With Tesla owners looking for another option, one EV brand is taking advantage. Lucid Motors (LCID) CEO said the company is seeing a “dramatic uptick” in orders from Tesla drivers. Over the past two months, 50% of orders were from former Tesla owners.

Lucid orders rise from former Tesla owners

It’s no secret by now that Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has caused an uproar. Not just among owners but in the general EV community. Bullets have been shot into Tesla stores, people are vandalizing and burning Tesla vehicles, and these are just a few examples.

Musk’s antics are now driving Tesla owners to look for other EV brands. At least one rival is seeing significantly more owners looking to trade in.

After showing off the brand’s first electric SUV, Lucid Motors’ interim CEO Marc Winteroff told Fox Business that the company has seen a “dramatic uptick over the past two months” in orders from former Tesla drivers.

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Tesla owners have “always been a source” for Lucid as another EV brand. However, more and more Tesla drivers have been looking to make the switch over the past few months.

Right now, “50% of all of the orders we have are from former Tesla owners,” according to Lucid’s CEO. When asked why owners are ditching their Teslas, Winteroff simply said, “It’s what you mentioned,” referring to the “negative feeling about Elon” and the lack of new vehicles (outside of the Cybertruck). Many are “looking for an option to not continue having a Tesla,” Winteroff added.

The comments come as Lucid ramps up deliveries of its first electric SUV, the Graivty. Winteroff said during the “celestial arrival” of the Gravity last week in NYC that deliveries will resume by the end of April.

Lucid’s Gravity SUV is available in the Grand Touring trim, starting at $94,900. Later this year, Lucid will launch the Gravity Touring starting at $79,900.

Winteroff also spoke about the impact of Trump’s recent tariff hikes, explaining that Lucid’s vehicles are fully assembled in Arizona. Lucid builds everything from the battery modules and packs to the e-motors in the US.

Electrek’s Take

Elon Musk is hurting the Tesla brand, and it’s becoming evident. Lucid is just one example of a rival company that is seeing more Tesla drivers looking to ditch the brand.

According to a recent YouGov and Yahoo News poll, 67% of Americans would no longer consider buying or leasing a Tesla vehicle.

Most blamed Elon Musk as the reason. Of those who would not consider a Tesla, 37% said it was fully or partly the reason, while another 20% said it was the whole reason. The survey revealed that Americans’ view on Musk is turning negative, with 55% saying they had an unfavorable opinion of Tesla’s CEO.

With Tesla’s first quarter deliveries due out this week, we will likely see more of the damaging impacts as analysts expect what could be its worst performance in two years.

EHang General Aviation has received regulatory approval for its EH216-S eVTOLs to begin commercial flights in China. Customers can now purchase a flight ticket to take low-altitude tours around two popular regions of China.

EHang Holdings Limited ($EH) is an Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) company working to deliver autonomous, eco-friendly intelligent aerial vehicles to all. The company’s lineup currently consists of passenger eVTOLs, logistics, delivery drones, and aerial media capable of performing choreographed light shows.

Back in the doldrums of 2020, we reported that EHang’s 216 autonomous eVTOL was being used to transport medical supplies across Hezhou, in China’s Guangxi province. That aerial vehicle could deliver payloads up to 140 kg (309 lbs), delivering a maximum range of 31 km (19 miles).

Following certification for its aircraft cloud system in August of 2023, EHang began celebrating full accreditation of the EH216-S eVTOL in China, with plans to take to the skies thereafter.

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That fall, the company signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Hefei’s municipal government which enabled two eVTOL “vertiports” at Luogang Central Park. Those facilities followed the construction of a similar, 5G-connected vertiport in Guangzhou, China in 2022.

Following flight certification, EHang has secured its next regulatory nod in China, which allows it to start commercial operations with paid customers. With that, the future of paid eVTOL rides is now amongst us.

