Following its merger announcement with Capital Churchill Capital Corp IV ($CCIV), Lucid Motors CEO, Peter Rawlinson released a video of him test driving the upcoming Air sedan sans camouflage. This is the first time the Lucid Air appeared in public without a cover. Rawlinson took a release candidate EV built at Lucid’s AMP-1 facility in Arizona to cruise around the San Fransisco ahead of full production.
The Lucid Air Dream Edition will be the first of four trims that will be available for the Air Sedan. Like many other projects seen in the past year, the Air Dream Edition production was schedule to start in the spring, but was later pushed to the second half of this year.
News of this delay broke after the automaker announced it was entering a merger with SPAC Churchill Capital Corp IV ($CCIV). A merger that was highly anticipated by early $CCIV buyers. Shortly after, CEO Peter Rawlinson wrote on the Lucid Motors website: “We continue to make final refinements, and, largely due to COVID-imposed delays, are now tracking toward a start of production as early as we can in the second half of 2021. Between now and then we’ll be sharing more details and video from our testing and validation, so you can closely follow the progress. We’re pushing hard to build a Lucid Air that truly delivers on every level to elevate the electric vehicle.”
For the time being, Lucid is whetting our appetite with a short video showcasing the luxury sedan. In the video, Rawlinson is very honest and realistic when speaking about his company’s EV pointing out some improvements that can still be made. At least any last minute kinks will be able to be worked out prior to official production, but it must be a bummer for those who have already dished out the cash to reserve the Air Dream Edition.
Rawlinson can be seen testing driving the release candidate Air where he is accompanied by several GoPro cameras as well as a camera crew in front of him.
As expected, Rawlinson is pretty impressed by the release candidate Air. Rawlinson continues his test drive of the release candidate Air over the San Francisco Bay, looking for some winding roads that he calls “a perfect proving ground for vehicle dynamics.”
Rawlinson is openly pleased with the performance of the release candidate Lucid Air and refers to his ride and compact and agile. He also revealed that Lucid upped the Air’s regenerative breaking from .25 g to .3 g in sport mode.
During the video, Rawlinson states “this car is as much a sports car as it is a sedan,” but admits the torque can be worked on as they “can improve on that.” Definitely a different approach compared to some other promotional videos where automakers chalk up their vehicles to perfection. The constructive criticisms from the Lucid’s own chief, is a genuine and welcome change that isn’t seen a lot in the auto industry.
Although the video does provide a great look at the upcoming luxury sedan, we apparently didn’t see all it can do as Rawlinson admitted California traffic hinders him from really unleashing the capability of the Lucid Air. Check out the full video below: