Lucid’s opportunity to create brand ambassadors

[Drendino]

Great duo, great shot, great cars. Red and black, or two reds?

Two reds. We chose them because we watched Peter Rawlinson’s tech talk video describing why owners of Zenith red are smarter and have more friends.

 

[bobofat]

I'd be more than happy to be a brand ambassador. I'll just have to be more active on social media again, well at least the car will need to be. I was just taking a break. I'm refreshed enough to start being active again. I have even been blessed with fairly reliable charging as well. I guess I've tied in both topics on this thread. Sign me up Lucid.

 

[HariK]

I'd be willing to bet the wait for the Ioniq 6 will be long and the markups above MSRP will be huge. This is a real problem for some EVs, especially Hyundais & Kias. I had to wait 9 months for my BMW i4. I'm waiting over 2 years now for my Pure. Not many would have the patience to wait this long for EVs.

I agree. I think GM entering the field with Blazer in 23 and Equinox in 24 will lower the barrier to entry and put price pressure on everyone in 24.

 

[GKHoppy]

I must admit to being exhausted reading this thread, but there are lots of great points being made. My AGT was delivered in early April, 2022 and now has about 9,000 miles on it, including 6 road trips of 600 plus miles each. Couple of points: (1) regarding service, the bad news is I've had a lot of experience with the Seattle service center; the good news is they have been absolutely terrific to deal with, incredibly responsive and helpful; (2) the car is just plain awesome to drive (I was a dedicated Porsche owner for over a decade before buying the AGT), the numerous software glitches over the past 11 months have been very frustrating, but goes with being an early adopter; they can be fixed. Like others, I have encountered lots of folks interested in my AGT. I tell them it is the best car I've every driven, the Lucid folks I've dealt with are fantastic and the software is disappointing but constantly being improved. I have an L2 charger in my garage and only use EA only on road trips. I've had the same disappointing experience with EA as others, but believe that this too will be improved over time. Happy to be a brand ambassador; don't need any swag or compensation to do so.

 

[Steveinarizona]

I parked at a local Wal-Mart in Arizona and when I got out of my AGT, a nice guy said "That car is beautiful. Is that a GM or a Ford?" I said "Its a Lucid. American. Made in Arizona." He was very surprised. There is a lot of room to get there word out...

Nah...it is a function of Wal*Mart. The shoppers at Wal*Mart don't know anything other than GM, Ford and Chrysler (they even probably still think that Chrysler is a meaningful brand). You would get a very different reaction at Trade Joe's or Whole Foods or even Sprouts.

 

[hydbob]

Stop talking about charging here!

 

[AZLucidGuy]

Nah...it is a function of Wal*Mart. The shoppers at Wal*Mart don't know anything other than GM, Ford and Chrysler (they even probably still think that Chrysler is a meaningful brand). You would get a very different reaction at Trade Joe's or Whole Foods or even Sprouts.

Disagree. Had a similar encounter at AJ’s in Paradise Valley.

 

[Bobby]

Two reds. We chose them because we watched Peter Rawlinson’s tech talk video describing why owners of Zenith red are smarter and have more friends.

That explains why I have gray.

 

[TakeDuo]

Why is it FUD? That implies a level of dishonesty or embellishment and given the current state of EA, I don't see where their reports can be categorized as FUD. I just went to the EA charger near me and, for the first time, there were no available slots. Of the 4 stalls, one was broken and the other 3 were occupied. There was a blue Rivian and a VW waiting, so I left.

Because I have had my car for a year and have 19k miles. EA has has been my sole charging source minus a handful of charges at my home on a Lucid Home Charger. I have taken many long road trips and we have never been stranded or without the ability to charge. These videos often times make it out that if you buy an EV, you will never be able to travel long distances, have fun or relax on a road trip. Granted, they take a more neutral approach but it instills a certain level of fear, uncertainty and doubt in the minds of possible future EV owners. No one is making videos of successful charges. That is boring and won’t get clicks…. Maybe I’ll start a channel .

Anyway, I’m not defending EA or criticizing those who review EA or other chargers. My point is that Lucid has built a car with an incredible range with maximum efficiency and charging should be an afterthought. I’ve said it before… between NYC and Washington DC (227 miles or half the AGT range) there are, by my count, 18 EA stations along the route. If none of them work, who cares because you have 100 miles range left.

 

[AZLucidGuy]

I'd be willing to bet the wait for the Ioniq 6 will be long and the markups above MSRP will be huge. This is a real problem for some EVs, especially Hyundais & Kias. I had to wait 9 months for my BMW i4. I'm waiting over 2 years now for my Pure. Not many would have the patience to wait this long for EVs.

Lucid needs to crank out the RWD Pure and get more cars on the road.

 

[HariK]

Lucid needs to crank out the RWD Pure and get more cars on the road.

