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Lucid teases Air Pure, Touring trim unveiling on November 15

Credit: Lucid Groupt

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Lucid Group released details regarding the unveiling of the Pure and Touring trim levels of its introductory electric sedan, the Air, today. Lucid teased the vehicles through a video it released on its Twitter.

The vehicles are set to be unveiled on November 15 at 1:00 P.M. EST, ahead of the first Air Touring delivery, which will take place on the same day at the company’s studio in Beverly Hills.

After launching several luxury and highly-priced trims over the past year, Lucid is now looking to launch two more configurations of the Air all-electric sedan at prices that are slightly more affordable.

Lucid Air Pure

The Lucid Air Pure, the company’s base mode, will have a starting price of $87,400 and will launch with a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive configuration. Specs for this trim level and EPA-estimated range ratings will be released on November 15.

The Pure was initially geared for a price lower than $70,000 in the United States with the EV tax credit. However, nearly every vehicle on the market has increased in price since then, and car companies have adjusted due to increased costs across the supply chain.

Tesla Model S Long Range Plus now boasts 409 miles per charge: report

Lucid Air Touring

Additionally, the Lucid Air Touring will also be unveiled during the event.  Starting at $107,400, the Touring trim level features “a fine balance of performance, luxury, design, and space.” It features the Air’s single-piece glass canopy that spans from the base of the windshield and extends over the heads of front passengers. Lucid also plans to release more details regarding this trim level on November 15.

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Air Touring availability was pushed back to Q4 2022 earlier this year, so it will be interesting to see if Lucid aligns with that after the unveiling event later this month. The company has struggled to ramp production and deliveries of its vehicles, but it is going through normal growing pains that nearly every car company in history has experienced.

Lucid’s Project Gravity

While many may have thought the teaser Lucid published on Twitter could have been a potential unveiling of the Gravity SUV, it does not seem to be the case. However, Lucid did state in its press release that it would release additional details about Project Gravity, which was revealed in 2021. Lucid CEO/CTO Peter Rawlinson said the company plans to launch the Gravity SUV in the latter half of 2023.

The event will take place during the LA Auto Show Week, and Lucid has several things planned for spectators:

  • During the week of November 15, all five trim levels – from Air Pure to Air Sapphire – will be on display for media, customers, and fans at the Lucid Studio Beverly Hills. Lucid will also celebrate the global premiere at the Beverly Hills Studio the evening of Tuesday, November 15, with a celebration event for select media, customers, and VIPs.
  • Derek Jenkins, Senior Vice President of Design and Brand, will be featured at CDN Forum LA taking place during Automobility at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Thursday, November 17. Lucid is also a sponsor of CDN’s LA Design Night that evening at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Both the recently unveiled Lucid Air Pure and Air Sapphire, the world’s most powerful sedan, will be on display.
  • Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, will deliver the opening keynote at the Automotive News World Congress on Friday, November 18, discussing why efficiency is the new imperative for electric vehicles and how it has been central to all aspects of the development of every Lucid vehicle.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Tesla’s northernmost Supercharger in North America opens

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has opened its northernmost Supercharger in Fairbanks, Alaska, with eight V4 stalls located in one of the most frigid cities in the U.S.

Located just 196 miles from the Arctic Circle, Fairbanks’s average temperature for the week was around -12 degrees Fahrenheit. However, there are plenty of Tesla owners in Alaska who have been waiting for more charging options out in public.

There are only 36 total Supercharger stalls in Alaska, despite being the largest state in the U.S.

Eight Superchargers were added to Fairbanks, which will eventually be a 48-stall station. Tesla announced its activation today:

The base price per kWh is $0.43 at the Fairbanks Supercharger. Thanks to its V4 capabilities, it can charge at speeds up to 325 kW.

Despite being the northernmost Supercharger in North America, it is not even in the Top 5 northernmost Superchargers globally, because Alaska is south of Norway. The northernmost Supercharger is in Honningsvåg, Norway. All of the Top 5 are in the Scandanavian country.

Tesla’s Supercharger expansion in 2025 has been impressive, and although it experienced some early-quarter slowdowns due to V3-to-V4 hardware transitions, it has been the company’s strongest year for deployments.

Through the three quarters of 2025, the company has added 7,753 stations and 73,817 stalls across the world, a 16 percent increase in stations and an 18 percent increase in stalls compared to last year.

Tesla is on track to add over 12,000 stalls for the full year, achieving an average of one new stall every hour, an impressive statistic.

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Recently, the company wrapped up construction at its Supercharger Oasis in Lost Hills, California, a 168-stall Supercharger that Tesla Solar Panels completely power. It is the largest Supercharger in the world.

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Tesla hints toward Premium Robotaxi offering with Model S testing

Why Tesla has chosen to use a couple of Model S units must have a reason; the company is calculated in its engineering and data collection efforts, so this is definitely more than “we just felt like giving our drivers a change of scenery.”

