xponents
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How do you get in(other than having an air, obviously)?
Is cutting prices a losing strategy?
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It literally says owners. You and I are both out of luck unless they extend the definition of owners to include shareholders.
xponents
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By this, I meant how do you get the invite earlier than others?(assuming you own an air)
Like any new program, based off geography to HQ since the first Owners Club event was the Northern California Rally. Just give it time and it will spread across the country and globally thereafter.
I think they are trying price cuts and incentives to get the cars on the road... The current lease deals make these cars more affordable than most mid-luxury sedans.. The drive-off $$ on those are also similar, despite some of the complaints I have read about high drive-off costs... It is a luxury brand.. At these prices Lucid should be promoting it as a cutting edge EV luxury vehicle at same lease price point as a mid priced BMW, Audi or MB in order to get conquests...
The other matter is the lack of showrooms and support facilities over a larger geographical area... If potential customer are hundreds of miles away from nearest showroom or facility they will not be attracted to Lucid...
The other matter is the lack of showrooms and support facilities over a larger geographical area... If potential customer are hundreds of miles away from nearest showroom or facility they will not be attracted to Lucid...
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oops my bad.
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I predict Rivian will be cutting prices next year. You can order an R1T (pickup) and take delivery in less than three weeks. There are now reports of people placing new orders for the R1S (SUV) and getting schedule deliveries for an existing build two weeks later. They are getting close to burning through their backlog of pre-orders and I imagine the demand for $80k+ trucks will start to fade. The R1S SUV will see a lot of pressure from the Kia EV9, Volvo EX90, and more premium products like the Gravity.
I haven't receive mine even though I lived on the other of the mountain from Lucid HQ.
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It is not widespread yet. They have just tested it with a small number of owners, and will then be opening it up more.
The first inaugural Lucid Rally at HQ a few weekends ago was the first official event.
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Well said Mike. Only one player in an industry is the low cost producer. Only that player wins in a price war. Lucid needs to compete on product, brand, experience not price/cost. The Club point is excellent because it is about the experience. It reminds me. 20 years ago when I bought a BMW M5, in those days every M owner was invited to participate in a free two-day driving experience in South Carolina. You pay for airfare, BMW pays for everything else. Hotel, food, drinks, cars. 2 days of immersion marketing. Not sure of the ROI but it was a brilliant experience in a brand echo chamber with your peers for 2 days.
Price cuts aren't as extreme as some people might think. I had an order for a GT at the old prices. When prices were cut, I got an email showing me a new order agreement with the new prices. But what was left out was that the 0.99% promotion was gone and replaced with a 4.99% promotion. For somebody paying cash, it was a significant drop. But Lucid was already expecting to subsidize a loan, and the lower prices actually left things fairly close if you factor in interest over the life of a loan. Still, on paper it looked like a big drop.
They do have an incentive to move inventory, and that's to include Dream Drive Pro and Surreal Sound Pro at no extra cost. But when you put everything together and compare it to the original prices at release time, it's putting back a feature that was once standard, and enabling an audio feature for hardware that's already included. Yes, they would have made more money from people who would have ordered those features anyway, but that has to be balanced against moving more inventory. Also, that incentive isn't there for a lease on the GT. And the money factor is high enough that it's no bargain. But with the lower prices, it's an incentive. A prior leasing incentive had the money factor down to nothing.
It's enough incentive to move things. I was expecting to wait until 2024 when they start up production on GTs again. When one showed up in inventory that was previously marked as unavailable, it became a question of taking a 2023 and getting the incentives, or waiting 2.x months and getting a car with less depreciation when I sell it. I opted to get the car sooner. I can't say how it affects other potential buyers, but it worked for me.
Industry publications and the like have Tesla classified that way since it's in that price category, and given that there's no formal definition of luxury car, saying that it's one because people say that it's one isn't as absurd as it might seem to some people. It's "luxury" in terms of having features that are luxuries as opposed to necessities, and that don't exist on most cars. It's not luxury in terms of luxury appointments and can't compete with Lucid in that respect.
As far as car washes go, it was a standard thing for Tesla and went away when California was hit with a drought. It's fair to say that they might have cut it out anyway, but at one point, Tesla's service was definitely at the luxury level. When I showed up, I was greeted by name, treated well, given a nice loaner, and they even brought the car back to my house when it was ready, and they picked up the loaner. These days, going to service means lining up until somebody with a clip board or the equivalent treats you more like the next in line than as a person with an appointment who should sit down and have coffee while they go over your concerns. And back then, they reviewed logs ahead of time, told you what else they planned to do that you didn't even know about, etc. Even with the Model 3, they did a lot of things for me early on that they didn't have to, since they weren't defects or warranty items.
