Imagine it. Your very own clean sheet car company. You confidently seduce investors with talk of offering the business class ambience of a Maybach S-Class, Porsche Taycan-shaming performance and the longest range of any EV on Earth. Why yes, of course you're going to be making electric cars.
You'll be headquartered in mid-California, equidistant between San Jose and San Francisco. Nice this time of year.
Every time of year. A VR headset's throw from Meta's base, if you need to poach some coding magicians. Chassis and design nous will be snared from Europe's elite. And you'll perform a brain drain on Tesla, just to wind up Elon. He'll throw som barbs on X, but it's not as if anyone will see.
Welcome back to reality, as I furnish you with the raw, unvarnished numbers. In 2023 Lucid Motors aimed to manufacture up to 14,000 Air saloon cars, but only managed to stamp out 8,428. In the first nine months of last year it registered a $2.17 billion (£1.7bn) loss - $630 million (£475m) evaporated between July and September alone. Even Manchester United couldn't manage that.
In December, Lucid's chief financial officer resigned. Her unconvincing resignation letter stated, "I am confident in Lucid's future... I look forward to watching the company continue to grow." Meanwhile, EV demand in the US cooled from over-caffeinated forecasts, prompting Ford to cancel the extra shift it'd laid on for mass F-150 Lightning production, and forcing Tesla to slash prices as it (successfully) sought to shift over one million vehicles in a calendar year.
Not pretty, is it? Down the financial plughole splutters another plucky would-be Tesla with big dreams, taking with it the fortunes of a few starry eyed shareholders and the livelihoods of thousands. Right? Wrong. Lucid's amid a monumental land grab. Losses? No. You're a business mogul. They're investments.
This story is from the March 2024 edition of BBC Top Gear UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 2024 edition of BBC Top Gear UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
HEAD TO HEAD VANTAGE vs 911 TURBO
For as long as we can remember the Porsche 911 has been the default best sports car money can buy. Does the new Aston Vantage represent a changing of the guard?
BOSS LEVEL:PART TWO
In a world exclusive, three makers of the world's most powerful hypercars are cordially invited... to drive each other's creations
THE THEORY 0F EVOLUTION
Ridged bladder seats, an inflating steering wheel and an AI track day coach... has Lotus hit on the supercar's future, or gone mad?
Koenigsegg Jesko Attack
The Jesko Attack drives like a conventional supercar. Brakes like one, turns like one, grips like one. But it doesn't accelerate like one.
STIC LAPS are back!
It's a 1.75-mile figure of eight on an old Canadian Air Force base just south of Guildford. Hardly Monza, or the Mulsanne straight, and never in a million years - you'd think a place that would become one of the most sought after performance benchmarks in the motoring world.
URBAN OUTWITTERS
Does the solution to city motoring lie in designs from the past with powertrains from the future? TopGear goes in search of answers... at rush hour
FUTURE FERRARIS
If you thought Ferrar's past was colourful, wait until you see what it's cooking up next. The future's bright, the future's rosso
DIRTY DOZEN
Ferrari's new super GT makes no secrets about what's under the bonnet, but can it swallow five countries in just a few hours? Better get on with it...
MYTH BUSTER
\"ADAPTIVE DAMPERS ALWAYS NEED TO ADAPT\"
The S2000 from a parallel universe
Meet Evasive Motorsports’ Honda S2000R, the car the Japanese firm should have built itself
