News
Lucid CEO shares take on next-gen EVs: “The electric car of the future only needs 250 miles”
Lucid Motors made it a point to go above and beyond the industry standard when it released the Air, its first vehicle. With a range of over 500 miles, the Air was a strong statement from the EV maker. It entered the electric luxury sedan market late, but its range alone showed that it was a serious contender.
While the Lucid Air is not selling as strongly as its rivals like the Porsche Taycan and the Tesla Model S, the luxury electric vehicle maker is nonetheless optimistic about its potential. Just recently, Lucid and Aston Martin signed a deal that would see the American automaker supply powertrain components to the British sports car company. The Lucid Air also continues to earn accolades, including the 2023 World Car Luxury Car of the Year award.
Amidst these efforts, Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson highlighted in a conversation with Auto Express UK that Lucid has developed into a group with three pillars. One pillar corresponds to the company’s vehicles like the Lucid Air and the upcoming Gravity SUV; another pillar corresponds to the company’s energy storage business; and the last corresponds to technology licensing transfer supply. It is this third pillar that Rawlinson sees quite a lot of potential, noting that he is hoping that Lucid could become the EV equivalent of Intel.
“We are limited by the number of cars we can make and sell for our technology. I want to have a big impact upon the planet – we’re worried about global warming. I want to get more people into electric cars sooner and it’s important that we use a multiplier effect that other people can be making cars with our technology. There’s a great example in Intel. There’s an Intel inside logo on many computers, and it’d be lovely to see ‘Lucid Inside’ on cars, too,” Rawlinson.
And while Rawlinson noted that Lucid plans to eventually offer vehicles that are cheaper — likely in the $50,000 range and thereby being competitors to the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y — the company is looking to provide innovations for even mainstream cars in the future. In a rather interesting statement, Rawlinson stated that the electric vehicle of the future only really needs 250 miles, and with Lucid’s technology, such a range should be achieved with a fairly small battery pack.
“The biggest impact on the mass market car will be with smaller battery packs. My vision is could we get to six miles per kilowatt-hour? We’re at 4.6 now. Could we get to six miles per kilowatt-hour with a fast-charging infrastructure, with overnight charging? The electric car of the future only needs 250 miles. We don’t need 500-mile cars in the future, 10 years from now.
“If we could get six miles per kilowatt-hour and you only need 150 miles range, that’s a 25 kilowatt-hour pack. That’s a $4,000 pack particularly with a bit of industrializing scale and battery manufacture. That’s what we need to make a $25,000 car and that’s what the environment and the world needs urgently to get masses into electric cars. You need the $25,000 car. Now is Lucid going to make that? No. It’s a horrible thing to be making. But could we be the ‘intel inside’ for that car? The enabler? Absolutely. And that’s where we could get the multiplier effect,” Rawlinson said.
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News
Tesla offers interesting promo to future ride-hailing rival’s drivers
Lyft drivers will get $1,000 in vehicle credits if they complete 100 rides by the cutoff date for the promo.
Tesla has offered an interesting promotion for its vehicles to the drivers of one of its future ride-hailing rivals as it continues to work toward the launch of its autonomous Robotaxi platform.
This morning, Tesla launched a $1,000 off promotion to Lyft drivers who plan to utilize one of the company’s EVs for ride-hailing purposes. The promo applies to all five Tesla models: the Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, and Cybertruck.
It is not offered at the point of sale. Instead, to ensure the vehicle is properly utilized for ride-hailing purposes and to prove the discount, Tesla will offer $1,000 in vehicle credits to the Lyft driver after they complete 100 trips on or before July 13, 2025. Delivery must be taken by June 30.
🚨 Tesla is offering $1,000 off for those who purchase a vehicle for Lyft purposes! https://t.co/ND9sKiykMW pic.twitter.com/AP8tSP1cbN
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 16, 2025
It is an interesting move by Tesla because Lyft, along with Uber, will become a rival in the coming years as the companies continue to develop driverless ride-hailing platforms of their own. Lyft has partnered with May Mobility and Mobileye to develop driverless, fully autonomous vehicles purpose-built for ride-hailing.
Tesla plans to launch its Robotaxi platform next month in Austin, Texas.
Meanwhile, Lyft’s plans are more down the road. Earlier this year, the company said it would launch autonomous rides sometime next year.
