Lucid Motors has been making some dramatic moves lately. The company scooped up major engineering talent in Cory Steuben, the now former President of Munro & Associates. But that’s not all, as Lucid’s Tesla Model S rival 2024 Lucid Air Pure RWD is also getting a steep price drop. Just earlier this year, the 410-mile range sedan was $89,050 including a strong $1,650 freight charge. Now? You can scoop one up for $77,400, making this dreamy luxury EV a bit more attainable.
The first of Lucid’s recent big moves is a new hire. On September 25, the now-former President of Munro & Associates, Cory Steuben, started his position as a Director at Lucid Motors. There, Steuben’s position will be “Assistant Chief Engineer, Midsize.” Steuben is an engineer bringing along an impressive resume, from Munro & Associates:
He spearheaded the impressive 112% year over year growth of the company in 2021. Cory successfully navigated the 2020 global pandemic by pivoting to new online dissemination methods and securing two $1.3M PPP loans to enable Munro’s continued operation. Cory created “Munro Live” with corresponding YouTube channel as a new revenue source and means to distribute 260 technical videos to 193 countries. In two years, the channel has logged 498 million impressions and 5.1 million hours of actual watch time while attracting 281,632 new subscribers, top 1% channel globally. Cory Steuben is one of Munro’s most experienced engineers that consistently received positive results with Tier 1 and OEM automotive companies. He has a proven track record conducting internal Product and Process Integration (PPIW) reviews, Digital Scroll Builds (DSB), Weight Benchmarking (WB), and Competitive Vehicle Analysis Reports (CVA). During the PPIW and DSB activities, Cory engages a multi-disciplined array of stakeholders throughout his clients’ organization. He builds trust amongst the product and process teams and delivers results by optimizing the design with diverse input from the stakeholder team.
Cory has conducted several high-profile technological investigations for OEMs. These investigations include high voltage electronics, vehicle architecture, powertrain integration, aerospace manufacturing, hybrid technologies, seat systems, electronic park brake systems, and many more. Cory engages in multiple speaking engagements per year as a technical expert in many automotive fields.
The firm goes on to say that Steuben has broad knowledge across several manufacturing disciplines. It will be fun to see what he can do for Lucid.
[Editor’s Note: I’ve known Cory for years. His manufacturing engineering knowledge is absolutely staggering. If I ran an engineering firm and he were available, he’d be my very first hire – he’s that sharp. Also, he’s just a cool dude. -DT]
Lucid’s Cheapest Car Yet
Earlier this year, Thomas wrote about how the Lucid Air Pure RWD was a legitimate challenger to the Tesla Model S and how Lucid did it with a cheaper price, too. This is a sleek EV sedan with 430 HP and 406 lb-ft torque pumped to the rear wheels through a single motor, good for an acceleration time to 60 mph in just 4.4 seconds. That’s Ford Mustang levels of acceleration, but you can bring your family along for the ride. The low-slung Lucid will then keep accelerating until you hit 140 mph.
Of course, the real juicy part about the Lucid is not its performance, but its range. You can drive this thing for 410 miles between charges, which is better than some ICE-powered vehicles. Lucid then says you can DC charge at up to 250 kW, adding 200 miles in just 15 minutes. The 2024 Lucid Air Pure RWD comes with a price sliced down to $77,400, now the company’s lowest entry point for a vehicle.
Unfortunately, Lucid isn’t the only one adjusting prices. While the Lucid was cheaper than the Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive Tesla Model S back in February, Tesla dropped the base price of that car to $74,990, slightly undercutting the new lower $77,400 price of the 2024 Lucid Air Pure RWD. The Tesla also edges out the Lucid on performance with a 3.1-second run to 60 mph and 670 HP from its dual motors.
Still, the Lucid edges out the Tesla on range, going 5 more miles to reach 410 miles. The EPA rates the 2024 Lucid Air Pure RWD even better, saying it can go 419 miles on a charge with 19-inch wheels. If you have more cash in your bank account, the $125,600 Lucid Air Grand Touring is still the king of the hill with an estimated range of 516 miles. The $149,600 Lucid Air Grand Touring Performance also isn’t too shabby with its 1,050 HP and 2.6-second sprint to 60 mph. That one will still do 446 miles on a charge, too.