I think they seem to have enough upgrades from Pure AWD to Touring due to the 7.5k promotion till March and after that they seem to have enough Pure AWD without DDp too and that is why Peter said that the first Pure RWD may be delivered in Q4 23 or Q1 24.

 

[ebr]

I apologize for my part in contributing to the off-topic discussion but it does seem to me that any discussion of being a "Brand Ambassador" is intricately connected with one's total experience with the car/brand - and charging is definitely a part of that.

Anyway, I do think it would be good if Lucid somehow could wrangle some long-time owners with positive experiences into some sort of promoter of the brand beyond just the limited word of mouth that is going on now.

 

[Drendino]

I fall in love with my car all over again with every single drive!

I explained several weeks ago that I planned to let my Tesla driving neighborhood know about this car and my corner lot house was in a perfect location to do this. So I gently "cut off" one of my Telsa neighbors yesterday afternoon pulling out of my driveway so they could get a real good look at Chameleon. I also drove under the speed limit to make sure of this.

When I got to work 20 minutes later, I exited the car but made sure to backtrack towards some random dude who had just walked past me, didn't give me the time of day, but saw Chameleon a few feet away and stopped dead in his tracks! I made it a point to turn back towards him staring at MY car to ask him if he wanted to take a closer look? Yeah, he wasn't expecting for ME to be the owner of that car! His red face and goofy surprised look was a dead giveaway. I'm such a menace!

I think I'd make a perfect Brand Ambassador. I don't fit the mold but, I can tell curious potential buyers anything they want to know about Lucid and our cars.

Collectively, the owners on this forum have a level of passion and knowledge that no sales associate can come close to matching. Lucid doesn’t need to sign any of us up to be ambassadors, most of us already are. We are all pretty obsessed with our cars and don’t need to be enticed to get the word out about our awesome cars.

Management just needs to become more collaborative with us, so that we can help get the word out about cool developments such as CarPlay, DD features, bug fixes and enhancements. I think a lot more Tesla owners would make the switch if they had any idea what the software development journey was going to look like, without vague “coming soon” promises. Communication is such a simple solution to the problem, but maybe so simple that it will continue to be overlooked. We will see.

 

[xponents]

Two reds. We chose them because we watched Peter Rawlinson’s tech talk video describing why owners of Zenith red are smarter and have more friends.

Link lol

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I apologize for my part in contributing to the off-topic discussion but it does seem to me that any discussion of being a "Brand Ambassador" is intricately connected with one's total experience with the car/brand - and charging is definitely a part of that.

Anyway, I do think it would be good if Lucid somehow could wrangle some long-time owners with positive experiences into some sort of promoter of the brand beyond just the limited word of mouth that is going on now.

I like the idea. @SaratogaLefty is in a recent Lucid video. Testimonials go a LONG way towards selling things, just look at any multi-level-marketing scheme (yes they’re evil but it only works because of testimonial). In this day and age of armchair internet experts where your average person with barely a high school education fancies themselves more of an expert on infectious disease than the director of the NIH infectious disease department, anecdote is king, evidence meaningless. So when Edmunds goes and publishes an article on a very poor range test because they likely had the wrong tire pressure, well Lucid PR team needs to put together a video of owners talking about their positive range experience. I don’t need a video of some wealthy appearing jet set model or cool guy pleased with themselves that they can afford this car, you need videos of regular appearing owners talking about how they love their car. Otherwise you’re letting the automotive and financial press decide the narrative and they have been very negative and very unfair lately, and your only counter to it is out of touch rich people which just reinforces how expensive the car is and doesn’t reinforce the real world positives of the car.

 

[AlanInMaine]

I don’t think that there is any debate that yesterday’s earning call was anything other than bad news. The double digit drop in the stock price speaks for itself. Peter cited a lack of brand awareness for the revised numbers. What I found interesting is that there was no mention of the actual owners, all of which could be considered early adopters and possible brand ambassadors. There is not a day that goes by that somebody doesn’t ask me about my car and I know that this is true for most of us. There has been a lot of talk on this forum about people loving their car, but not being able to recommend it to friends and family because of the software and EA issues. I would venture to bet that if Lucid started meaningful communications with their customers, a lot of us would be happier to recommend the car to others. None of us need to know trade secrets or anything that could be detrimental to the company by sharing info. We want to know what’s going on with things like CarPlay, DD releases, rental car policies, software bugs, EA issues, etc. We are tired of relying on rumors from a guy who knows a guy.

Lucid guards all information like it is Colonel Sander’s special chicken recipe. I’ve always had the feeling that they were paralyzed by fear of making news that would affect the stock price, so the company line has been to say nothing about virtually everything, which has caused frustration for many present and future customers. I don’t think they need to worry about the stock price right now, which is freeing in its own way.

In my opinion, Lucid is at the point where it has nothing to lose. This is an opportunity for them to make fundamental changes in their communications department and work on creating brand ambassadors. If Lucid chose to be more collaborative and less secretive, many of the 7,000 owners would probably help to sell more cars than any national campaign add.

