Was discoraged to see rivian’s sxsw show.

[Atxmarco]

Hi gang,
Approaching the completion of 2/3 years in my AT. Loving it..anyway was checking out sxsw yesterday and rivian rented almost a whole block on congress near the capital. Giant dirt hill obstacle course massive line of folks waiting in line to ride in rivians as a passenger for free over it. R2’s everywhere to look and sit in, R1t’s and R1s’, associates answering questions with big smiles on their faces.

Then walking back down south congress where the rivian showroom is, huge line of folks waiting to get in for a music event, food, new rivians to explore everywhere. Great buzz. What an event for them. A bit less conspicuously a few blocks south. Tesla had a small space with a robotaxi and a robot.

Just after that strolling further down south congress i almost fainted when i saw a gravity inconspicuously parallel parked on the side. My first spotting in the wild. Amazing looking car. And was fanboying around it for a few minutes…i want one next year!!!

Can’t help but imagine if lucid had just put several cars up to be seen & explored how amazed people would have been. Anybody who’s ridden in mine loves it. Hoping marketing catches up someday. #let’sgo!!!!

 

[Spaceship]

I own a Rivian, my wife now owns a Tesla and we are both considering getting a Lucid in the future. I try to keep a steady pulse on all three companies to try and see what our next vehicle is going to be as I'm always looking at things long term.

In my observation spending time with all three brands, Rivian is the perfect mix of long term thinking and friendly service approach. There is a lot that Lucid can learn from them. Despite Tesla falling behind, it seems like everyone is still looking over their shoulders to try and copy their homework. For better and very much for worse.

To bring it back to your post, I've always said the key to more EV adoption is to get more people in seats. Educating people on EVs, specially in America, is a foregone conclusion but getting people to sit and test drive their vehicles would go a long way in spiking interest.

I like a lot of what Lucid is doing, but them not having an actual face for the company (interim CEO doesn't inspire the most confidence) and limited brand presence is only hurting them in the long term. Rivian has been aggressively expanding service centers, showrooms and their Rivian adventure network. Lucid has almost no presence in the southeast (only in ATL (ish) and in South Florida) and they do not seem interested in expanding much outside of their target markets. They are not positioning themselves for the long term in the way Rivian has been. Anecdotally, most people I talk to have an idea of what a Rivian is while most still have no idea what a Lucid is. And both brands released their first vehicles around the same time.

I hope Lucid listens and makes their presence known. I'm happy to be seeing them in more auto shows but they need to keep staying at the forefront of people's mind and do events more like this in the future. I'd love to spend more time with Lucid reps and in Lucid vehicles to help my future car buying decisions. Only time will tell.

 

[borski]

Hi gang,
Approaching the completion of 2/3 years in my AT. Loving it..anyway was checking out sxsw yesterday and rivian rented almost a whole block on congress near the capital. Giant dirt hill obstacle course massive line of folks waiting in line to ride in rivians as a passenger for free over it. R2’s everywhere to look and sit in, R1t’s and R1s’, associates answering questions with big smiles on their faces.

Then walking back down south congress where the rivian showroom is, huge line of folks waiting to get in for a music event, food, new rivians to explore everywhere. Great buzz. What an event for them. A bit less conspicuously a few blocks south. Tesla had a small space with a robotaxi and a robot.

Just after that strolling further down south congress i almost fainted when i saw a gravity inconspicuously parallel parked on the side. My first spotting in the wild. Amazing looking car. And was fanboying around it for a few minutes…i want one next year!!!

Can’t help but imagine if lucid had just put several cars up to be seen & explored how amazed people would have been. Anybody who’s ridden in mine loves it. Hoping marketing catches up someday. #let’sgo!!!!

Lucid does do plenty of events; it is possible SXSW may become one for them. I have to imagine they're evaluating it.

I'm glad it seemingly went well for Rivian!

 

[gaskiller]

I own a Rivian, my wife now owns a Tesla and we are both considering getting a Lucid in the future. I try to keep a steady pulse on all three companies to try and see what our next vehicle is going to be as I'm always looking at things long term.

