas-powered cars.
Asad Hussain, mobility analyst at PitchBook, said: “The fact that you’re producing millions of vehicles right now comes with a heavy price, and that’s the price you pay for investing so much in the system. internal combustion system”. “And I think as a Rivian, as a Lucid… you’re unencumbered by these challenges and you can build on it. [electric vehicle] company from scratch. ”
Not everyone is so sure.
“While Detroit automakers are often portrayed as dinosaurs by the Silicon Valley mob, the reality is that they have more decades of truck development experience than their startups and well-sourced competitors. force to produce in bulk at a lower cost,” Jessica Caldwell, with Edmunds, wrote after Rivian went public.
“Not to mention they have massive brand awareness and an enviable advertising budget,” she added.
For now, however, investors seem to be betting that startups can innovate more easily than changeable incumbents. And that has made Lucid and Rivian two of the most valuable automakers in the world.
