Will future Lucid EVs be able to compete if they do not have as much range as other EVs?
Okay, so by now we all know one of the most common reasons many cite for not owning an electric vehicle (EV) and are sticking to a petrol powered internal combustion engine (ICE) car is because of the limited range these vehicles possess. To make matters worse, now the CEO of Lucid, Peter Rawlinson claims future EVs will only need a range of about 400km. Do you agree?
Personally, while it is certainly possible, I do not think that any EV, even a Lucid EV would fare well in any market especially if it only has about 400km of range. What’s more, at the moment, many countries, including Malaysia, simply do not have the charging infrastructure spread out across the country to make owning an EV and doing long distance viable.
Moreover, Peter Rawlinson also said that Lucid will not be building a £20,000 (RM101,754) EV, but it could supply some of the necessary technology to make it happen as he believes that the affordable EV of the future needs to focus more on high efficiency and a small battery pack to drive down EV costs, but without sufficient distance, will any of it even matter?
Rawlinson also stated that if an efficiency figure of six miles per kilowatt-hour can be achieved and the average buyer would only need 150 miles (241km) of range, that means future EVs could have 25-kilowatt-hour battery packs. That would obviously help drive down production costs and EV prices, but will less range help or hurt the sales of Lucid EVs?
On top of that, now we ask you, when the inevitable EV future comes to Malaysia and we have sufficient infrastructure to make owning only an EV viable, would you fork out more money to buy a Lucid with lesser range or something more affordable with a lower price tag and more range? I personally think the latter option would be better, but what about you?
Well at least Lucid is not only giving us gloomy news as it has been confirmed that while building a USD25,000 (RM116,763) EV is out of the question, Lucid will still deliver cheaper models than the USD90,000 (RM420,345) Lucid Air luxury sedan in the second half of the decade, starting with Project Gravity SUV, so at least that’s something.
Well, either way, the real question now is, do you agree that future EVs will only need a range of about 400km or is that not enough for the average EV owner? We got all this from Motor 1 and their full article is linked here. Thank you Motor 1 for the information and images.