In my observation spending time with all three brands, Rivian is the perfect mix of long term thinking and friendly service approach. There is a lot that Lucid can learn from them. Despite Tesla falling behind, it seems like everyone is still looking over their shoulders to try and copy their homework. For better and very much for worse.

To bring it back to your post, I've always said the key to more EV adoption is to get more people in seats. Educating people on EVs, specially in America, is a foregone conclusion but getting people to sit and test drive their vehicles would go a long way in spiking interest.

I like a lot of what Lucid is doing, but them not having an actual face for the company (interim CEO doesn't inspire the most confidence) and limited brand presence is only hurting them in the long term. Rivian has been aggressively expanding service centers, showrooms and their Rivian adventure network. Lucid has almost no presence in the southeast (only in ATL (ish) and in South Florida) and they do not seem interested in expanding much outside of their target markets. They are not positioning themselves for the long term in the way Rivian has been. Anecdotally, most people I talk to have an idea of what a Rivian is while most still have no idea what a Lucid is. And both brands released their first vehicles around the same time.

I hope Lucid listens and makes their presence known. I'm happy to be seeing them in more auto shows but they need to keep staying at the forefront of people's mind and do events more like this in the future. I'd love to spend more time with Lucid reps and in Lucid vehicles to help my future car buying decisions. Only time will tell.

You can’t spend opening sales/service everywhere. You need to make sure you actually have demand in those areas. You gradually increase sales/service to balance demand. Yeah, they can open a showroom in Tallahassee, but what’s the point if they just sell a few dozen cars a year there.,

 

[socktucker]

Lucid does a lot of small local events. They aren't even close to the scale of Rivian so I imagine they wouldn't do those size events yet. Also its more of a luxury car approach. Maserati usually rents a mansion and brings cars and has it catered, for example.

 

[Saksak]

Good to see this from Rivian. I hope both Rivian and Lucid succeed - they reach different market segments. The old-school US car manufacturers are pulling back from EV’s, so Lucid and Rivian are currently our best shot at being competitive against the Chinese automotive industry.

There is no question that EV’s will replace ICE everywhere but in the USA. Imagine trying to hang onto horse and carriage while the rest of the world transitioned to automobiles back in the early 1900’s.

 

[DS9]

I own a Rivian, my wife now owns a Tesla and we are both considering getting a Lucid in the future. I try to keep a steady pulse on all three companies to try and see what our next vehicle is going to be as I'm always looking at things long term.

In my observation spending time with all three brands, Rivian is the perfect mix of long term thinking and friendly service approach. There is a lot that Lucid can learn from them. Despite Tesla falling behind, it seems like everyone is still looking over their shoulders to try and copy their homework. For better and very much for worse.

To bring it back to your post, I've always said the key to more EV adoption is to get more people in seats. Educating people on EVs, specially in America, is a foregone conclusion but getting people to sit and test drive their vehicles would go a long way in spiking interest.

I like a lot of what Lucid is doing, but them not having an actual face for the company (interim CEO doesn't inspire the most confidence) and limited brand presence is only hurting them in the long term. Rivian has been aggressively expanding service centers, showrooms and their Rivian adventure network. Lucid has almost no presence in the southeast (only in ATL (ish) and in South Florida) and they do not seem interested in expanding much outside of their target markets. They are not positioning themselves for the long term in the way Rivian has been. Anecdotally, most people I talk to have an idea of what a Rivian is while most still have no idea what a Lucid is. And both brands released their first vehicles around the same time.

I hope Lucid listens and makes their presence known. I'm happy to be seeing them in more auto shows but they need to keep staying at the forefront of people's mind and do events more like this in the future. I'd love to spend more time with Lucid reps and in Lucid vehicles to help my future car buying decisions. Only time will tell.

Adding to this - I took delivery of my Air Touring at the Roswell, GA showroom - 4 hours away. There have been rumors of a Lucid showroom opening in the Carolinas for a while now, but - if my mobile tech is to be believed - this has been pushed out to sometime in 2027. The only Lucid mobile tech in the area is responsible for covering 2 states. For a long time the closest Rivian showroom was ATL. While my wife was reviewing R2 details, we found out that Rivian now has a service center in NC, around 2 hours away from us. If Lucid can't get more showrooms in the area we need to at least have more local events showcasing the products. I get questions regularly from people wanting to know about Lucid and where they can go see one. The second part of my answer usually dampens their interest.

