On October 2, Lucid Motors opened a Beverly Hills, California "studio" with a service center attached, ahead of its plan to launch next spring the stunning Lucid Air, a very high-performance luxury sedan. To find customers for what is, after all, a new and unfamiliar brand, Lucid is planning to launch 20 such retail centers by the end of next year—in upmarket locations including New York (the meatpacking district), Miami, West Palm Beach, Boston, the D.C. metro area, and other locations around California (which has half of the country's EV [electric vehicle] sales).
Lucid is in the process of setting up similar home bases in Europe, and the Middle East is also in the plans. "We want places in affluent areas that get a lot of foot traffic," said Derek Jenkins, Lucid's vice president of design in an exclusive interview.
The plan makes sense because this is not an inexpensive car. The launch model is known as the Dream Edition, and it's designed to blow off Tesla, with 1,080 horsepower, a zero to 60 time of 2.5 seconds, the quarter mile in 9.9 seconds, and 508 miles of range. Buyers will get all that in an attractive package designed ground-up to be an EV, resulting in fairly small size but epic storage and rear legroom. But they'll pay for the privilege, $169,000. (The forthcoming base car will be comparatively affordable, at $77,400 before the $7,500 federal tax credit.)
MediaVillage talked to Jenkins about rollout marketing plans for the Air. "We're striving to make our studios an immersive experience," Jenkins said. "People want to get really involved in the car." Tesla initially took its cues from the Apple Stores, with a low-key strategy designed to acquaint consumers with the brand. Actually buying the car would mostly happen online, a trend that has been accelerated by COVID-19 even for mainstream brands.
Photo at top: The new Lucid studio in Beverly Hills. (Lucid photo)
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