Talking Lucid's New Gravity SUV with CEO Peter Rawlinson and SVP of Design Derek Jenkins
We get the latest from the Lucid braintrust on this episode of the InEVitable.
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The undisputed star of this year's L.A. auto show was the Lucid Gravity. Three rows, over 800 horsepower, more than 400 miles of range, sleek, sexy looks, and about time. There were other vehicle debuts (and we challenge you to name them), but the 2023 show will forever belong to Lucid. That said, if you've been reading the news lately, and especially Silicon Valley-slanted financial sources, Lucid's sophomore effort wasn't always guaranteed. We are big believers in the California-based electric vehicle maker, not only naming its first vehicle, the Air, our 2022 Car of the Year, but also for its Wonka Factory-like HQ stuffed with brilliant people trying to reinvent the EV as we know it. The 2025 Gravity looks to be more of the same.
On this week's show, Ed and I sit down with both Lucid's CEO and CTO, Peter Rawlinson, as well as a returning guest, the brand's senior vice-president of design and brand, Derek Jenkins. Derek takes us through the Gravity's evolution from something that was more off-road focused and muscular looking to the sleek, wagon-like grand tourer it is now. He also takes us through the fairly substantial interior differences between the Gravity and the Air. The conversation with Rawlinson is much more wide ranging, less Gravity specific. We get into everything, from his time as the project manager of the Tesla Model S and Model X, to joining a fledgling Lucid (which wasn't called Lucid), to why the Air happened before the Gravity, to Peter's favorite theme: efficiency. He also drops some hints at an as yet to be revealed tech breakthrough lurking within the Gravity's motors. You simply gotta listen to this one.
Want to hear all about Lucid Motors' second effort? Or better yet, watch the video? Well guess what? You can watch the vodcast right here or on our YouTube channel. If audio is your thing, download the podcast here or wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you like it, please tell your friends, share us on social media, like the video, and don't forget to give us a five-star review. We hope you enjoyed listening and/or watching to this episode and we promise we'll get Peter Rawlinson back on for a proper interview sometime in the future. Thanks for the support, and as always Ed and Jonny are back next year with several new episodes of The InEVitable!
When I was just one-year-old and newly walking, I managed to paint a white racing stripe down the side of my father’s Datsun 280Z. It’s been downhill ever since then. Moral of the story? Painting the garage leads to petrolheads. I’ve always loved writing, and I’ve always had strong opinions about cars.
One day I realized that I should combine two of my biggest passions and see what happened. Turns out that some people liked what I had to say and within a few years Angus MacKenzie came calling. I regularly come to the realization that I have the best job in the entire world. My father is the one most responsible for my car obsession. While driving, he would never fail to regale me with tales of my grandfather’s 1950 Cadillac 60 Special and 1953 Buick Roadmaster. He’d also try to impart driving wisdom, explaining how the younger you learn to drive, the safer driver you’ll be. “I learned to drive when I was 12 and I’ve never been in an accident.” He also, at least once per month warned, “No matter how good you drive, someday, somewhere, a drunk’s going to come out of nowhere and plow into you.”
When I was very young my dad would strap my car seat into the front of his Datsun 280Z and we’d go flying around the hills above Malibu, near where I grew up. The same roads, in fact, that we now use for the majority of our comparison tests. I believe these weekend runs are part of the reason why I’ve never developed motion sickness, a trait that comes in handy when my “job” requires me to sit in the passenger seats for repeated hot laps of the Nurburgring. Outside of cars and writing, my great passions include beer — brewing and judging as well as tasting — and tournament poker. I also like collecting cactus, because they’re tough to kill. My amazing wife Amy is an actress here in Los Angeles and we have a wonderful son, Richard.Read More