Lucid’s interim CEO, Marc Winterhoff, said that the company is seeing an increased number of Tesla customers coming to the brand and took the opportunity to throw some shade at Tesla’s aging vehicle lineup.
Over the last five years, Elon Musk has compelled Tesla to shift its focus to autonomous driving, neglecting its electric vehicle lineup in the process.
Tesla launched a single new vehicle during that period, the Cybertruck, which is a commercial flop.
The automaker introduced significant updates to the Model 3 and Model Y, but only mild updates to the Model S and Model X. The impact is being felt in the sales of those vehicles.
Lucid, which now has models to compete with both Model S (Air) and Model X (Gravity), has been able to steal some of those customers.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Marc Winterhoff, Lucid’s interim CEO, said that the automaker is seeing an increasing number of Tesla customers trading in their vehicles for Lucid Air and now Gravity:
“We have seen an uptick, that’s definitely the case, in Europe and also here in the US. The Model S, nothing has changed in 12 years now . . . [customers] are actively looking for other options.”
On paper, Lucid’s vehicles do compare favorably to Tesla’s Model S and Model X in terms of specs and features. Lucid also offers more options than Tesla.
On the subjective side, many also see Lucid’s design as being more luxurious for the price point than Tesla’s minimalist approach.
Electrek’s Take
I think Tesla believes that its minimalist approach to design makes it ageless. There’s some truth to that, but I think there are limits, and we are reaching those limits.
Tesla “updated” the Model S and Model X this summer, but the most significant update was the price.
Sales have crashed to a few thousand units a quarter, when Tesla had installed capacity for 25,000 units per quarter.
Meanwhile, I tested out the Lucid Air last winter, and I was blown away by how incredible it is.
Arguably, the only aspect where Tesla still holds a lead is with the ADAS system, and I’m told Lucid made a significant upgrade to that this year. I’m supposed to test it again.
If they start to close the gap there, now that they have access to the Supercharger network, I think it would be hard to go for a Model S over an Air.
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