Lucid’s (LCID) answer to the Tesla Model Y, Model 3 could come sooner than expected
An affordable Lucid (LCID) electric car? Lucid has already started developing its high-volume EV lineup, poised to rival the Tesla Model Y and Model 3.
Lucid’s CEO, Peter Rawlinson, revealed the company was aiming to release an EV priced around $50,000. Or, in Rawlinson’s words, “Right in the heart of Tesla Model 3, Model Y territory.”
Rawlinson explained in Sept, “I am not here to build an expensive car that only rich people can afford.”
Lucid started with premium products, like the Air sedan and Gravity SUV, because it was the only way the business would work financially.
Both the Lucid Air and Gravity have starting prices around $80,000. Although Rawlinson said Lucid aims to launch the affordable EV by mid-to-late decade, many have misquoted it as 2030.
Rawlinson clarified to Autocar that Lucid is already developing the Tesla-rivalling EV. He said, “I’ve formally stated mid-late decade, and that has been completely misquoted as the end of the decade – 2030.”
Lucid CEO confirms affordable EV coming to rival Tesla
Lucid’s leader explained, “What I mean is ‘not 2025’. It’s a few years away, but it’s close,” adding, “It takes three and a half years to do a car, and we’ve started… and that wasn’t yesterday.”
Before Lucid, Rawlinson led the development of the Tesla Model S. He confirmed the new models would be aimed directly at Tesla’s sweet spot.
The mid-sized [line] is going to be overtly a Tesla competitor – Model 3, Model Y. This is the first time I’ve ever said it: we’re going to compete in that market – high-volume family car.
Rawlinson assured the new EV line will be competitive because “we’ve got the most advanced technology, which means we can go farther with less battery.”
More importantly, “if you can go a certain distance with less battery, you can make that car more cheaply than anyone else.”
Lucid’s Air electric sedan is one of the longest-range EVs, with up to 516 miles, due to Lucid’s in-house powertrain components, battery chemistry, and design.
The EV maker signed into a strategic tech partnership with Aston Martin in June to help them build electric performance cars. Lucid will supply its high-performance twin motor unit, battery tech, and Wunderbox charging system.
Electrek’s Take
Lucid has struggled to ramp production and deliveries this year. Deliveries slipped from a peak of 1,932 in Q4 2022 to just 1,456 in the third quarter.
Output is also down. Lucid produced 1,550 vehicles in Q3, down 50% from its peak of almost 3,500 in Q4 last year.
As a result, Lucid cut its 2023 production target to 8,000 – 8,500 vehicles. That’s more than 40% less than its higher-end target (14K) from last year.
The company hopes its new Gravity SUV can help spark life into the brand. With current prices upwards of 80K, an affordable EV could help Lucid expand into new markets.
Fellow EV startup Rivian (RIVN) is also planning to launch cheaper electric models. Rivian found a partner to build its massive $5 billion mega plant in GA. The facility will be home to Rivian’s R2 vehicles. Starting prices are expected around $40,000 – $50,000.
Lucid is not looking to replace the Tesla Model Y, Model 3, or Model S with a lower-priced EV. Rawlinson previously said there’s a market for great electric cars. “The more people who get behind the wheel in our cars will ditch their gasoline car and move to a Lucid Air because it’s better,” he explained.
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Environment
Elon Musk Tapped to Lead New ‘DOGE’ Department—Despite the Government Already Having One for Efficiency
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is to officially join Trump’s administration as the co-head of the new US Department of Government Efficiency – a second federal department with the goal of making government spending more efficient.
You can’t get more ironic than that.
Throughout the elections, Musk, who is already CEO of Tesla, and SpaceX, a well as the defacto head of X, xAI, Neuralink, and the Boring Company, has been floating the idea to add to his workload by joining the Trump’s administration to lead a new department aimed at making the federal government more efficient.
He has been calling it the “Department of Government Efficiency”, which spells out ‘DOGE’, a meme that Musk appears to enjoy.
Well, now Trump appears to want to be going through with this idea.
He announced the new department and Musk as head, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, in a statement today:
I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”). Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the “Save America” Movement. “This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” stated Mr. Musk.
