Lucid Motors shares new images of Gravity SUV ahead of ‘early 2023’ reservations
Mere hours after sharing details of the final two versions of its Air sedan reaching customers this year, Lucid Motors has spoiled its audience with new details surrounding its upcoming Gravity SUV. Lucid shared the images you’ll see below during its livestream event this morning, as well as details pertaining to reservations, production, and some vehicle design news. Here’s what we’ve learned.
We told you we’d be back.
Just a few hours after sharing details of the Air Touring and Air Pure sedans reaching production and deliveries, Lucid Motors has made good on its promise to grace us with new details of the all-electric Gravity SUV – its second flagship vehicle that has remained mostly shrouded in secrecy since the American automaker first teased it at the end of a video officially unveiling the Air sedan.
All of the (few) updates on “Project Gravity” have pertained to its development progress, mostly involving expansions of the automaker’s AMP-1 facility to make room for SUV assembly lines. However, we haven’t gotten any design updates… or any genuine looks at Gravity for that matter.
We’ve speculated around the potential look of the Gravity based on patent images, but up until today have only seen the dark silhouette of Lucid’s first SUV. An image quite frankly, we’re tired of, so let’s bring on the new pics, shot where else but on the moon of course.
First glimpse at Lucid’s Gravity SUV ahead of 2024 deliveries
According to a press release coinciding with Lucid Motors’ “In the Air and Beyond” event stream this morning, the Gravity SUV will “land” in 2024. Is it just us or are the space references including the EV nomenclature itself brilliantly cheeky? Is there any other competitor out there with ties to space?
Anyways, Lucid says that its Gravity SUV will pick up where the Air sedan left off, promising to deliver luxury, space (no pun intended that time), efficiency, and of course performance. In fact, Lucid Motors is already promising Gravity will deliver more range than any other EV on the market (aside from the Lucid Air). Any EV, not any electric SUV, any other truck or crossover. Any EV. Lucid’s CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson shared his thoughts on Gravity:
Gravity builds upon everything we have achieved thus far, driving further advancements of our in-house technology to create a luxury performance SUV like none other. Just as Lucid Air redefined the sedan category, so too will Gravity impact the world of luxury SUVs, setting new benchmarks across the board.
The team cites the Lucid Space Concept as a key factor that went in to the design of the SUV’s interior, vowing to serve any lifestyle or need with multiple configurations to seat five, six, or seven adults. If you weren’t hyped up enough already, Lucid’s senior vice president of design Derek Jenkins essentially describes the Gravity SUV as a unicorn with superpowers:
I’m so thrilled with the results we are seeing with Lucid Gravity, sparing no opportunity to build on everything we learned with Lucid Air to create something that warps the vehicle-class continuum. It is both a supercar in disguise and an SUV with flexible passenger and cargo space that seems impossibly big relative to the exterior size of the vehicle. And it does this all with Lucid’s distinctive post-luxury design, inspired by California.
From its descriptions, the Gravity appears to check all the boxes one would look for in the perfect EV (if you have the money), but a lot of other key tidbits of information need to be learned before anyone starts floating out of their chairs and into the cockpit of this “supercar in disguise.” Unfortunately, that’s about all for today though.
Lucid says it will share more information about the full Gravity lineup in early 2023 when reservations begin. To us, early 2023 could mean the first week of January at CES, or maybe it’s February, we’re not sure at this point.
Deliveries are expected to begin in the US and Canada in 2024. Availability and timing for other markets will again be announced at a later date. You can check out Lucid Motors livestream event including the Gravity SUV news by clicking here.
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Tesla has started to offer discounted financing on Cybertruck as the electric pickup truck undoubtedly turns out to be a flop.
Tesla claimed over 1 million reservations for the Cybertruck, and CEO Elon Musk said he could see Tesla producing 500,000 units per year.
However, that was before Tesla announced that the production version would be much more expensive and have a shorter range than what was initially announced.
The Cybertruck has now been in production for a year and a half, and it looks like Tesla would be lucky to sell about 10% of Musk’s goal of 500,000 units.
The automaker doesn’t report Cybertruck sales, but it is estimated that Tesla delivered roughly 40,000 Cybertrucks in 2024, and it is expected to have even more issues selling the truck this year.