As an example of good communication, software version 1.0 was so bad that by the end Lucid had to communicate with us. We even knew the exact day that they intended to release 2.0 and were told on this forum about a short delay when they couldn’t get it out on a Friday. We were showed some key features before the release and the direct communication from Lucid got us excited and brought us into the process. That should have been a starting point for Lucid’s communication with their customers, but sadly it was a one off communication effort. I believe that Lucid is now in a similar position, where they can no longer afford to keep their possible brand ambassadors in the dark on many of our questions and concerns. If they are going to succeed, they need us to be their best salespeople and in my opinion this is only going to happen if they fundamentally change their communication practices. I’m hopeful that we will see some changes soon.

Very well said. I have said the same to CCR's on every call I have had to make and it seems to go nowhere.

 

[victoryroad]

Sorry, but to me, CCR refers to Creedence Clearwater Revival. I will not wade into the debate about management's quarterly comments or transparency including any forward-looking statements. I believe that the company has financial sustainability with the PIF as a backstop until positive cash flow, which is likely several years away at least. I have allocated to LCID near current levels and taken a long-term approach that includes dollar cost averaging on the strength of my belief in Lucid's superior engineering and design. FWIW, I think the Street comments about the company are interesting and not surprising or at all insightful. It's just my opinion man, but Wall Street is not your friend.

 

[ejktouring]

I don’t think that there is any debate that yesterday’s earning call was anything other than bad news. The double digit drop in the stock price speaks for itself. Peter cited a lack of brand awareness for the revised numbers. What I found interesting is that there was no mention of the actual owners, all of which could be considered early adopters and possible brand ambassadors. There is not a day that goes by that somebody doesn’t ask me about my car and I know that this is true for most of us. There has been a lot of talk on this forum about people loving their car, but not being able to recommend it to friends and family because of the software and EA issues. I would venture to bet that if Lucid started meaningful communications with their customers, a lot of us would be happier to recommend the car to others. None of us need to know trade secrets or anything that could be detrimental to the company by sharing info. We want to know what’s going on with things like CarPlay, DD releases, rental car policies, software bugs, EA issues, etc. We are tired of relying on rumors from a guy who knows a guy.

Lucid guards all information like it is Colonel Sander’s special chicken recipe. I’ve always had the feeling that they were paralyzed by fear of making news that would affect the stock price, so the company line has been to say nothing about virtually everything, which has caused frustration for many present and future customers. I don’t think they need to worry about the stock price right now, which is freeing in its own way.

In my opinion, Lucid is at the point where it has nothing to lose. This is an opportunity for them to make fundamental changes in their communications department and work on creating brand ambassadors. If Lucid chose to be more collaborative and less secretive, many of the 7,000 owners would probably help to sell more cars than any national campaign add.

As an example of good communication, software version 1.0 was so bad that by the end Lucid had to communicate with us. We even knew the exact day that they intended to release 2.0 and were told on this forum about a short delay when they couldn’t get it out on a Friday. We were showed some key features before the release and the direct communication from Lucid got us excited and brought us into the process. That should have been a starting point for Lucid’s communication with their customers, but sadly it was a one off communication effort. I believe that Lucid is now in a similar position, where they can no longer afford to keep their possible brand ambassadors in the dark on many of our questions and concerns. If they are going to succeed, they need us to be their best salespeople and in my opinion this is only going to happen if they fundamentally change their communication practices. I’m hopeful that we will see some changes soon.

There are too few of us brand ambassadors to meaningfully impact sales. I hope Lucid starts a real advertising campaign focused on luxury, performance and RANGE. As other companies are cutting back on their advertising budgets (note how few car ads were played during the Superbowl) now is the time to get seen and heard- especially since manufacturing is no longer a bottleneck.

 

[AZLucidGuy]

There are too few of us brand ambassadors to meaningfully impact sales. I hope Lucid starts a real advertising campaign focused on luxury, performance and RANGE. As other companies are cutting back on their advertising budgets (note how few car ads were played during the Superbowl) now is the time to get seen and heard- especially since manufacturing is no longer a bottleneck.

Owners as Brand ambassadors is effective and inexpensive. TV ads are expensive and of limited utility. I think that I have seen the annoying Cadillac Lyriq TV ad more times than actual Lyriq’s delivered to date.

I have personally encouraged two work colleagues to order Lucid Airs (one delivered so far) instead of a Tesla S and an Audi ETtron.

If every forum member did this it would be 5K+ more Lucid Air sales. Word of mouth from current owners. It’s sold a lot of Teslas. It can sell a lot of Lucids.

 

[Steveinarizona]

I made it a point to turn back towards him staring at MY car to ask him if he wanted to take a closer look? Yeah, he wasn't expecting for ME to be the owner of that car! His red face and goofy surprised look was a dead giveaway. I'm such a menace!

Disagree. Had a similar encounter at AJ’s in Paradise Valley.

My tongue was in my cheek.