• The Lucid Cosmos will be the first to use the EV maker’s new mid-size platform, with a reveal this summer and a starting price under $50,000.
• The Lucid Earth comes a year later with a unique design, and an off-road-focused SUV will follow, with all three mid-size SUVs sharing as many as 95 percent of their components. A two-seat robotaxi is also in the cards.
• The mid-size models will debut a new powertrain called Atlas that is 23 percent lighter and has 30 percent fewer parts compared to Lucid’s current drive unit.

Yesterday, electric-car maker Lucid Motors revealed that it will launch three new models on a less expensive mid-size platform with a new powertrain, with the first arriving next year. Now we have even more details on the startup’s plans. Marc Winterhoff, the company’s acting CEO, led half a dozen Lucid execs who detailed aspects of its upcoming range of mid-size models at an Investor Day in New York City on Thursday. They laid out Lucid’s plan to reach profitability, which includes a continuing focus on semi-autonomous driving functions and robotaxis.

Lucid claims each of the three models will be visually distinct and will be targeted for different buyers within the huge market for compact SUVs. That segment is seven times as large, $350 billion versus $50 billion, as the one for luxury SUVs and sedans in which the current Gravity and Air compete.

“In that [mid-size] segment,” Winterhoff said, “I believe the one-size-fits-all approach is not going to work in the future.” The three separate vehicles are only practical because they will share as many as 95 percent of their components, keeping development costs down and project timetables quick for the growing carmaker.

Cosmos: Model Y Competitor

The first of these, known as the Cosmos, is a sleek, aerodynamic compact SUV somewhat in the vein of the Tesla Model Y, and Lucid aims for it to be priced “under $50,000.” The public debut of the Cosmos comes this summer. Reporters were allowed to see both a design mockup and a body-in-white production-validation vehicle (a very early build to test and confirm assembly-line tooling) of the Cosmos—but only after our phones were safely locked away.

Visually, the Cosmos is a smaller, sleeker echo of the Gravity. With five seats instead of seven, it’s shorter and lower, with a drooping roofline and tapered upper cabin that splits the difference between a fastback hatch and a more upright SUV. It’s all to minimize the aerodynamic drag coefficient, which design SVP Derek Jenkins said would be lower than 0.22—a remarkable number for anything in the utility category, besting the Gravity’s already low 0.24.

The shape of the burgundy metallic mockup, sitting on 22-inch wheels with Michelin P Zero tires, was distinct and striking. (Jenkins assured us that the plan also includes smaller wheels with taller tire sidewalls for a more comfortable ride.) At the front, the center of Lucid’s characteristic thin light bar is black plastic, hiding the camera, radar, and lidar sensors. Angled lower lights complete the signature. Prominent, backlit individual letters spell out the brand name front and rear.

Inside, a single 36-inch-wide display just below the windshield stretches from the cluster across the center of the Cosmos. To keep costs down, Jenkins said the same display can be used on both left- and right-hand-drive models. There’s no separate central touchscreen.

Lucid proudly touted its hard controls: buttons for audio volume and tuning, some climate functions, and more. Apparently, the vents can only be opened, closed, or aimed via the touchscreen, an unsafe annoyance in our view. Other details: the Cosmos has “manual” door handles with fully mechanical operation—no buttons or electric motors to open or close the doors. Electric motors will lower each door’s frameless window glass slightly when the handle is operated, as in the Air and Gravity.

Jenkins said Lucid’s market research showed the Cosmos will appeal to an audience he called “upscale nurturers.” They’re millennial parents who want luxury and premium features in a vehicle that serves as a “family hub.” Of the three mid-size models, the Cosmos is most urban, will be used on-road most often, and will offer significant performance to buyers who value it.

Cosmos production will start by the end of this year at Lucid’s factory in Saudi Arabia; the first models will go on sale in North America during 2027. Assembly of Cosmos models for North America will then switch to Lucid’s U.S. factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, six to 12 months later.

Next EV SUVs: Earth and “Stay Tuned”

Roughly a year later, Cosmos will be followed by a second vehicle on the mid-size platform, this one called Earth. It will target a different group of buyers, the “trendsetting achievers” who want a more expressive, bold, high-tech design. Our only clue to how the shape of the Earth differs came in a single slide, showing a vehicle much the same size as the Cosmos, under a cover, but with a flatter roof and an apparent notch above the tailgate.

The last of its three compact electric SUVs, which Lucid didn’t name—it was labeled “Stay Tuned”—appears boxier yet, and considerably taller. Its target audience of “active explorers” is older, prizes performance “in all conditions,” and lives the now stereotypical “active lifestyles.” We expect this “adventure-focused” EV will be a close competitor to the Rivian R2 in off-road capability.

For all the new, smaller models, Lucid’s vehicle team started with a completely blank sheet of paper. They use, its execs said, no carryover parts at all. Every aspect of the vehicles is meant to reduce, simplify, consolidate, or eliminate parts and cost—while keeping the Lucid DNA of fast, elegant, long-range electric vehicles.

Indeed, aspects of its presentation echoed some parts of the upcoming Ford Universal Electric Vehicle (UEV) platform, which Ford detailed last month for reporters. “The best part is no part,” said Ford’s advanced EV head Alan Clark at the time. “The second-best part is one that does multiple functions.” Lucid operates on similar principles, and its team’s mantra of “Radical Efficiency” meant not just fewer components but a smaller factory footprint for much higher volumes than the Air or Gravity.