Tesla has taken several steps to help sales.
We reported that Tesla launched Cybertruck leases to help move vehicles. The company is even still tucked with “Foundations Series” Cybertrucks, and we found out that Tesla buffed “Foundations Series” badges out of some trucks to sell them as cheaper regular Cybertrucks.
For the remaining “Foundations Series,” which there still are despite Tesla switching to regular Cybertruck production in October, Tesla has even offered free Supercharging for life.
Now, Tesla is stepping up its game, and it is offering discounted financing on new Cybertruck orders:
Tesla announced 1.99% APR for a limited time:
1.99% APR available for a limited time for well-qualified buyers
WIthout the “promotion”, the rate for excellent credit is 5.84%.
While Tesla is discounting the rates, it is not discounting them as much as for new Model 3 orders.
We reported earlier this week that Tesla offers 0% and 0.99% with $0 down on new Model 3 orders in the US until the end of the quarter.
Electrek’s Take
It is very possible that Tesla can’t sell more than 10,000 Cybertrucks this quarter, which would extrapolate to 40,000 units per year or less than 10% of what Elon said he would see Tesla delivering.
Now, the cheaper single motor Cybertruck should help, but by how much? It could bring Tesla to 20-30% of the volume Elon saw possible?
I think it’s fairly clear that the Cybertruck is a flop.
Tesla launched a single new vehicle in the last 5 years and it is a flop.
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Environment
Toyota launched its cheapest EV in China and it crashed the server starting at just $15,000
Toyota looks to grab a bigger share of the world’s largest EV market as it takes aim at BYD and other low-cost leaders. On Thursday, Toyota launched its cheapest EV in China, the bZ3X, starting at roughly $15,000. The new electric SUV crashed the server with over 10,000 orders in an hour.
Meet Toyota’s cheapest EV in China, the bZ3X
The bz3X is Toyota’s “first 100,000 yuan-level pure electric SUV” in China and its cheapest EV to hit the market so far.
Toyota’s Chinese joint venture, GAC-Toyota officially launched the “Bozhi 3X,” or bZ3X for short, in China on March 6. Shortly after, the company said orders for its new electric SUV were “so popular that the server crashed” after revealing prices start at just over $15,000 (109,800 yuan).
After securing over 10,000 orders in just one hour, Toyota boasted again that “the server is overwhelmed.” The launch comes after blind pre-orders opened in December, starting at just under $14,000 (100,000 yuan).
The bZ3X is available in two versions, with or without its full-scenario smart driving tech. The non-smart tech model starts at 109,800 yuan ($15,000) with five trim options while the smart driving model starts at 149,800 yuan ($20,500).
For 159,800 yuan ($22,000), the range-topping “610 Max” trim provides up to 610 km (379 miles) CLTC range from a 67.92 kWh LFP battery. The base “430 Air” gets up to 430 km (267 miles) from a 50.03 kWh LFP battery pack.
Toyota said the interior provides “a mobile space that is comfortable as home,” with front and rear seats that can fold down to provide nearly 10 feet (3 meters) of space.
Inside, the electric SUV has a 14.6″ infotainment screen with voice recognition and an 8.8″ driver display. It also includes a two-spoke multi-function steering wheel.
Toyota’s new bZ3X is its first vehicle with the Momenta 5.0 Intelligent Driving System. Powered by NVIDIA Drive AGX Orin X, it comes with 25 ADAS features, such as parallel parking, remote control parking, high-speed pilot, light traffic assist, and blind spot monitoring.
GAC-Toyota claimed it will be “one of the first automakers in the world to realize a one-stage end-to-end intelligent driving model.” With human-like intelligence, the vehicle “gets smarter and better with use.”
At 4,600 mm long, 1,875 mm wide, and 1,645 mm tall, Toyota’s cheapest EV in China is about the size of BYD’s Yuan Plus (Atto 3) at 4,455 mm long, 1,875 mm wide, and 1,615 mm tall. Starting at 115,800 yuan ($16,000), Toyota’s new bZ3X slightly undercuts BYD’s electric SUV.
What do you think of Toyota’s new electric SUV? Would you buy one for around $15,000? We’ll keep dreaming.
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