EHang eVTOLs begin flights in Guangzhou and Hefei

EHang posted a release on its website detailing its latest milestone and providing plenty of flight images. According to the release, Guangdong EHang General Aviation Co., Ltd. and Hefei Heyi Aviation Co., Ltd. received the first batch of national manned civil unmanned aircraft operating certificates from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

The certificates enable EHang to begin commercial operations and offer paid eVTOL flights to interested customers, starting at operating points in Guangzhou and Hefei. First, the flights will be low-altitude tours and city sightseeing. Still, EHang expressed plans to “legally and compliantly gradually develop more scenarios such as urban commuting according to the operation situation.”

As the “world’s first ‘four certificate’ eVTOL operator,” EHang has achieved a tremendous milestone in China that could help pave the way for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) in the form of longer commuter flights at higher elevations. To do so, EHang said it will work alongside additional partners to expand commercial operation points and deploy more low-altitude traffic operation centers in Guangzhou, Hefei, and other regions across China.

What do you think? Would you be willing to fly in an EHang eVTOL around Guangzhou, or is the technology still too young?

Two weeks after BYD unveiled a new EV charger capable of 1,000 kW (1 MW) rates, fellow Chinese automaker ZEEKR has unveiled a new EV fast charger of its own, offering rates as high as 1.2 MW. ZEEKR’s vice president recently shared details of the latest charging technology before it makes its public debut in a few weeks.

On its Weibo page earlier this month, BYD teased the capabilities of a new EV architecture it calls the “Super E-Platform,” sharing that it will enable charging parity with gas station visits.

To achieve that, BYD promised 1,000 kW charge speeds—double the current industry leaders, including Tesla. In reality, it’s tripling the standard as most fast chargers on the market can only reach about 350 kW, and many of them (in the US, at least) are usually more in the 200s.

While some ultra-luxe EV models are powered by higher-voltage platforms, 800V has been the ceiling for a while, and to be honest, most models today cannot even hit 350 kW when charging. BYD, however, hopes to support its new 1,000V EV platform with 1 Megawatt EV chargers, hitting the market as early as this week.

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BYD’s 1MW EV charger was easily the most powerful on the market but held that reign for a mere two weeks before ZEEKR said, “Hold my Baijiu.” During a recent EV conference in China, a ZEEKR executive unveiled a new EV fast charger capable of 1.2 Megawatt rates, setting the stage for what could be the fastest charging speeds in the world once it officially debuts next month.

ZEEKR 1.2 MW EV charger to debut at Shanghai Auto Show

ZEEKR shared some teasers of the new EV fast charger on Weibo following a speech by its vice president, Zhao Yuhui, during the recent China EV100 Forum. He spoke publicly, as seen in the video here.

Zhao said ZEEKR has developed a new fully liquid-cooled EV fast charger with a peak power of 1.2 MW per charging gun that will be released in Q2 2025 and offer the highest charging power in the world, besting BYD’s new charger by 200 kW.

As seen in the image above, Zhao pointed out the progress ZEEKR has made over the past four years, bolstering its charging rates from 260 kW in 2021 to 600 kW a year later and achieving 800 kW rates in 2023. According to Zhao, ZEEKR intends to lead the charging industry into an era of ultra-fast speeds at the 1 MW level with its new EV fast charger.

While we know ZEEKR’s new fast charger will be more powerful than BYD, it has yet to unveil a vehicle that can support such rates, unlike BYD, which is launching two new models on its Super E-Platform in early April. We also don’t know the exact speeds ZEEKR’s new EV charger will deliver.

When BYD unveiled its 1 Megawatt charger, it said it could deliver 2 km of range per second and 400 km (249 miles) during a five-minute charge. At 1.2 MW, we expect ZEEKR to surpass those charge rates, but it will depend on the architecture of the EV to accept such massive power.

ZEEKR promised to share more during the Shanghai Auto Show in late April, where it will officially debut the EV fast charger to the public. We will be there this year and will report back with all the exciting details.