Lucid Motors has made a name for itself by building some of the longest-range electric cars on the planet. The Air sedan hit the scene in 2021 with the unprecedented ability to travel a bladder-busting 520 miles on a full charge. Nobody else has touched that yet—not even Tesla.
But Peter Rawlinson, the California-based EV startup’s CEO and CTO, thinks the future of transportation hinges on EVs with less range—way less, in fact. In a recent interview with InsideEVs, he said Lucid would “quite possibly” make a car with 180 miles of range on its upcoming midsize platform, which will underpin a line of more affordable vehicles.
“That’s the future, definitely,” he told InsideEVs. “I wouldn’t say that midsize would be limited to that, but I could see a variant of midsize that’s just got that 10 years from now.”
That idea may sound ridiculous today, when “range anxiety” remains one of the biggest factors keeping people hooked on gasoline. Automakers have been pushing ranges higher and higher to capture buyers on the fence—and you’re considered an unserious player if you can’t offer at least 250 miles, and preferably over 300. EVs with under 200 miles of range feel like a relic of a bygone era, when models like the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 were on the cutting edge.
But Rawlinson argues that someday soon many people, particularly city dwellers, will realize they can get by with a lot less.
Once charging infrastructure is abundant and reliable enough, drivers will get used to juicing up whenever they’re parked, he said. And once you can plug in anywhere at any time, you don’t need hundreds of miles of extra range as a buffer. By 2030, Rawlinson believes buyers will accept a range of 200 miles for a family car.
To be sure, that wouldn't be ideal for ultra-long road trips. But Rawlinson's point is that most people don't drive too far on a typical day. According to the Department of Transportation, Americans tend to drive just under 40 miles daily.
He understands this all sounds weird coming from him. “It may seem paradoxical that you hear me saying this, when I’m synonymous with ultra-long-range vehicles,” he tells me with a grin. “But I’m actually synonymous with big-picture thinking.”
It was always the plan at Lucid, he says, to start with high-end, long-range cars, then apply that same technology to mass-market, lower-range EVs that actually turn a profit. The startup’s whole game plan is to make EVs so efficient that they beat rivals on battery costs, while offering equivalent range. Right now, it’s still in stage one of that plan; the Air and just-released Gravity SUV are on the market, and a roughly $50,000 crossover is on the way for 2026.
Importantly, wide acceptance of limited-range cars could do wonders EV costs, which remain stubbornly high largely because batteries are so expensive.
Rawlinson says a roughly 180-mile Lucid would only need a 30-kilowatt-hour pack, a fraction of what’s used in most EVs today. Meanwhile, costs for lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, a cheaper battery chemistry, have already dropped to around $60 per kWh, he notes.
“Then we can make a battery pack for about $2,500, maybe $2,000—instead of $20,000 or $25,000 today,” Rawlinson told the crowd at the BloombergNEF Summit in San Francisco, where InsideEVs caught up with him. “And that is the driver for the mass adoption of the EV to save all mankind in the future.”
This low-range future will necessitate more investment not just in DC fast-charging stations, but also in slower Level 2 plugs, which Rawlinson thinks have been overlooked. Level 2 AC plugs aren’t as sexy as the high-powered chargers that can fill up a car in 20 or 30 minutes. But they’re cheaper to install and work great for apartment complexes, sidewalks and offices—places where people leave their cars for extended periods.
“My view is there is a myopia, an over-focus, on DC fast charging,” Rawlinson said. “The narrative should be about AC charging, overnight charging.”
Don’t expect Lucid to pivot away from the road-tripping monsters it’s known for, though. Rawlinson says there will always be people willing to pay for the convenience of rarely stopping to charge.
“That is a lifestyle thing,” he said. “That is buying the experience of not having to charge at all.”
Got a tip about the EV world? Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com
