If things go right for Lucid Motors, this lesser-known California automaker could be poised to challenge Tesla‘s prominence as Silicon Valley’s preferred EV producer. It’s looking very much like a Ford-versus-Chevrolet?style crosstown rivalry in the making. Lucid, formerly known as Atieva, is in Menlo Park, next door to Palo Alto where Tesla is headquartered, and Lucid’s chief technology officer?the one spearheading development of the new brand?s electric luxury sedan?is Peter Rawlinson, the former chief engineer of the Tesla Model S.
Rawlinson, a veteran of Lotus and Jaguar, has brought along many from the original Model S team and added fresh faces to address the rapid confluence of technology and mobility. But he swears that Lucid isn’t doing a remake of the Model S. All that experience on the team boosts the chances of seeing a good?perhaps great?car through to production. Peter Rawlinson, Lucid chief technology officer
Rawlinson conceived Lucid?s sedan as one that at last embraces the spatial and packaging freedom afforded by an all-electric powertrain. He says the Model S too closely followed traditional long-hood, cabin-back sports-sedan proportions, so Rawlinson sought out former Mazda North America director of design Derek Jenkins to establish a concept that breaks free of those constraints.
Getting Rid of the Combustion Cues
Jenkins, who helped pen the current Mazda MX-5 Miata and contributed to the design of most current Mazdas?inclu...