Anyway, we’re here to talk about the much cheaper 2024 Lucid Air Pure RWD. Standard, you do lose out on some luxuries. Your basic color choices are white or black and you don’t get the snazzy glass roof, but a solid aluminum panel. A fun paint color is $800, down from $1,000 from earlier this year. Tossing in a second motor for $5,000 nets you AWD, 480 HP, and a 60 mph run in 3.8 seconds, but the same 410-mile range. The car also comes with 19-inch wheels and you could pay $1,750 to get 20-inch aero wheels, but those drop your range to 394 miles. I’d stick with the 19s.
Otherwise, your ride will still be pretty luxurious, but not as supple as it could be. Your interior will be faux leather unless you pipe up $3,000 for the real deal. If you want your seats to move 20 ways, cool your tuccus, and massage you, that’ll be $3,750. Surreal Sound Pro is a $2,900 option and Lucid’s more advanced driver assist system, DreamDrive Premium, is another $2,000. Honestly, I’d say skip the options list, except for maybe color, and enjoy a car that is already pretty luxurious in its base spec. You still get big screens and a driver assistance program and those seats, while not ventilated, are still heated!
Lucid has this to say about the price drop:
“The new Lucid Air Pure RWD has it all; style and technology, range and performance, space and practicality,” said Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO of Lucid. “I’m delighted that the most accessible Air surpasses the range of any other electric car from any other brand. With a starting price of $77,400, I believe that this new addition to the Lucid Air lineup is the car so many have been waiting for.”
Lucid says this price-slashed sedan is available right now. And while Lucid may have lost its price edge against Tesla, I think we can all agree that price drops from multiple brands are a good thing for us consumers.
(Images: Lucid Motors)
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
The new Lucid Dream.
Now… just $77,400*
(* batteries not included)
Do the Saudis still own it?
Yes
Price drops and quickly improving technology will make today’s ev’s a resale value disaster.
Cutting prices seems great to the outsider who is not in the market for a car, but when it happens as regularly as it has been, it can cause legitimate customers to hold off on buying.
Yes, it drives unit increases, but those numbers may not make up for the lost dollar volume and margin erosion.
Look at all the manufacturers in 1920 who didn’t survive the margin crush of the Model T.
Nm
Op
Midsized CUV is where the money is at. The Air was a good intro. Now let’s see what they do with a smaller and cheaper vehicle.
Smart hire. Get the person who’s torn apart everyone else’s EV’s to help improve a new model.
Okay I am no expert but I fail to see how hiring a guy from some national muffler shop will improve a nonexistent EV? Might as well hire the guy from the Norelco shaving company known for the electric razor. They gave Santa an EV SLED
I saw a Lucid in traffic with a temp plate the other day.
And go Google Munro & Associates.
Well I can’t show my meme and you can’t show your lucid in the wild. How many have they delivered? Under 100,000 it is just a spoof.
Grow up and troll something else. Living in a small community of 26K, I’ve seen three Rivans in the past few months. If they can continue to work towards a lower model and price, I’ll be looking myself.
Shirley you must be joking…
Will Lucid and Rivian make it long term? I’m pretty dubious, but wish them well.
That’s a lot of car for the money, particularly when you look at the competition (both electric and gas). Frankly, I prefer these with a metal roof– the glass one is distracting. I just wish it came with analogue gauges… Something about a super high-tech car with nice old school gauges really speaks to me.
we need more smaller, cheaper electric cars
Agree somewhere between a golf cart and a Tesla 3. I don’t think the Chinese can fill that gap in the US, so somebody needs to make it happen.
Duh if they are cheap Noone is building them because of the strike. Hey make money buy stock in non union auto companies NOW. NO STRIKES HIGH DEMAND.
Go the hell away, I don’t want to read this drivel.
Charging $77K for a car and then nickel-and-diming $800 more for paint is an odd pricing strategy.
Odd? Check BMW, Mercedes, Porsche build and price. I’d say it’s the norm at this price point. I drive an 18 yr old car, I just like to see the pretty pictures…..
I, for one, enjoy lower prices.
“I, for one, enjoy lower prices.”
#metoo
I really want to see what a midsize Lucid is. Where’s that story?
If, and I mean a BIG if, I were to ever entertain the idea of buying an EV, Lucid is where I would go. First, get charging times down to the same time frame to fuel a car with gas, and bring the prices way down. The design and packaging of these cars really are damn good.
It’s either supporting Elon whose Musk don’t stink or King Bone Saw for a decent EV? Darn that’s bleak.
Available now, I’d add Rivian and the 800-volt Kia / Hyundai / Genesis cars. Coming soon, the Ultium-based GM / Honda cars are also looking promising.
