American EV-maker Lucid Motors has announced a substantial price hike for its Air sedan, effective June 1st. Lucid Motors was founded in 2007 under the name 'Atieva' and initially focused on producing EV batteries and powertrains for other companies. The company rebranded itself as Lucid Motors in October 2016 and showed off the first prototype of the Lucid Air later that year.
Development of the Lucid Air started in 2014 when the company, still known as Atieva, decided to make an EV of its own. The resultant Air sedan went into production in late 2021 and is currently available for purchase in multiple avatars and at multiple price points. The Air sedan competes with a slew of other full-size luxury all-electric sedans, including the Tesla Model S, the Porsche Taycan, the Mercedes-Benz EQS and the newly-announced BMW i7 xDrive60 7-series luxury sedan.
According to Lucid Motors, it is hiking up the price of its flagship Lucid Air luxury electric sedan from next month. The price hike would impact three out of the four models of the car, and would be effective from June 1. It would not, however, affect existing reservation holders, who would still be able to get the car at the original price. The company did not announce a specific reason for the price hike, but said that the "world has changed dramatically from the time we first announced Lucid Air pricing in September 2020." The main reason for the hikes is believed to be input costs, which have gone up substantially over the past year, partly due to a Covid-fueled supply crunch and partly due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
New Lucid Air Prices
Following the price hike, the base Lucid Air 'Pure' will cost $87,400, an increase of exactly $10,000 over its previous price of $77,400. The 'Touring' variant will now cost $107,400 instead of the $95,000 it was originally priced at. Finally, the 'Grand Touring' trim will be priced at $154,000 from next month - a hike of $15,000 over its previous $139,000 price-tag. The only variant to have escaped the price hike is the 'Performance' version of the Lucid Air Grand Touring, which will continue to be priced at $179,000. For reference, these are the base prices before the potential $7,500 U.S. federal tax credit, and excluding tax, title, license, options and destination fees. The updated pricing for Canada will be listed on the company's Canadian website on June 1st.
Lucid's decision to hike the price of its flagship EV comes within weeks of Tesla's latest price hike that made its lower-priced models no longer eligible for rebates in California. Following increased demand due to the spike in gas prices, Tesla raised the prices of all its EV models by up to $10,000 in March, the second time the company had raised prices of its entire range within less than a month. Following all the price hikes, the base variant of the Model 3 now costs $46,990 before taxes. Fellow EV-maker Rivian also announced a price hike earlier this year, increasing the price of the R1T pickup from $67,500 to $79,500 and the R1S SUV from $70,000 to $84,500. These prices are still substantially lower than that of the Lucid Air, making them relatively more mainstream.
Source: Lucid Motors