The lead executive from luxury electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Lucid Motors says that his company is “a number of years ahead” of Tesla in terms of its technology, as stated during a recent interview.
Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson was interviewed in a video segment of Fox Business on Thursday, during which he said that Tesla used to be the tech leader, though Lucid had since “taken that mantle.” The feature included a test drive of the Lucid Air, along with an interview from anchor Liz Claman.
The conversation touched on Lucid’s upcoming Gravity SUV, the company’s struggles in the stock market, and its factories in Saudi Arabia and the U.S., among other topics, still. Near the end of the roughly seven-and-a-half-minute video, Claman asks Rawlinson where he thought Lucid ranked compared to EV leaders Tesla and BYD, to which the CEO responded by touting his company’s technology.
“Well, I think that if we look back in time 10-15 years ago, Tesla was the tech leader,” Rawlinson said. “I think there’s a degree of distraction now, and I think that Lucid has taken that mantle. I believe we’re a number of years ahead in terms of our core technology from Tesla.
“I announced earlier this week that we’ve hit a landmark level of capability, and we’re hitting the magic five miles per kilowatt-hour. No one else is even close. So this is a tech race; it’s yet to run its course, and we are taking the mantle of leadership—make no mistake.”
Rawlinson has also touted Lucid’s battery technology in the past, noting that their range and charging speeds are superior to those of Tesla’s vehicles. In 2021, he also called Tesla’s 4680 battery cell breakthrough a “fantasy.”
When asked about details surrounding the Gravity SUV’s launch, Rawlinson noted that the vehicle would be a better product than the Tesla Model X, largely due to it being built on a dedicated luxury platform.
Rawlinson also said he thought Tesla was “distracted” in a recent interview with BBC, and he and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have exchanged several pieces of criticism over the years. Musk has regularly suggested that Lucid would be tracking toward bankruptcy, most recently after its Q1 earnings report in which the automaker reported a $684.7-million net loss.
In January, Lucid began expanding its AMP-1 factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, in order to prepare for production of the forthcoming Gravity. During the interview, Rawlinson also highlighted that Gravity production would be starting production later this year, though he declined to specify exactly when.
You can watch the full Fox Business segment with Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson below.
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