Earlier this year, Lucid Motors confirmed three new mid-sized models looking to grow company sales with more affordable vehicles. The first to arrive is one called the Cosmos, which should start series production before the end of this year. Now, thanks to some design patent filings, we know what it will look like before Lucid was ready to show it off.

If you’re expecting a design surprise, then we’re sorry to let you down. The Cosmos, at least the one represented in the patent drawings (H/T CarScoops), doesn’t deviate far from the styling we’ve seen in the Air sedan and the Gravity SUV.

Fortunately, the smaller Cosmos does lose some of the minivan-like proportions of the larger Gravity, and turns the sleek shape into a stunner. It looks much lower than the Gravity, too, and we can’t wait to see its stance in person. That’s because of the wheels. Especially in the side profile, the wheels and tires look absolutely immense. They come up almost to the SUV’s door handles, and are almost comically large. Yes, the Gravity’s wheels are almost as tall, but that SUV’s design is an outlier, not typical of the marketplace.

Lucid’s patent drawings also seem to show different variants of the EV. The first is the company’s familiar sleek shape, but there is another that shows a much more rugged design in the form of aggressive shapes and bumper pads that jut out front and rear. Lucid has already said that the next SUV will get an off-road grade, with similar versions of SUVs like the Toyota RAV4 Woodland and Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT both well established in the market. This, then, is most likely it. The face is clearly derived from the Gravity X concept that Lucid revealed last year.

There are even some glimpses of the inside. The nearly full-width screen perched atop a vent trim that runs the width of the cabin matches images Lucid has shown before, including the lack of a traditional center screen. Two control dials in the center console could handle the features a center screen normally does.

A Realistic Look At Cosmos

To get a better look at what this SUV will look like, CarBuzz rendered the patent images into more realistic images of the Cosmos SUV. They work to better show the design, including its curves and forms, but remember that patent drawings, thus anything derived from them, may not be true to production.

Little SUV A Big Deal For Lucid’s Future

The Cosmos is meant to be the first affordable Lucid EV, with a price tag starting under $50,000. It should sell in much higher numbers than the pricier Air and Gravity, but that’s still no guarantee. A new drive unit called Atlas has 30% fewer parts and a 37% cost advantage over Lucid’s current Zeus motors, and the company will be able to use the same unit front and rear.

It will also have a new battery pack, with a 40% smaller manufacturing footprint for lower costs. Lucid didn’t specify range for the Cosmos, or the size of the new pack, but did say that it if it had a 69 kWh battery pack, it could go 300 miles. This was part of a slide meant to compare it to the more expensive packs competitors needed to cover the same distance.

Tesla’s Model Y is the obvious target for the Cosmos, but it’s no longer alone in the market. Even among startup EV companies, Rivian’s R2 has just gone on sale, though only in the $57,990 Performance trim, not the sub-$50,000 versions.

CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:

We’ve been waiting for Lucid’s mainstream models for quite a few years. If it follows the same path as Tesla, which seems likely, it’s these vehicles that will cement it as a mainstream automaker. Tesla leapt from 100,000 vehicles per year before the Model 3’s full launch to 245,000 the year after, and with the Model Y, it quickly hit one million.

The ramp will likely be slower for Lucid, since there is more competition now than there was, but it’s still key to the company’s existence. If Lucid can bring the qualities we love from the Air – the most efficient EV in the US – and Gravity to this lower price, it could be a big hit.

Patent filings do not guarantee the use of such technology in future vehicles and are often used exclusively as a means of protecting intellectual property. Such a filing cannot be construed as confirmation of production intent.

Source: WIPO, H/T: CarScoops