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The American electric car manufacturer Lucid is expanding into Europe. The company wants to open a showroom in Germany in May, following which the first branch is to be set up in Zurich.
The company’s European expansion is to start with a showroom in Munich.
imago images/Levine-Roberts
A Swiss location is to follow, most likely in Zurich. But Lucid also wants to be present in Geneva.
imago images/Levine-Roberts
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The car manufacturer Lucid also wants to compete with Tesla in Switzerland.
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The US company plans to open its first locations in the country this year.
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The company was founded by a former Tesla manager.
The range of e-car manufacturers in Switzerland is currently relatively small, with Elon Musk’s Tesla dominating the business with electrically powered vehicles. That should change in the course of this year if the US company Lucid has its way: The car manufacturer wants to gain a foothold in the European market with a showroom in Munich as early as May, as the «Sunday newspaper» reported.
Lucid also wants to set up its first branch in Switzerland in 2022. “We want to open our first showroom in Switzerland this year,” says Kayvan Nikjou, Lucid’s head of communications for Europe. The choice would probably fall on Zurich, but the company also wants to be present in Geneva. Overall, Lucid wants to employ around a dozen people in Switzerland.
The American carmaker was founded in 2012 by ex-Tesla manager Peter Rawlinson, who left Musk’s company following a dispute. Lucid is currently valued at 41 billion francs on the stock market, while Mercedes is worth around 68 billion francs. The stock market value of Tesla broke the trillion mark for the first time in autumn 2021.
1111 hp and a range of 837 kilometers
Like Tesla, Lucid also relies on fully electric vehicles. With the new Lucid Air model, the company is attacking the upper class of e-mobiles: The top model Lucid Air Dream, which has been sold out for a long time, has 1111 hp and a battery that is said to offer a range of almost 850 kilometers. The basic model has 480 horsepower and, according to the head of communications, will be available in Europe from 70,000 euros.
With these key data, Lucid is definitely competing with Tesla, which currently has the supremacy in the electric car market. With the showroom in Munich, the established German manufacturers of vehicles for the middle and upper classes are also to be challenged. Service is likely to be a challenge: while traditional car manufacturers such as BMW or Audi can draw on a dense network of specialized workshops, Lucid has to build up these services from scratch. According to Kayvan Nikjou, a kind of delivery service should fill this gap. In the event of problems, an employee will pick up the Lucid body and a replacement vehicle will be made available to the customer during the repair.
No own charging stations planned
The company is not currently planning its own charging stations à la Tesla’s superchargers. In Switzerland there is now a dense network of public charging stations, but only a fraction of them can deliver electricity with the maximum output of 350 kilowatts. However, there already seems to be interest in the Lucid Air electric sedan: According to Nikjou, the first pre-orders from Switzerland have already been received.
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