For now, the move seems to be just another way Tesla is incentivizing consumers to buy one of their vehicles. Earlier this week, it also launched another $1,000 off promo for teachers, students, retirees, active-duty members, their spouses, and surviving spouses.
Previously, Tesla only offered that discount to military members.
It is unclear why Tesla would be offering these discounts, but it could be more of a thank you or an act of recognition, more than anything. If it were a measure that was taken to increase demand, it would be substantially more of a discount. For example, when Tesla was trying to rid its inventory of legacy Model Y units as the new, updated vehicle was set to be released, discounts were over $5,000.
News
Tesla Giga Berlin seems to be using FSD Unsupervised to move Model Y units
Tesla may be doing something quite special in the Giga Berlin-Brandenburg complex.
Tesla may be doing something quite special in the Giga Berlin-Brandenburg complex. Based on observations from a recent drone flyover of the site, it appears that Tesla may also be using FSD Unsupervised to move freshly produced Model Y vehicles to the factory’s staging area.
New Drone Footage
Recent footage of the Giga Berlin complex from longtime Tesla watcher Tobias Lindh included several interesting updates around the Model Y factory. These include a new warehouse that is currently being built, as well as a tunnel is currently being constructed. More interestingly, the drone operator observed that some cars now seem to be moving to Giga Berlin’s distribution area without human drivers.
If the drone operator’s observations prove accurate, it would be quite an impressive accomplishment for Tesla. FSD Unsupervised, after all, has only been confirmed in vehicles that are produced at the Fremont Factory and Gigafactory Texas.
Potential Next Steps
If Giga Berlin is now using FSD Unsupervised to transport some Model Y units from the factory building to the site’s staging area, it might only be a matter of time before Tesla also implements a similar system for Gigafactory Shanghai. The Shanghai-based Tesla plant, after all, is the company’s largest factory by volume, and it also serves as a primary vehicle export hub. FSD Unsupervised could then pave the way for Giga Shanghai to operate in an even more optimal manner.
FSD Unsupervised is the cornerstone of Tesla’s robotaxi business, which is expected to start rolling out in Austin, Texas, next month. Previous reports have suggested that Tesla is pushing hard in its preparations to roll out its robotaxi service this June. Tesla has reportedly even worked and trained with Austin’s first responders from the fire and police departments as part of its robotaxi service preparations.
Check out a recent flyover of the Tesla Giga Berlin complex in the video below.
Investor's Corner
Tesla welcomes Chipotle President Jack Hartung to its Board of Directors
Tesla announced the addition of its new director in a post on social media platform X.
Tesla has welcomed Chipotle president Jack Hartung to its Board of Directors. Hartung will officially start his tenure at the electric vehicle maker on June 1, 2025.
Tesla announced the addition of its new director in a post on social media platform X.
Jack Hartung’s Role
With Hartung’s addition, the Tesla Board will now have nine members. It’s been a while since the company added a new director. Prior to Hartung, the last addition to the Tesla Board was Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia back in 2022. As noted in a Reuters report, Hartung will serve on the Tesla Board’s audit committee. He will also retire from his position as president and chief strategy officer at Chipotle, and transition into a senior advisor’s role at the restaurant chain, next month.
Hartung has had a long career in the Mexican grill, joining Chipotle in 2002. He held several positions in the company, most recently serving as Chipotle’s President and Chief Strategy Officer. Tesla highlighted Hartung’s accomplishments in a post on its official account on X.
“Over the past 20+ years under Jack’s financial leadership, Chipotle has seen significant growth with over 3,700 restaurants today across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Jack was named ‘CFO of the Year’ by Orange County Business Journal and Best CFO in the restaurant category by Institutional Investor,” Tesla wrote in its post on X.
Tesla Board and Musk
Tesla is a controversial company with a controversial CEO, so it is no surprise that the Board of Directors tend to get flak as well. Two weeks ago, for example, Tesla Board Chair Robyn Denholm slammed The Wall Street Journal for publishing an article alleging that company directors had considered a search for a potential successor to Elon Musk. Denholm herself has also been criticized for offloading her TSLA shares.
More recently, news emerged suggesting that the Tesla Board of Directors had formed a special committee aimed at exploring a new pay package for CEO Elon Musk. The committee is reportedly comprised of Tesla board Chair Robyn Denholm and independent director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, and they would be exploring alternative compensation methods for Musk’s contributions to the company.
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