Lucid Motors to Use Electrify America Charging Network for Its Air Electric Car

Lucid hopes to launch the Air in 2020.

byStephen Edelstein|
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Lucid Motors will rely on the Electrify America charging network to support its planned Air electric luxury sedan. A company press release said Lucid has signed a preliminary agreement with Electrify America to provide customers with a "nationwide charging plan."

Electrify America has created as part of the Volkswagen diesel settlement, which stipulated that VW must spend $2 billion over 10 years on infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles. Electrify America will oversee the use of those funds, with a focus on charging stations for battery-electric cars. While it is Volkswagen's money being spent, Electrify America is brand agnostic and its charging stations will be open for anyone to use.

The charging stations won't be free to use, however. Lucid will likely set up charging plans for its customers that are similar to what Audi plans to do for its e-tron electric SUV. Audi has said customers will get 1,000 kilowatt-hours of free charging at Electrify America stations, after which they will have to pay per charge.

By June 2019, Electrify America will have built or be in the process of building more than 2,000 DC fast-charging stations at more than 500 sites, according to Lucid. The stations will be spread out across 40 states, serving 17 major metropolitan areas. Stations will be able to charge at up to 350 kilowatts, making them much more powerful than current stations. This will future proof the infrastructure against increasingly-large electric-car battery packs.

Lucid unveiled the Air in 2016, and originally said the car would go into production at a new factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, in 2018. That deadline was recently pushed back to 2020, although it did also accept a $1 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which could go a long way toward ensuring the Air actually makes it into the hands of customers.

In 2017, Lucid said it would offer an all-wheel drive version of the Air with 1,000 horsepower and a range of 400 miles for somewhere north of $100,000, as well as a rear-wheel-drive model with 400 hp and a 240-mile range for $60,000.

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