Well, that was weird . . .

[hmp10]

I just got the "special invitation" for the September 9 launch, which invites reservation holders to customize their launch experiences. The launch will be at 6 p.m. PDT, which means it will be a late start for us east coasters.

The strange thing, though, was the choices given to customize the launch you see. You could make choices in only two categories: "Heart" and "Mind" (oh, how the right brain does struggle with the left here). I guess that means that what each of us will see during the event is only that part of the launch event we selected. There was, however, a statement that we would get other information after the launch event, presumably on the topics we had to forgo.

In "Heart" the choices were Logo Design, Interior Design, Wheel Design, or Storage Design.

In "Mind" the choices were Performance, Aerodynamics, or Race-Proven Technology.

I didn't have any trouble forgoing Logo Design or Wheel Design to opt for Interior Design. I don't really know how much can be said about Logo Design, after all. Storage Design was a little harder to pass up, but not distressingly so. A frunk is a trunk, and a rose by any other name is . . . .

However, choosing between Performance or Technology was a real dilemma, since I am equally interested in both.

Are we restricted to seeing only two topics in the reveal because the event will be so information-packed on so many topics that they didn't want us missing our bedtimes by trying to watch it all? Or is the event designed to leave so many gaps in what information we are allowed to see that we'll wonder why we've been crossing out the days on our calendars for the past three months?

Oh, well, on September 9 we'll have all our questions finally answered some of our questions answered and have to wait a bit longer for others.

 

[Hawk]

What's also weird is that the invitation says 6pm PDT. However, when you look at the Countdown Clock it is counting down to 6AM PDT on September 9th. So which is it?

I sent an email to my Sales Associate asking for clarification / correction.

 

[hmp10]

Cripes, I hadn't noticed that.

This bizarre roll-out seems to track some of the comments on GlassDoor -- the engineers at Lucid are tops in their fields; in other functions not so much.

 

[Hawk]

Cripes, I hadn't noticed that.

This bizarre roll-out seems to track some of the comments on GlassDoor -- the engineers at Lucid are tops in their fields; in other functions not so much.

Hence my concern as to whether Peter Rawlinson can be more than a brilliant engineer. Is he spreading himself too thinly acting as CEO as well in getting a new technology and automobile manufacturing, sales, marketing, service, etc organization up and running effectively in addition to the engineering challenges? Is he capable, as CEO, of bringing on board the "right" team / talent to launch a new enterprise? Time will tell, however, I do have my concerns.

 

[hmp10]

I can't argue with your concern. However, I've seen some truly infantile stuff from the marketing people at Rivian (where I have a reservation for an R1S). At one point, Rivian marketing sent out an announcement suggesting that reservation holders entertain themselves while waiting for their Rvians by, among other things, making a list of who will want to ride shotgun and practicing how you'll greet other Rivian owners you see in the wild. It's as if they were trying to keep 5-year-olds occupied in the back seat while on the way to visit Grandma . . . and it was received as such on the Rivian forum.

I'm hoping this has more to do with the cynical and sometimes condescending mindset of marketing people in general and less to do with Lucid as a company.

One thing I like about Lucid is that you can actually reach sales people by phone or email. At Rivian, you can't even find a phone number or email address for the sales group. And I have found my Lucid sales rep's head to be screwed on a lot more tightly than that of whoever conceived this "special invitation".

 

[hmp10]

That makes sense. I cannot reach my sales rep by phone, nor has she answered my email, which is unusual. I have a feeling they're swamped by calls for clarification.

However, if the Dream Ahead modules are a deeper dive, I'm wondering why we are allowed to choose only two. All the modules would be done and uploaded. It's our own time. If we wanted to spend it on more than two modules, why not allow it? It doesn't tie up Lucid resources in any way.

I'm particularly interested in a deep dive on both Performance and Technology. As they are both in the same category, though, I'm allowed to see only one. I really can see no point in such a limit.

 

[hmp10]

Thanks. But I'm curious . . . why do you think your rep is talking to mine?

 

[Hawk]

Did you spot the new thread I posted earlier regarding Rawlinson's revelation of a working / driving SUV prototype? Also hinted we may see it during the Sept 9 Air launch event.

