Automotive Engineering - April 2022 - 12

Airing on the side of
INNOVATION
In the EV vanguard: The 2022 Air on the road. Lucid is using
its technologies to drive down EV cost.
I
s there a proven formula for creating a top-notch engineering
organization and benchmark product from scratch? Lucid Motors
CEO Peter Rawlinson shared his approach at the company's
Newark, Calif, headquarters.
" We have a very small team of brilliant engineers that we've managed
to attract to the company with a vision: to do the best electric vehicle
ever, " he explained. " It will be outstanding for your career; it will be stimulating, "
he told them. " And they came. " Rawlinson, who previously led
Model S development at Tesla and was top engineer at Jaguar and
Lotus before that, used a similar talent pitch at Tesla. The then-obscure
startup had just six engineers when Rawlinson joined in 2009.
" Peter is the amalgamating leader at Lucid, " noted Eric Bach, the
senior VP of product and chief engineer who left Volkswagen to
join the Lucid crusade. He said Rawlinson looks for " raw intellect
times hours, " meaning drive and desire. " With raw intellect, it
doesn't matter if the other people on the team are from automotive,
aerospace, or elsewhere, " Bach explained. " Because it's all
about engineering fundamentals. "
No question that Lucid's leadership, including senior engineering director
Dr. James Hawkins (ex-Aston Martin), design chief Derek Jenkins
(Audi, VW, Mazda), and their colleagues squarely nailed the fundamentals
for their first production vehicle, the remarkable 2022 Air. The luxury
electric sedan, built at Lucid's Casa Grande, Arizona, plant, is impressing
customers with its industry-leading range, its blend of speed, agility and
mile-eating comfort, and its innovative technologies.
But beyond establishing the Air as an EV pace-setter, the team's mission
is " to advance the state of the art in electric cars; to show what's
possible - and to use our technology to drive the price down, "
Rawlinson asserted. Total vehicle efficiency is the team's mantra, exemplified
by the Air Grand Touring model.
12 April 2022
Lucid Motors'
home-grown
technologies are
setting the pace
in electrification.
Top engineers
tell how and
why they're
building a
benchmark.
by Lindsay Brooke
The GT's 926-volt, 112-kWh battery pack consists of
6,600, cylindrical 21700-type cells arranged in 22 modules,
300 cells per module. The LG Energy Solution cells
nestle in a simple and robust Lucid-designed singleshot,
injection-molded structure, incorporating a cold
plate on its back side. " It's super cheap to make, "
Rawlinson said. " The design can be mass produced by
the millions. " Most importantly, the Air delivers a maximum
516 miles/830 km range on the EPA drive cycle,
which equates to 4.6 miles per kilowatt-hour. " There
was no single enabler for this efficiency achievement, "
Hawkins told SAE Media. " It comes from attention to
systems engineering and gaining a percent here and a
percent there. They add up. "
The next Air model, called the Pure, launches later
this year with a smaller, lighter 88-kWh, 18-module
pack and 400 miles/644 km range, at a significantly
lower price point ($77,400) than the limited edition
$169,000 launch model.
The team is leveraging a mass-compounding factor
by optimizing total systems efficiency, with focus on
the powertrain, Hawkins said. Less battery weight
means less structure to carry it around, less cost and
greater simplicity; every 15 kg (33 lb.) of vehicle mass
saved yields about one extra mile of range. But as he
and Rawlinson admonish, there is too much emphasis
on the battery in many EV discussions. " It's [the battery]
just the gas tank of the EV, " Rawlinson quipped.
" The motor and inverter are more important to how
we get the range and efficiency - we've got a more
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
LUCID MOTORS
Automotive Engineering - April 2022

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