What Is Lucid’s Mysterious Third Affordable EV?

We already knew it was working on rivals for Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y, but an additional affordable model is also coming.

Lucid Off-Roader

Photo by: InsideEVs/Andrei Nedelea

Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

Aug 22, 2024 at 11:00am ET

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There's an entire "midsize program" in progress at Lucid, which will result in the creation of three affordable models.
Lucid's third midsize EV won't be a wagon or a sports car but probably a more off-road-focused crossover than the manufacturer's Tesla Model Y rival.
Midsize Lucids are expected to start rolling off the production line by the end of 2026.

Lucid is planning to go mainstream with the launch of two midsize EVs that will cost around $50,000. They are the vehicles needed to boost the manufacturer’s sales into the hundreds of thousands and make Lucid a household name around the world.

However, according to a recent report, Lucid has an entire “midsize program,” which will result in the creation of three more affordable models. We already know that two of them will be aimed at the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, respectively, but what about the third?

CarBuzz learned of the Lucid midsize program after talking to the company’s senior vice president of design, Derek Jenkins, who stopped short of saying what this mysterious third model was. He admitted that they were “huge wagon fans” at Lucid, but he noted that it’s a segment in decline, and the manufacturer can’t risk developing a model it knows won’t sell in sufficient numbers.

It’s probably not going to be a sports car either, with Jenkins noting that he sees growth potential in the off-road space, which he believes “will continue to morph and evolve.” This narrows it down to some type of high-riding vehicle and potentially one that is designed to be good off-road. Could it be called the Lucid Ocean?

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He added that “you're going to have products that are trying to cater to the fringe of off-roading, like rock crawling, and then you have your normal crossover products." Lucid is going to have a "normal crossover" in its range in the form of its Model Y rival, leaving room for something that's a bit more focused on going off-road, a vehicle that would more closely rival a Rivian R2.

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Jeep clearly thinks this more off-road-focused end of the affordable electric crossover market deserves its own model, which is why it’s working on the Recon, even though it’s also expected to launch a fully electric Wrangler. Mercedes is also working on a smaller version of the G-Wagen, which will also be available as a battery-electric vehicle.

With plans to eventually sell one million cars per year, Lucid has done its homework before choosing which segments to expand into, speculating that the smaller off-road-focused electric crossover might become a big thing in a few years. There is no word on when we might expect to see Lucid’s midsize off-roader, but it could be shown alongside the other two, which should enter production before the end of 2026.