 

[hmp10]

Thanks.

As for the SUV prototype, I was just watching the Alex Guberman video. (In fact, I came on this thread to post to you about it.)

Wowza. Lucid is springing one surprise after another.

I have an embarrassing confession. I am almost immobile right now while waiting for hip replacement surgery with the Covid-19 slowdowns. My doctor's office called last week to say they had an available slot on September 9. I turned it down in order to be sure I could watch this reveal and got a surgery date one week further out. (I didn't tell them I was putting off the surgery due to a car reveal. They may be operating on an idiot, but I didn't see any point in letting them know it.)

After this "choose two" round-about, I was beginning to regret pushing out the surgery. Now I'm back to being glad I did.

 

[Hawk]

I would have done exactly the same. Certainly nothing to be embarrassed about. My wife had a full hip replacement in Oct. 2017 by Dr. Robert Zehr. She is delighted with the outcome and regrets not having done it sooner. Was back to sports, exercise very quickly after the surgery and no more pain!

 

[hmp10]

It's encouraging to hear your wife did so well. I was a runner for many years (you'd never know it these bloated days) and succeeded in destroying almost all the cartilage in my lower body. I've got clips and pins in both feet and a replaced right knee. I was told four years ago the hip would last about two more years, and now it's beyond wrecked. I'm with your wife -- wish I had tackled it sooner.

 

[hmp10]

Just heard from my sales rep:

- The reveal on September 9 will begin at 6 p.m. PDT. Nothing will happen at 6 a.m. that day. She had no idea why the countdown clock suggested otherwise.

- Asking reservation holders to select two topics of most interest was just to help Lucid gather data about levels of buyer interest for each topic. Everyone will see the entire presentation at the same time. There may be some further detail put out later to people on the topics they chose.

- The new website will go live on September 9. It will include ordering configuration information.

- The article in “The Drive” claiming FEV used an outdated range testing protocol from 2012 was inaccurate. The FEV used the identical test method the EPA will use when it tests the car. The date for that has not been determined.

- The current plan is to begin production of cars destined for customers at the very end of December or in early January (always with the Covid-19 caveat). The first cars to be delivered to customers will be in “early 2021”. (Couldn’t tease out a more specific time frame.)

- The delivery method has not yet been worked out. Whether directly to the customer or via a Design Studio is undetermined.

- She confirmed an SUV prototype has been built but said it is being kept under very tight wraps. She has heard nothing about previewing it on September 9 and was surprised to hear about the video Guberman put out today. She asked me to send her the link. She said Guberman is well known and well regarded at Lucid.

 

[Hawk]

Thanks for the update.

 

[St Bernard]

Just heard from my sales rep:

- The reveal on September 9 will begin at 6 p.m. PDT. Nothing will happen at 6 a.m. that day. She had no idea why the countdown clock suggested otherwise.

- Asking reservation holders to select two topics of most interest was just to help Lucid gather data about levels of buyer interest for each topic. Everyone will see the entire presentation at the same time. There may be some further detail put out later to people on the topics they chose.

- The new website will go live on September 9. It will include ordering configuration information.

- The article in “The Drive” claiming FEV used an outdated range testing protocol from 2012 was inaccurate. The FEV used the identical test method the EPA will use when it tests the car. The date for that has not been determined.

- The current plan is to begin production of cars destined for customers at the very end of December or in early January (always with the Covid-19 caveat). The first cars to be delivered to customers will be in “early 2021”. (Couldn’t tease out a more specific time frame.)

- The delivery method has not yet been worked out. Whether directly to the customer or via a Design Studio is undetermined.

- She confirmed an SUV prototype has been built but said it is being kept under very tight wraps. She has heard nothing about previewing it on September 9 and was surprised to hear about the video Guberman put out today. She asked me to send her the link. She said Guberman is well known and well regarded at Lucid.

Great update,it will be interesting to see the actual car with pricing. At this point what started out as $65k years ago is now well over $100,000 with a Dream Edition probably over $150,000. I hope that the base price(lets say $100,000) does not require another $20k in Options. The beauty of Tesla is there are very few Options. On the other hand the reason I’m buying this car is I want a better quality interior and I realize that cost money. The question is how much?

