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Lucid CEO shares take on next-gen EVs: “The electric car of the future only needs 250 miles”

Credit: Lucid Group

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2 years ago

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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. 

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“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. 

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

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Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Tesla’s northernmost Supercharger in North America opens

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5 hours ago

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December 12, 2025

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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.

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.”

Published

9 hours ago

on

December 11, 2025

By

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.”

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.

Published

21 hours ago

on

December 11, 2025

By

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.”

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.

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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