Luxurious electrical automobile producer Lucid will quickly present a model of its Air sedan to police in Saudi Arabia, and it’s obtained a trick up its sleeve… or reasonably, on its roof.
Revealed on the the World Protection Present in Riyadh, at first look the police model of the Air looks like it has gained nothing greater than a paint job.
The big mild and siren pod on the roof, nevertheless, can open on the press of a button to launch a drone.
The Saudi Arabia Ministry of the Inside revealed a video exhibiting the Air amongst different Saudi police automobiles, together with Ford Explorers and Dodge Chargers.
It’s unclear what number of Airs will be a part of police fleets within the Kingdom, although extra particulars could also be forthcoming from the World Protection Present this week.
It’s unclear what capabilities the drone has, however we will speculate concerning the Air’s capabilities.
Judging by the wheels the police Air is sporting, it appears to be the bottom mannequin Pure. The Pure includes a single electrical motor that sends 320kW of energy to the rear wheels.
This permits the Air Pure to finish the 0-100km/h dash in 4.5 seconds. Flat out, the Pure will attain 200km/h.
شركة #لوسِد_موتورز تنفذ تصميم خاص لمركبات الأمن العام في السعودية، من المتوقع الكشف عنها على هامش معرض الدفاع العالمي خلال الأسبوع القادم pic.twitter.com/aNH7zoBceJ
— مشاريع السعودية (@SaudiProject) January 31, 2024
The Pure makes use of a 92kWh battery pack that grants the sedan estimated vary of roughly 700 kilometres on the stricter US EPA cycle. The battery can be able to vehicle-to-load bi-directional charging.
Moreover, when the car is related to a 350kW DC charger, roughly 320km of vary might be restored in simply 17 minutes.
Lucid has been struggling to ramp up electrical car (EV) manufacturing and obtain profitability.
Bloomberg reported in October 2023 that, per its estimates, Lucid was dropping roughly US$338,000 (A$535,000) on each Air it sells. For context, the Air is priced from US$77,400-$249,000 (A$122,000-$394,000), relying on the variant.
Lucid’s share worth is down from a peak of US$55.21 (A$87.60) on November 19, 2021 to only US$3.31 (A$5.08) at this time.
It additionally posted a US$2.6 billion (A$4.12bn) loss in 2022 and lower 18 per cent of its workforce – or round 1300 employees – again in March 2023. It’s set to announce its 2023 monetary outcomes on February 21, 2024.
A big motive why Lucid has been capable of keep afloat to this point is because of heavy funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (PIF). The PIF owns as much as 60 per cent of the American EV producer.
Lucid has additionally arrange a manufacturing unit within the nation, which isn’t solely the primary abroad manufacturing unit for the EV producer, however the first automobile manufacturing unit in Saudi Arabia.
Initially, the manufacturing unit is just capable of assemble kits which are shipped over from the US, at a charge of 5000 yearly.
Nevertheless, Lucid hopes the manufacturing unit can produce automobiles from scratch with an annual manufacturing capability of 155,000 items – together with semi knocked down (SKD) kits – from 2025.
The PIF additionally backs Aston Martin, which just lately partnered with Lucid to obtain “future powertrain and battery expertise”.
As a part of the brand new partnership, Aston Martin will situation round 28 million new shares to Lucid, giving the American agency a stake of about 3.7 per cent within the British agency.
Aston Martin has additionally agreed to pay Lucid “in extra” of US$450 million ($673 million). These funds will probably be made in phases, and the full determine features a lump sum, in addition to money for drivetrain elements, batteries, electronics, and consulting and technical companies.