 

[Spaceship]

Adding to this - I took delivery of my Air Touring at the Roswell, GA showroom - 4 hours away. There have been rumors of a Lucid showroom opening in the Carolinas for a while now, but - if my mobile tech is to be believed - this has been pushed out to sometime in 2027. The only Lucid mobile tech in the area is responsible for covering 2 states. For a long time the closest Rivian showroom was ATL. While my wife was reviewing R2 details, we found out that Rivian now has a service center in NC, around 2 hours away from us. If Lucid can't get more showrooms in the area we need to at least have more local events showcasing the products. I get questions regularly from people wanting to know about Lucid and where they can go see one. The second part of my answer usually dampens their interest.

They seriously need more presence in the GA-NC-SC area. I live in the ATL Metro and it is flooded with Rivians. I used to wave back when I first got one but they are so commonplace here that the novelty wore off. Rivian has two showrooms, one in the city and one in the suburbs and a second headquarter moving to ATL next year. Lucid only has one service center that is also now part showroom for this whole area?

The Lucid investor day showed their planned expansion and it was still mostly west coast, FL and northeast - the areas where they already exist. I don't foresee more expansion in the SE area anytime soon, which is of course a huge concern for potential buyers specially as the midsize rolls out. The Roswell service center would not be able to handle that much volume. I really want Lucid to succeed but it is frustrating to watch them continue to miss out or fumble time and time and again.

To bring it back on topic, I was out doing a test drive while I was on vacation somewhere. The Lucid person asked me where I'm from and then after I answered was like "Oh, did you hear about the thing we did in Buckhead?" No, I didn't. I get their emails, follow them on social media and spend time on this forum. I had no idea they had something going on in my area. For like a month too. On the other hand, I'm basically being assaulted by the SXSW coverage from Rivian. Lucid really needs to strengthen their presence and awareness. It's tough to know what is going on, even when you are a fan.

 

[Spaceship]

You can’t spend opening sales/service everywhere. You need to make sure you actually have demand in those areas. You gradually increase sales/service to balance demand. Yeah, they can open a showroom in Tallahassee, but what’s the point if they just sell a few dozen cars a year there.,

Not everywhere, but having a presence in bigger metros is a must, specially with ambitions to go mass market. I'm not saying Tallahassee, but no showrooms in several significant markets (Charlotte, Nashville, Orlando, New Orleans - to name a few) is kind of a headscratcher at this point in the game. They have some service centers in some of these places, but I'd gander nowhere near enough once the midsize rolls around. It's called being proactive. I really would like to see more of that from Lucid.

 

[jedwin]

The Lucid investor day showed their planned expansion and it was still mostly west coast, FL and northeast - the areas where they already exist.

It was really striking on the map of their new locations that they weren’t filling the gaps between the current ones at all! Just increasing the density in a few areas… which seems to be needed for Service in some cases, but why not just expand staff in current locations for that?

I get that there needs to be some demand, but it seems very natural to spread out from the core areas (like Atlanta) toward the directions that distant buyers are coming from, to get more potential customers within no more than two hours (which is already too far for 90% of car buyers to even think about traveling).

Is there any kind of model for lower cost showroom/test drive locations? Doing weekend pop-ups several times a year in areas that are now more than 90 minutes from a Studio? (ie, repeatedly showing up in the same place, maybe monthly, to build word-of-mouth. And doing that in 4 to 6 outlying locations around each current Studio) There has to be some pathway that can gradually increase their presence and footprint as they scale up to the point where they can afford and justify more full on sales and service centers.

 

[borski]

why not just expand staff in current locations for that?

At least in some locations like the Bay Area, staff is only one issue; space is another. There are simply more cars here than can be supported by Millbrae’s physical space, which is why San Jose now exists, for example.

(I agree with the rest of what you said, which is why I only quoted the part I responded to)

 

[tmichael]

Wow, I've never been to Tallahassee, but it is taking the burns today!