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Credit: Sawyer Merritt | X

Tesla Model S vehicles were spotted performing validation testing with LiDAR rigs in California today, a pretty big switch-up compared to what we are used to seeing on the roads.

Tesla utilizes the Model Y crossover for its Robotaxi fleet. It is adequately sized, the most popular vehicle in its lineup, and is suitable for a wide variety of applications. It provides enough luxury for a single rider, but enough room for several passengers, if needed.

However, the testing has seemingly expanded to one of Tesla’s premium flagship offerings, as the Model S was spotted with the validation equipment that is seen entirely with Model Y vehicles. We have written several articles on Robotaxi testing mules being spotted across the United States, but this is a first:

Why Tesla has chosen to use a couple of Model S units must have a reason; the company is calculated in its engineering and data collection efforts, so this is definitely more than “we just felt like giving our drivers a change of scenery.”

It seems to hint that Tesla could add a premium, more luxury offering to its Robotaxi platform eventually. Think about it: Uber has Uber Black, Lyft has Lyft Black. These vehicles and services are associated with a more premium cost as they combine luxury models with more catered transportation options.

Tesla could be testing the waters here, and it could be thinking of adding the Model S to its fleet of ride-hailing vehicles.

Reluctant to remove the Model S from its production plans completely despite its low volume contributions to the overall mission of transitioning the world to sustainable energy, the flagship sedan has always meant something. CEO Elon Musk referred to it, along with its sibling Model X, as continuing on production lines due to “sentimental reasons.”

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However, its purpose might have been expanded to justify keeping it around, and why not? It is a cozy, premium offering, and it would be great for those who want a little more luxury and are willing to pay a few extra dollars.

Of course, none of this is even close to confirmed. However, it is reasonable to speculate that the Model S could be a potential addition to the Robotaxi fleet. It’s capable of all the same things the Model Y is, but with more luxuriousness, and it could be the perfect addition to the futuristic fleet.

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Rivian unveils self-driving chip and autonomy plans to compete with Tesla

Rivian, a mainstay in the world of electric vehicle startups, said it plans to roll out an Autonomy+ subscription and one-time purchase program, priced at $49.99 per month and $2,500 up front, respectively, for access to its self-driving suite.

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Credit: Rivian

Rivian unveiled its self-driving chip and autonomy plans to compete with Tesla and others at its AI and Autonomy Day on Thursday in Palo Alto, California.

Rivian, a mainstay in the world of electric vehicle startups, said it plans to roll out an Autonomy+ subscription and one-time purchase program, priced at $49.99 per month and $2,500 up front, respectively, for access to its self-driving suite.

CEO RJ Scaringe said it will learn and become more confident and robust as more miles are driven and it gathers more data. This is what Tesla uses through a neural network, as it uses deep learning to improve with every mile traveled.

He said:

“I couldn’t be more excited for the work our teams are driving in autonomy and AI. Our updated hardware platform, which includes our in-house 1600 sparse TOPS inference chip, will enable us to achieve dramatic progress in self-driving to ultimately deliver on our goal of delivering L4. This represents an inflection point for the ownership experience – ultimately being able to give customers their time back when in the car.”

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At first, Rivian plans to offer the service to personally-owned vehicles, and not operate as a ride-hailing service. However, ride-sharing is in the plans for the future, he said:

“While our initial focus will be on personally owned vehicles, which today represent a vast majority of the miles to the United States, this also enables us to pursue opportunities in the rideshare space.”

The Hardware

Rivian is not using a vision-only approach as Tesla does, and instead will rely on 11 cameras, five radar sensors, and a single LiDAR that will face forward.

It is also developing a chip in-house, which will be manufactured by TSMC, a supplier of Tesla’s as well. The chip will be known as RAP1 and will be about 50 times as powerful as the chip that is currently in Rivian vehicles. It will also do more than 800 trillion calculations every second.

RAP1 powers the Autonomy Compute Module 3, known as ACM3, which is Rivian’s third-generation autonomy computer.

ACM3 specs include:

  • 1600 sparse INT8 TOPS (Trillion Operations Per Second).
  • The processing power of 5 billion pixels per second.
  • RAP1 features RivLink, a low-latency interconnect technology allowing chips to be connected to multiply processing power, making it inherently extensible.
  • RAP1 is enabled by an in-house developed AI compiler and platform software

As far as LiDAR, Rivian plans to use it in forthcoming R2 cars to enable SAE Level 4 automated driving, which would allow people to sit in the back and, according to the agency’s ratings, “will not require you to take over driving.”

More Details

Rivian said it will also roll out advancements to the second-generation R1 vehicles in the near term with the addition of UHF, or Universal Hands-Free, which will be available on over 3.5 million miles of roadway in the U.S. and Canada.

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Rivian will now join the competitive ranks with Tesla, Waymo, Zoox, and others, who are all in the race for autonomy.

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