Lucid Motors today released a video of its AMP-1 manufacturing plant in Casa Grande, Arizona which showcases the production processes of the Lucid Air for the first time. It's clear that Lucid has set high standards for build quality, and this video was produced to make certain we know that.
Perhaps that's because one of their main competitors in the electric vehicle market, Tesla, has well-documented problems with quality control and the automaker wants to assure its customers that won't happen with Lucid Motors.
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Lucid recently postponed production of the Air by about six months, citing delays relayed to the Coronavirus. However, Bloomberg Law reported that the automaker pushed back the production timeline after acquirer, Churchill Capital Corp IV, expressed concerns over Lucid's quality control and supply chain.
We do have some robots and we do have automation, but this vehicle is put together by humans, and it takes real craftsmanship to put together. - Art Schlaud, Director, Manufacturing General Assembly
Lucid introduces us to four of its key production managers at AMP-1, and they explain what they do and how the company is committed to producing the highest quality vehicles possible.
We get to meet:
- Art Schlaud, Director, Manufacturing General Assembly
- Jason Regelski, Manager, Launch/Production Operations
- Federico Tapia Olivas, Director Quality Engineering
- Hector Rascon Rodriguez, Vehicle Evaluation Manager
Months ago Lucid's CEO Peter Rawlinson said: “a lot of slack was cut” with the Model S because “the electric car was such a fun experience that people forgave the build quality issues.”
However, Rawlinson doesn't believe that is the case anymore as EVs become more mainstream. Therefore, he believes the Air must be perfect at launch. And for the $169,000 price of the Lucid Air Dream Edition, we agree that perfect is pretty much what most customers will (should) expect.
This is not only the traditional car that takes you from point A to B. You are living magic while driving this vehicle. - Federico Tapia Olivas, Director Quality Engineering
Gallery: Lucid Motors' Amp-1 Production Facility
We take the car and make sure that the car is free from defects. We inspect the whole vehicle, 100% of them, for more than 180 attributes, and then the vehicle is shipped. - Hector Rascon Rodriguez, Vehicle Evaluation Manager
It's good to see that Lucid appears to be going to great lengths to make sure quality is a strong point for the automaker. Build quality is clearly one of Tesla's few weaknesses, and it makes sense for Lucid to try to seize upon that as a differentiating factor. But can they? Building cars is hard, much harder than designing and engineering them, in fact. We'll see pretty soon.
