Test drive before 2H25.....maybe?

[TahoeMichael]

That email was meant for Airs, I spoke to the studio and they barely have a single Gravity for looking. At the time of my call they didn’t even know why they suddenly were getting calls for test drives, nobody gave them a heads up.

Anyway, no test drives, no Gravity ride along.

Well, that's disappointing. Still, the situation should change soon.

 

[hmp10]

That email was meant for Airs, I spoke to the studio and they barely have a single Gravity for looking. At the time of my call they didn’t even know why they suddenly were getting calls for test drives, nobody gave them a heads up.

This has has been the situation at Lucid for a very long time. The Sales and the Marketing operations are managed separately, and they do not communicate with each other. I do not know why, but it's one of the weirdest persistent organizational issues I've ever seen, especially in a fairly small company.

I have seen the scenario you describe play out in other contexts. The most pronounced was at the West Palm Beach Studio last fall. I got an email nvitation to attend a "special" showing of a Gravity during a 2-hour window. We rearranged a league tennis match to make the visit within the specified hours. We arrived at the showroom right at the start of the specified viewing window. I walked up to a sales associate and said I had an invitation for the "special" event. She seemed confused, saying the car had been on the floor since the afternoon of the day before, and anyone could walk in off the street and see it. A few minutes later, a couple of people from Lucid Marketing marched out of a backroom with several trays of sandwiches and snacks for the "special" showing. I asked the sales associate what was going on, and she just shrugged, saying she had no idea.

A similar situation played out a few weeks later when a different Gravity arrived at the Miami Worldcenter Studio for another "special" showing to which I received an invitation. This time I called ahead and was told the car was already in the showroom, and there were no designated "special" viewing hours. This studio was more heavily staffed with sales associates than West Palm Beach, and there was a large contingent of corporate Marketing and corporate Product Planning people on hand. I had a long and very informative talk with one of the Product Planning staffers. But when I later asked a couple of sales associates questions, I found them woefully ill-informed. One didn't even realize that a wall display had been put up that displayed Gravity interior colors and that the exterior color blocks had been set up for viewing on a table. It was clear that the sales associates had been kept completely out of the loop of how the marketing people were managing the showing as well as not being briefed on the Gravity itself.

I have wondered whether allowing this type of organizational disarray to fester might not have played a role in Peter Rawlinson's departure, especially as Winterhoff seemed to go out of his way during the earnings call to mention marketing shortcomings as something that was going to be addressed.

In fairness, Rawlinson had too much on his plate for any mortal, and this seemed to be exacerbated by his engineer's bias to obsess over engineering details. It is also why every car he has developed, beginning with the original Model S, has broken major new ground. So I'm glad he was there, and I'm one who wished he had stayed.

But his successors need to get on the stick and finally get Marketing and Sales on the same page.

 

[Sandvinsd]

I've received an email from Lucid (sent yesterday) that Gravity test drives are now available at the Lucid Studio Meatpacking District in NYC. Hopefully this will rapidly become true at all other Lucid locations as well. I wouldn't be surprised if there's other locations that now have a test-drive Gravity also.

No test drives in San Diego anytime in the near future…..

 

[hmp10]

No test drives in San Diego anytime in the near future…..

I called the Miami Brickell studio yesterday. They still have no word on when they might get a Gravity, either.

 

[TahoeMichael]

I called the Miami Brickell studio yesterday. They still have no word on when they might get a Gravity, either.

My prediction: Lucid isn't going to make the Gravity available to test drive until the media outlets they're currently giving access have a chance to publish their reviews. If we're starting a betting pool, I put money on April 23rd for test drives becoming available.