On another note I am surprised that this Forum only has 27 people. I think that indicates that the number of Reservations must be very low. Not sure what very low is. If they had 2-3,000 reservations you would think there would be at least a 100 people on this forum. I presume the Sept 9th event is the real kickoff for the Brand and that by Oct we would see more people on this Forum.

 

[hmp10]

I, too, cannot figure out why this forum has so few members. The Rivian forum has over 1200 members and gets dozens of posts a day. In fact, I've found longer threads about Lucid on both the Rivian forum and the Tesla Owners forum.

The lack of interest among potential owners in finding a forum is certainly not for lack of press coverage. There have been innumerable stories about Lucid over the past three years. And the automotive internet sites exploded Tuesday with news of the 517-mile range test. Even CNN, Bloomberg, NBC, CNBC, Motley Fool, and CNET gave it coverage. (In fact, the penny stock of a tiny medical company named Lucid, Inc. ran up 241% on Tuesday due to people mistaking it for Lucid Motors.) Yet the crickets continue to chirp on this forum.

All I can figure is that the Lucid is too pricey to attract the attention of the younger techies who worship at the feet of Elon Musk, and the oldsters who can better afford this car aren't exactly the internet generation.

I don't know what to guess about price at this point. It's clear the lower-tier version of the car is not going to come along for a while. A lot of the press had settled in around $100k or just over in their price speculation for the dual-motor car. But then Rawlinson the other day made a point of saying the car would be "well north" of $100k, seemingly intending to throw cold water on those guesses.

There are certainly going to be some very expensive features available in the upper-tier car, either as options or reflecteded in a high base price. Flat-pane electrochromic window glass costs around $100 per square foot. Electrochromic curved, laminated automotive safety glass in a full canopy is probably going to cost a lot more. (The electrochromic "Sky Magic" rear roof panel in a Mercedes costs $4,950.) The executive rear seats, when they become available, will surely cost thousands judging by the price of those options in a MB or BMW. The 29-speaker audio system will be an upper-tier feature only. The 32-sensor ADAS suite will not be in all the cars. The dual- and triple-motor setups will cost many thousands extra if the pricing step-up for larger power units in German ICE cars or in earlier Tesla Model S's is any indication.

In 2015 I paid $128,000 for my Tesla Model S P90D -- a car with considerably less space, amenities, and technology than this car . . . and I didn't even exhaust the options list on that car.

I'd be happy to see a fully tricked-out dual-motor Dream Edition come in around $130,000 . . . but I wouldn't be shocked at something over $150,000.

 

[Joe]

We plan to do a bit of Google ads to help advertise the forums for those interested and searching for Lucid information.

I believe a lot of reservation holders are unaware of the forums or not finding it for some reason as a simple Google search of "lucid motors forum" brings us up first.

 

[hmp10]

Or maybe send all the deposit holders an email with the link to this forum in it . . . ?

 

[Alex]

I believe a lot of reservation holders are unaware of the forums or not finding it for some reason as a simple Google search of "lucid motors forum" brings us up first.

Yes, I am a reservation holder, but I just joined today and only found out about this forum because it was mentioned on Electrek due to the SUV pictures.

 

[InSomnia_DC]

Great update,it will be interesting to see the actual car with pricing. At this point what started out as $65k years ago is now well over $100,000 with a Dream Edition probably over $150,000. I hope that the base price(lets say $100,000) does not require another $20k in Options. The beauty of Tesla is there are very few Options. On the other hand the reason I’m buying this car is I want a better quality interior and I realize that cost money. The question is how much?

On another note I am surprised that this Forum only has 27 people. I think that indicates that the number of Reservations must be very low. Not sure what very low is. If they had 2-3,000 reservations you would think there would be at least a 100 people on this forum. I presume the Sept 9th event is the real kickoff for the Brand and that by Oct we would see more people on this Forum.

This is my main concern right now too. I know the Dream versions are going to be the first ones sold. Question is, when are the more affordable ones coming off the production line?

 

[InSomnia_DC]

Yes, I am a reservation holder, but I just joined today and only found out about this forum because it was mentioned on Electrek due to the SUV pictures.

Same here. I didn't even know there was such a place. Though I guess I should have expected it to exist.