Lucid Unveils New Racing Drive Unit, Expands Retail Presence In Canada

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Some exciting news for Lucid fans recently came across the CleanTechnica desk. Not only is Lucid expanding its operations in Canada with a new retail location, but it also has a new drive unit that’s made for racing. And, this comes after announcing record production that exceeded financial guidance previously released by the company.

Let’s take a look at each of these stories!

New Retail Location In Canada

The company has proudly unveiled its latest hybrid of Studio, delivery, and service center in the province of Quebec. The Montreal location opened to patrons on Saturday, January 28th, increasing its total number of locations in North America to a whopping 32 Studios and service centers. On an international scale, that’s 36 sites across the globe.

After Lucid achieved 2022’s production goals with an impressive 7,180 vehicles produced, the company is now exponentially increasing its physical presence in Canada by opening its third retail location and first service delivery center located in Quebec. This 1,781-square-meter luxurious store and service space at 6700 Rue Saint-Jacques will provide customers from this area comprehensive sales and customer support services.

“The opening of our first retail location in the province of Quebec is a significant milestone for Lucid in Canada,” said Zak Edson, Vice President of Sales and Service, Lucid Group. “Canadians have proven they’re serious about EVs, so we’re looking forward to providing Montreal and surrounding areas with the innovation and dynamic experience of our award-winning lineup of Lucid Air.”

When you visit a Lucid Studio, its unique design aesthetic will immediately capture your attention. Its digitally-oriented luxury experience is tailored to the individual needs of each customer, whether that be in-person visits, strictly online inquiries, or if you’d like to combine both.

Lucid’s New Racing Drive Unit

A few days before opening the new Canadian retail location, Lucid jumped deeper into motorsports with the introduction of its new electric drive unit, already being used as the default front driving force in a prominent all-electric racing series.

“With incredible power density of 14.7 hp/kg and immense energy recuperation, this drive unit will once again transform electric motorsports, following in the footsteps of our revolutionary battery pack in prior race seasons,” said Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, Lucid Group. “For Lucid, the transfer of technology between motorsports and road cars is a two-way symbiosis. This new motorsports drive unit builds directly upon the groundbreaking powertrain technology developed in-house by Lucid and proven on the road in every Lucid Air. I’m excited by the prospect that some of the technical advancements introduced may in turn make their way to future Lucid road cars.”

The new motorsports drive unit is a powerhouse of modern engineering, with motor, inverter, differential, and transmission all integrated into one system that weighs only 70.5 pounds (32 kilos) yet produces 469 horsepower! It also features the advanced high-voltage continuous wave winding and exclusive microjet cooling technology as found in Lucid Air’s sports sedan engines, while boasting a max rotor speed of 19,500 rpm.

The innovative Lucid drive unit proudly sits in the front of each racecar competing in the electric championship series, providing regenerative energy recovery from its front wheels during braking. This revolutionary technology amplifies the car’s performance, efficiency, and relevance to advancing road cars.

The groundbreaking motors in Lucid Air’s acclaimed sports sedan were designed, crafted, and produced completely by the company. The same goes for its new front motor drive unit which draws upon its e-motor design knowledge, power electronics proficiency and computer simulation experience to create an advanced technology that is manufactured with precision at Lucid’s California headquarters.

Record Production in Q4 2022

A couple weeks before announcing the drive unit, the company proudly declared its production and delivery figures for the quarter ending December 31, 2022. An impressive 3,493 vehicles were generated at the Arizona manufacturing facility in Q4 alone, with 1,932 of them delivered during that same time frame. For the whole year, Lucid produced 7,180 vehicles and delivered 4,369. This was beyond its projected range of 6,000-7,000 units.

Full figures will be available next month (February 22) when the company holds a conference call and issues a full press release with all details. To connect with its investors, Lucid is establishing a partnership with Say Technologies in order to maximize shareholder engagement. Retail and institutional shareholders will be able to submit and upvote questions that management can answer during the earnings call, ensuring an improved dialogue between Lucid and its investor base.

This is similar to what Tesla does, so it should work pretty well for these future earnings calls.

Lucid Has Come A Long Way

While these production numbers are very small compared to Tesla and even many mainstream manufacturer production numbers, we have to keep in mind that this is still a relatively young company. The company that would become Lucid started in 2007, but mostly focused on building parts for other EV manufacturers. It wasn’t until 2016 that it changed its name and announced the intent to build a vehicle itself.

By then, Tesla had already been building vehicles like the Model S for years and was getting started with the Model X. Even GM had been building Volts for years and was in the process of preparing the Bolt EV. So, this is a race that Lucid started running after the others had gone several laps. The years’ long process of design, factory construction, gathering (sometimes controversial) investors, and ultimately getting a vehicle to production took until 2021.

Despite being behind other manufacturers, Lucid is making impressive technical strides. The proof is in the pudding, especially when we recall a story from last month where the Lucid Air ate the Tesla Model S Plaid for lunch on the track. It would be hard to argue that it had better resources than Tesla did, but it still managed to not only beat Tesla, but the fastest gas-powered car (the Bugatti Chiron) and even the fastest motorcycle around that was specifically modified to try to beat them.

Clearly Lucid has something special going on behind the scenes. It’s no wonder Lucid wouldn’t let me take aerial photos of its site!

All images provided by Lucid.


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Jennifer Sensiba

Jennifer Sensiba is a long time efficient vehicle enthusiast, writer, and photographer. She grew up around a transmission shop, and has been experimenting with vehicle efficiency since she was 16 and drove a Pontiac Fiero. She likes to get off the beaten path in her "Bolt EAV" and any other EVs she can get behind the wheel or handlebars of with her wife and kids. You can find her on Twitter here, Facebook here, and YouTube here.

Jennifer Sensiba has 1930 posts and counting. See all posts by Jennifer Sensiba