- Lucid's Technology and Manufacturing Day event gave several updates on the state of the company, the Gravity SUV and upcoming technology.
- A shadowy teaser of the new Project Midsize vehicle, coming soon.
- The midsize platform is scheduled to start production in late 2026 with a starting price under $50,000.
Two things are true about Lucid Motors right now. It makes the most efficient and longest-range electric vehicles on the market. But it's also still a nascent startup attempting to cross the "valley of death": the gap between high initial startup costs and long-term stability and profitability.
At Lucid's Technology and Manufacturing Day event today, CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson showed off several new technologies and updates to existing products that the automaker hopes will get it across that valley. The upcoming Gravity SUV is one of them; done right, it should take the Lucid Air's remarkable range and efficiency to a type of vehicle that's far more popular with families and mainstream car buyers. We also know that existing Lucid models are getting enhanced automated driving software and dumping Amazon’s Alexa as the in-car virtual assistant (which is good news because it's supremely unimpressive in the current Air.)
But I'd argue none of these are as important as Project Midsize, the nickname for the program that aims to bring Lucid into the $50,000-ish crossover arena—something that will be as key to Lucid's success as the Model Y was for Tesla. And today, we got our first good look at this vehicle not under some kind of a sheet.
"The new crossover will use the efficiency and cost advantages enabled by Lucid technology to deliver the same range as competitors while using a smaller battery," the automaker said on its website. "The midsize platform is scheduled to start production in late 2026 with a starting price under $50,000."
Here's a lightened version I made, which also doesn't reveal too much:
But even from these pics, the car looks quite handsome. I think it carries its proportions a bit better than the electric Porsche Macan does, and even reminds me a bit of the Aston Martin DBX crossover. (That's an interesting coincidence, considering Lucid is powering Aston's future EVs.)
Rawlinson said that the midsize car could be a market that's 30 times bigger than the Air sedan, which goes to show just how important affordable crossovers are globally. He alluded to a possible event where the midsize car could be revealed next year.
What do we think so far? Let us know in the comments.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated when Rawlinson said the midsize EV may be revealed; it has been corrected. We regret the error.