The cars might not have had luxury appointments as Lucid does, but on balance I preferred their cars over an ICEV with more luxury appointments that existed at the time. There was no competition. I still think that Tesla's cars are good. The company itself isn't what it once was, and neither is customer service. But they were the first cars I had that got better with age due to updates. And not everybody is looking for a luxury car as opposed to a premium car if it means getting a car that performs well, it fun to drive and has lots of features that go beyond what other companies do.
I remember when luxury cars had air conditioning, power windows, power brakes, power seats, automatic transmissions, power antennas, leather seats, and all sorts of luxury features that you do find on a Tesla, for those features that still exist on modern cars. It's subjective and a moving target.
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You're right. I'm not saying Tesla was never luxury. But it definitely hasn't been for a long time. Times have changed, and they have not changed with it, and chose to move downmarket instead. Totally fine - just not luxury.
You're right. I'm not saying Tesla was never luxury. But it definitely hasn't been for a long time. Times have changed, and they have not changed with it, and chose to move downmarket instead. Totally fine - just not luxury.
It wasn't feasible for Tesla to start out any other way. Establishing themselves as a high end brand meant that there was a market for things like the Model 3 before it even came out, since folks wanted to buy a Tesla and wanted something affordable. It's impossible for a new company to start off with a high volume low cost car because there's no customer base. And it's difficult to move from the mass market to the luxury market when consumers see a brand a certain way. Honda, Nissan and Toyota needed to create Acura, Infiniti and Lexus to get people to accept more high end cars from them. The other way around is easier, and getting people to accept a lower end Tesla or Lucid isn't the problem. It's getting there without turning a high end brand into a mass market brand. Lucid won't need to create a new company to get people to accept things in the price range of a Model 3. But getting there without creating a different division or figuring out how to differentiate high end from low end needs to be figured out, and they need to do it better than Tesla.
Tesla tried to maintain things to the extent possible, and when I got a Model 3 (vin 5xx) they were still trying to stick with the higher end paradigm. But they were overwhelmed. They did things for me that I can't see them doing today. For example, they redesigned the suspension after my car was made. When I complained that it didn't ride as well as the newer ones, there was no defect or warranty issue, but they rebuilt my suspension for free with the new design. They swapped out lots of things that never had a problem rather than waiting for them to fail and issuing a TSB in case I complain after the warranty expired. So even though on paper, the car had its share of problems (it's not clear to me that Lucid will do better in that respect for my car) they took good care of me.
But it got to the point that people couldn't even get a service shop on the phone. It's actually better these days in the sense that I can use the app to schedule things and most things can be handled at home. Early on, they were more like Lucid not just in terms of quality of service but also in terms of having a long wait to schedule service for non urgent items. In that respect, there's been improvement and I expect the same will happen with Lucid. I just hope that Lucid can keep the level of what's expected for high end customers when they finally get to something at the Model 3 price point.
You guys are right. Lucid cannot compete with Tesla (neither can any US or European company) as a low cost EV producer. Chinese companies can and will. Branding as a luxury car and working that niche is the key to Lucid's long term survival. Temporary price "incentives" if needed to keep operations going are understandable as long as it doesn't affect the brand perception. But innovative marketing to maintain the niche market is needed. For example, in another thread , I pointed out that a Lucid battery has the same capacity of over 6 Tesla powerwalls. The cost of a Pure vs 6 powerwalls is $75K vs $55K. Think of all the solar owners who might consider a battery backup...wouldn't you like to park a Lucid in your garage for $20K more? All that's needed is completing V2H and marketing.
xponents
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Okay why have I never thought of that? Genius..
We've brought this up multiple times over the past 2 years, it's just cutting that red tape to get V2H approved is tough and Lucid is right in not stressing or marketing that point until they can get approval from the local utilities.
Hydbob, I come from a place of ignorance over the the local and state regulations regarding V2H. I would like to understand better. It seems to me that V2H functions the same as a battery backup (especially with a pre-existing solar system) whereas V2G would be more complicated. Thanks
This article seems to imply V2H and V2G are going to be standard features for most electric cars. Interestingly, it notes Lucid Air is pretty much ready. So if the regulations are to blame, hopefully the combined push of all these automakers will overcome them?
www.dcbel.energy
New year, new bidirectional cars: 2023 edition - dcbel
We did the research: here are all the bidirectional EVs that will hit US roads in 2023, along with the automakers that may enable V2X as a software update.
www.dcbel.energy
This was from my solar provider so take it with a grain of salt, but when they were applying for permits, there was a list of pre-approved equipment they could install in order to obtain said permit. With the passing of NEM 3.0, it's very apparent to me that SoCal Edison is doing everything in its power to prevent battery backups and force consumers to continue to draw from the grid, while gleefully taking all the excess solar generated and paid out at steep discount.
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