The battery is not what the four-wheeler industry should focus on. The CEO at Lucid, Peter Rawlinson, who therefore criticizes the choice of a large part of the automotive industry is spending a lot to optimize batteries for electric cars.
Rawlinson believes this emphasis on drums is wrong. The range of an electric car and its attractiveness to customers, according to Rawlinson, has little to do with how many kilowatts it carries around. “The battery pack is totally overrated and most people don’t get it,” Rawlinson told Business Insider. “The car has range, not the battery,” he said. “And the car has the efficiency, not the battery.”
Lucid’s CEO’s reference is that automakers and startups are investing billions of dollars in batteries in hopes that new or refurbished chemicals, materials and manufacturing processes will give them an edge in a future where electric vehicles will dominate. . Ford recently announced that it is spending $ 11 billion on battery factories with partner SK Innovation. General Motors’ new Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center will aim to bring the new Ultium batteries of the company. Startups like Sila Nanotechnologies, Addionics, QuantumScape, and SES are raising billions from investors who see big returns in solving battery challenges.
Lucid is a Californian startup that with its Lucid Air Dream model promises alonger autonomy than the Tesla. Led by Rawlinson who is a former Tesla Model S chief engineer, it started production of its Lucid Air cars at its Arizona factory in late September with the aim of reaching a production capacity of 90,000 vehicles per year in the next two years.
The “Dream Edition” of Lucid’s first model, the Lucid Air, offers an astonishing range in the 520-mile sector. This result, the CEO said, is “90% not the battery and 10% the battery”.
The Air’s approximately 113-kilowatt-hour battery is among the largest in the industry, but its size alone doesn’t provide the 520-mile figure. Rawlinson said offering that kind of range depends on mastering every element of the car, including the engines, inverter, transmission, driveshafts, tires, aerodynamics, and cooling system. “You could put the poorest battery in a Lucid Air and it would go even farther than anyone else because the rest of the machine is so wonderfully efficient,” said Rawlinson. “If you put the same battery of any other capacity in it, it would still go 500 miles, as long as it has that capacity.” Lucid has just started rolling the cars off production lines in Casa Grande, Arizona, and plans to begin delivering to customers later this month.