Lucid Motors announces its sales and service strategy

Lucid Motors announced its overarching retail strategy, as well as specific locations for its retail network, service support, and plans for future growth.

Lucid is focusing on a direct-to-consumer model, partnering with leading California-based design firms to build a network of retail spaces to enable customers to experience the brand and its products in locations that underscore its unique design aesthetic. Like its first car, the all-electric Lucid Air that will enter production at the end of 2020, Lucid Studios draw inspiration from the beauty, innovation, and diversity of its home state of California.

Also like the Lucid Air, the interior of Lucid Studios will showcase color and material themes that represent specific locations within the Golden State, as well as its focus on innovation with unique digital and technology experiences.

The studios are conceived as technology hubs for an integrated digital experience, with Lucid's Virtual Reality Experience taking centre stage. Combining the physical and virtual worlds with a vehicle interior model and immersive VR, customers can explore the Air inside and out either by themselves or with a group. In combination with a full suite of proprietary digital experiences that will be fully realised in 2020, the result is the creation of a fully connected and personalised journey for customers.

In developing a service strategy, Lucid extended its luxury-minded brand experience to this key touchpoint by offering the convenience of support at the physical location of its customers. Lucid products such as the Air also feature over-the-air updates and remote diagnostics for immediate updates. Lucid service teams will deliver seamless customer service by utilising mobile service vans and certified partners for roadside assistance and collision repairs.

“We thoughtfully developed Lucid's retail strategy to provide customers with very specific experiences when they enter our studios and engage with our representatives,” said Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, Lucid Motors. “From the materials they view and touch, the experience of the VR configurator, the design of the studios in the context of the vehicles, and along with the physical locations of the studios themselves, everything comes together for our customers to absorb and appreciate the values infused into the Lucid brand.”

Lucid recently opened its first studio at its Silicon Valley headquarters in Newark, California, with a preview event for reservation holders featuring the production version of the Lucid Air that will be unveiled in New York in April. Eight additional studios are expected to open in 2020, with construction already underway for several of them. These include studios in New York City; Miami and West Palm Beach's Rosemary Square in Florida; and in various locations in California, including Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, at Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara, at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles, and locations in Los Angeles and Orange County.

The studios in Silicon Valley and Beverly Hills will also feature service centres to provide support in these key markets. More service centres and studios will open in 2021 in New York, Florida, Washington D.C., Chicago, Orange County, and San Diego, as well as in Europe to reflect strong interest in a region with high adoption rates for EVs. Many additional cities are being considered and will be prioritized based on reservations.

“We couldn't be more excited to partner with Lucid to provide destinations for consumers to experience the future of luxury electric automobiles in-person,” said Jean-Marie Tritant, President, U.S., Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. “Lucid's focus on sustainability aligns with our company's commitment to creating better places, and the brand's innovative and service oriented attributes fit perfectly within our flagship shopping destinations in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and elsewhere. As we continue to bring a new mix of tenants to our centres, and explore the vanguard of experiences for guests, forward thinking companies like Lucid are seeing the benefit of our global platform to create unique, authentic connections with customers.”

Lucid will unveil the production version of the Air in New York in April of 2020. In addition to the vehicle's final interior and exterior designs, new details on production specifications, available configurations, and pricing information will also be shared. Currently, in-house development on what is intended to be the world's most advanced electric car continues at a rapid pace, including battery packs with unmatched energy density and electric motors that are incredibly powerful yet efficient.

Lucid is manufacturing 80 beta prototypes at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters, which will be used for comprehensive testing and validation for key vehicle dynamics, as well as crash testing to confirm exhaustive simulations.