“Radical Efficiency” for Parts, Structure, Materials

The mid-size cars use “cell to pack” construction, with cells mounted directly in the battery enclosure, not within modules inside the pack. While the top plate of the Cosmos battery pack doesn’t act as the entire cabin floor, as Ford plans for its UEV platform, portions of it do. Rectangular sections of the Cosmos shell floor that we saw had sections cut out, perhaps a foot long from sill to sill, roughly under the feet of front- and rear-seat passengers. There, carpeting would rest on the top of the pack.

However, Lucid will not adopt the huge gigacastings Ford and Tesla use. Instead, its mixed-material approach blends aluminum extrusions and aluminum castings within a stamped-steel body structure—each chosen for where its characteristics are most suitable. This allows, Lucid said, a vehicle that is easier and cheaper to repair after crashes. Insurance cost is a major pain point for compact electric SUV owners, and Lucid says the Cosmos will likely save its owners $1000 per year on insurance against “a leading U.S. EV” (most likely the Tesla Model Y).

As Ford did, Lucid focused on the wiring harness, a complex, costly, and hard-to-install component of any vehicle. The Cosmos has just 60 percent of the wire count in the larger Gravity, with far fewer connectors between separate wires, meaning the harness costs roughly 60 percent less. The Cosmos has 1100 wires; the U.S. EV competitor has 1300; a South Korean counterpart has 1900; and a leading Chinese rival SUV has 2200. Lucid also cut the number of electronic control units (ECUs) in the Cosmos to three, two of them identical, from the Gravity’s 12.

Smaller, Lighter, Cheaper Motor

All three models use an entirely new powertrain, known as Atlas (the Air and Gravity use an earlier powertrain, dubbed Zeus). Like its predecessor, Atlas is very compact and lightweight for the power it produces. But it has been designed for minimal part count, reduced cost, and fast and easy assembly in mass production, to go into cars built in much higher volumes.

The Atlas powertrain is 23 percent lighter than Zeus, has more than 30 percent fewer parts, and its bill of materials adds up to 37 percent less. Its power-to-weight rating of 4.9 horsepower per kilogram is best in class, said Lucid’s chief engineer, Zach Walker, and will deliver zero-to-60-mph acceleration of just 3.5 seconds in some Cosmos models.

That efficiency gives a projected average range of 4.3 miles per kilowatt-hour for all-wheel-drive Cosmos models, perhaps reaching 4.5 miles/kWh for a rear-wheel-drive version. That’s 10 percent more efficient than the closest competitor today. And it allows Lucid to use a battery with less capacity, meaning lower cost, than its competition.

Lucid would not detail the energy capacity, cell chemistry, or other battery specs. But “we are getting highly competitive battery costs,” said Emad Dlala, Lucid’s SVP of engineering and software. It specifies very high-energy-density cells, another contributor to a pack as small as possible for the highest range. Lucid put intense focus on combining multiple high-voltage components into a single unit bolted to the top of the pack. The battery has 80 percent fewer non-cell parts, said Walker, and the cost of the non-cell parts of the battery was cut almost in half.

The Atlas drive units used in the front and rear of AWD versions are identical, which eliminates the cost of developing a second, different motor and power electronics package, for essentially the same purpose and packaging. Would the Atlas units be fitted into Air and Gravity models in a future update? It’s a possibility, said execs, but despite the appeal of a common powertrain built in far higher volume, Lucid has higher priorities right now. It could happen, perhaps around 2028, but not right away.

Surprise: A Two-Seater!

Lucid clearly sees its mid-size platform, developed from the start to underpin several SUVs, as the basis for many types of vehicles. At Investor Day, acting CEO Winterhoff chatted onstage with Andrew Macdonald, president and COO of Uber, which has committed to buy 20,000 Gravitys fitted with robotaxi sensors and software from Nuro. The pair said their companies are now finalizing an agreement to use Lucid’s mid-size vehicles “at a scale similar to the Gravity robotaxi program” that will ramp up over time.

Then came the surprise: a fourth vehicle, called Lunar (seen at top). This one was a concept for a two-seat vehicle envisioned for robotaxi use, complete with substantial cargo space. The vehicle shown had no doors, to show off its interior and cargo bay. With the same wide screen but no steering wheel, it’s built on a shortened mid-size platform. That makes it smaller and lower than the Cosmos, and it was conceived to be as energy-efficient and low-cost as possible.

The Lunar hasn’t been approved for production, chief engineer Walker stressed, and was displayed only to show what was possible with the platform. While the concept of two-seat robotaxis has come under intense fire from observers, Walker explained the logic of the vehicle—and how the needs of a robotaxi operator differ from those of a retail buyer.

With more than 90 percent of Uber’s current rides carrying only one or two passengers, a two-seat EV is smaller, lighter, and cheaper to operate, because it can use a smaller battery that recharges faster for the same range as a bigger model. Each reduction of 1 kilowatt-hour in battery size saves a robotaxi operator $1000 per year if the vehicle covers 100,000 miles each year. The Lunar shown might reach efficiencies of 5.5 to 6 miles/kWh, nearly twice that of mixed use in a four-seat compact electric utility vehicle.

Walker expounded on the “virtuous circle” of battery and weight reductions in a purpose-built two-seat robotaxi. One example: Lucid’s suspension is designed for driving pleasure and good roadholding, but cost can be cut in a robotaxi that doesn’t need to deliver such grip because it won’t get pushed that hard. That can eliminate not just costly bushings but even, in some cases, reinforcements and braces to keep the structure stiff during the most extreme handling loads.

Despite the attention it garnered, the Lunar is simply a concept for now. The Lucid Cosmos, which we’ll see in a few months, will be far more important. And if it’s what the company says, it may be not just an efficient and more affordable smaller electric SUV, but a pleasure to drive—as its predecessors have been. Stay tuned.

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