Getting the price down that significantly and maintaining a price and range parity with Tesla while being a ground up new vehicle that has none of the typical Tesla baggage and now likely quality issues, year sign me up over a Model S all day. That said, I won’t be in a position to buy a lucid until they depreciate down at least 60% like the rest of us plebs.
I initially misread your comment as saying us plebs depreciate down at least 60%. And honestly, that feels like an underestimate.
If I was going to buy an electric vehicle, this would probably be the one. However, I am not dropping $77k on a car, it’s just not going to happen. I’m also not really interested in going electric at this point. I would love a PHEV, though.
$77K is two brand new cars in my world. I am struggling to accept our new reality.
If someone said “Would you spend $77k on a new car?”, my response would be “You mean cars? Over the duration of the rest of my life?”
Finance most of the cost and with sales tax and such, you’re spending 100k on a car. I don’t think I could spend that sort of money even if I was suddenly making the big bucks.
Interesting that Lucid sorts their engineers by size.
It also has the most important EV advantage of all-it doesn’t require you to give money to fascist sociopathic lunatic Elon Musk. $77,000 is still WAY too much money to spend on an EV, but as I said on the last thread…I’ll bet there are some really enticing lease options. When you lease you get the $7,500 tax credit up front, and manufacturers are also ponying up to give you deep discounts on top of that.
You can lease a BMW iX (yes I agree that it’s hideous but this is for the sake of an example) for $899 a month right now. You can also lease a RWD i4 for $499 a month. I recently saw a Lucid ad for their lease prices…and I want to say it was well under $1,000 a month but I don’t remember the specifics.
If you want to go full BEV that’s the way to do it. The technology will be outdated by the time the lease is up anyway, so if anything having to giving the car back is a plus. I’m really starting to think that leasing a BEV of PHEV is the best bang for your buck out there right now. Getting the $7,500 up front makes a huge difference.
UPDATE: Google is your friend! Lucid will currently let you lease one of the base trim Airs for $749 a month.
This is the difference between luxury cars and economy cars, and possibly the biggest limit to the adoption of luxury EVs. If you’re buying a sub-$20k Bolt, you’re buying a tool. As long as it keeps doing the job you bought it for, who cares if it’s obsolete 5 years from now? Hell, it’s obsolete now. But if you’re buying a >$70k cruise missile, you’re not buying a tool, you’re buying bragging rights. You want it to be on the cutting edge for as long as possible.
I think this is why so many luxury brands are leaning so hard into software and OTA updates. If they can’t offer hardware that’s perpetually cutting edge, at least they can promise perpetually cutting edge software.
I’m not sure $70k is the cutoff point for bragging rights anymore, given the current market pricing. It’s less than double the average price of a new vehicle, and in the old days that would just get you into the Acura/Lexus/Infiniti range, not the BMW/Mercedes/Porsche range.
“But if you’re buying a >$70k cruise missile, you’re not buying a tool, you’re buying bragging rights. You want it to be on the cutting edge for as long as possible.”
Bragging rights? Does anybody ACTUALLY care what a blowhard braggart drives?
I certainly don’t, but I’m an economy guy. Not exactly the target demographic. I’m speculating about what luxury buyers want.
This is the Autopian. You’re in good company.
We recently leased a non-Tesla EV for many of the reasons you mention. One thing about the $7,500 federal credit on leases though: You don’t actually capture the full amount when you lease. The dealer finance company claims the full amount and then chooses to pass that amount along to the lessee in the form of a capital cost reduction (capital cost essentially being the out-the-door price).
However, when you lease, you don’t actually pay the full capital cost, only the portion of it specified by the terms of your lease. And the lease buyout is calculated off of MSRP, not the cap cost. In our case, the savings represented by the credit worked out to be around $3,500, or $100/month. Nothing to sneeze at, but guess who keeps the remainder of the federal credit?
Sigh. It wasn’t so long ago you could lease a Spark or Fiat 500 EV for something like $99/mo.
Hiring from Munro is a genius move. Someone who already knows the ins and outs of the competition’s platform, with an eye on quality.
and a proven ability to point at design systems and say “here’s where you can simplify” without losing any quality.
The only comment I have is that competition is good.
I agree, I just wish that Lucid and Tesla were competing in my price range. Who makes the better $70-100K car is kinda lost on me.
“Kinda”? for me it’s totally lost. I’m just sad that battery degradation makes used EV’s a non starter. PHEV maybe.
Eh, just make sure the pack is fried just before the warranty expires.