What’s most ironic is that there’s already a federal department with the goal of cutting government waste and ensuring efficiency: the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The GAO’s main objectives are:
- auditing agency operations to determine whether federal funds are being spent efficiently and effectively;
- investigating allegations of illegal and improper activities;
- reporting on how well government programs and policies are meeting their objectives;
- performing policy analyses and outlining options for congressional consideration;
- issuing legal decisions and opinions;
- advising Congress and the heads of executive agencies about ways to make government more efficient and effective
It sounds similar to what Musk described when talking about his DOGE, but Trump hasn’t gone into many details other than it will “cut waste.”
He also has a confusing message as he compares the initiative, which is supposed to cut government spending, to “The Manhattan project”, a massive and expensive government project.
Trump said that DOGE will help the government “drive large scale structural reform”:
It will become, potentially, “The Manhattan Project” of our time. Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of “DOGE” for a very long time. To drive this kind of drastic change, the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.
The statement also noted that DOGE will only operate until July 4, 2026.
Musk has previously claimed that he could cut at least $2 trillion dollars of the $6.5 trillion dollar US federal budget.
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A pump jack in Midland, Texas, US, on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024.
Anthony Prieto | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Oil prices may see a drastic fall in the event that oil alliance OPEC+ unwinds its existing output cuts, said market watchers who are predicting a bearish year ahead for crude.
“There is more fear about 2025’s oil prices than there has been since years — any year I can remember, since the Arab Spring,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at OPIS, an oil price reporting agency.
“You could get down to $30 or $40 a barrel if OPEC unwound and didn’t have any kind of real agreement to rein in production. They’ve seen their market share really dwindle through the years,” Kloza added.
A decline to $40 a barrel would mean around a 40% erasure of current crude prices. Global benchmark Brent is currently trading at $72 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures are around $68 per barrel.
Oil prices year-to-date
Given that oil demand growth next year probably won’t be much more than 1 million barrels a day, a full unwinding of OPEC+ supply cuts in 2025 would “undoubtedly see a very steep slide in crude prices, possibly toward $40 a barrel,” Henning Gloystein, head of energy, climate and resources at Eurasia Group, told CNBC.
Similarly, MST Marquee’s senior energy analyst Saul Kavonic posited that should OPEC+ unwind cuts without regard to demand, it would “effectively amount to a price war over market share that could send oil to lows not seen since Covid.”
However, the alliance is more likely to opt for a gradual unwinding early next year, compared to a full scale and immediate one, the analysts said.
Should the producers group proceed with their production plan, the market surplus could nearly double.
Martoccia Francesco
Energy strategist at Citi
The oil cartel has been exercising discipline in maintaining its voluntary output cuts, to the point of extending them.
In September, OPEC+ postponed plans to begin gradually rolling back on the 2.2 million barrels per day of voluntary cuts by two months in an effort to stem the slide of oil prices. The 2.2 million bpd cut, which was implemented over the second and third quarters, had been due to expire at the end of September.
At the start of this month, the oil cartel again decided to delay the planned oil output increase by another month to the end of December.
Oil prices have been weighed by a sluggish post-Covid recovery in demand from China, the world’s second-largest economy and leading crude oil importer. In its monthly report released Tuesday, OPEC lowered its 2025 global oil demand growth forecast from 1.6 million barrels per day to 1.5 million barrels per day.
The pressured prices were also conflagrated by a perceivably oversupplied market, especially as key oil producers outside the OPEC alliance like the U.S., Canada, Guyana and Brazil are also planning to add supply, Gloystein highlighted.
Bearish year ahead for oil
The market consensus is that there’ll be a “substantial” oil stock build next year, said Citibank energy strategist Martoccia Francesco.
“Should the producers group proceed with their production plan, the market surplus could nearly double… reaching as much as 1.6 million barrels per day,” said Francesco.
Even if OPEC+ doesn’t unwind the cuts, the future ofl prices is still looking break. Citi analysts expect Brent price to average $60 per barrel next year.
Further fueling the bearish outlook is the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, whose return is associated by some with a potential trade war, said analysts who spoke to CNBC.
“If we do get a trade war — and a lot of economists think that a trade war is possible, and particularly against China — we could see much, much lower prices,” said OPIS’ Kloza.
Trump has also touted a “drill baby drill” policy for U.S. producers, vowing to cut energy prices in half.
For that to happen to retail gasoline prices, oil would need to drop to “below $40” per barrel, said Matt Smith, Kpler’s lead oil analyst.
Right now, retail gasoline prices are at a “sweet spot” at $3 per gallon, where consumers do not feel the pinch and input prices are still sufficiently high for producers, Smith added.
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