Electric car maker Lucid will offer consumers high-speed charging with Volkswagen across U.S. in another jab at Tesla

  • Published | 27 September 2018
Volkswagen-funded project ‘Electrify America’ is constructing a 500-site high-speed electric vehicle charging network across 40 states and 17 major U.S. cities. This venture will further have a positive impact of the emerging market of electric vehicles in the foreseeable future.
United States: Luxury electric car maker Lucid plans to offer consumers high-speed charging services for electric cars throughout United States on a charging network funded by Volkswagen. Lucid will provide services on that network for its clienteles. Lucid plans to place its first electric vehicle into production in 2020 and is targeting at the high-end of the market dominated in the U.S. by Tesla. This project will have a positive impact on the automotive market industry in the near future. According to the agreement, Volkswagen subsidiary ‘Electrify America’ will create a charging subscription plan for Lucid on Electrify America's planned network of 500 charging sites, all of which it anticipates to have built or under construction by July 2019. Lucid, which is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, plans to start manufacturing its own upscale electric sedan in 2020. The company recently raises the stake in the battle to catch Tesla after receiving USD 1 billion investments from the Saudi government's Public Investment Fund. The company's chief technology officer is Peter Rawlings, who was former Tesla's chief engineer, and who worked on the team that developed the Model S sedan. Legacy automakers such as Jaguar and Volkswagen subsidiary Audi have recently launched their own high-end electric cars designed to take a piece of the market where Tesla is the most recognizable brand. Tesla has built 1,344 high-speed Supercharger stations around the globe. Volkswagen started the Electrify America program as part of its settlement with the U.S. from its diesel emissions scandal, after it was discovered, that the automaker used devices to cheat diesel emissions tests. The company settled to spend USD 2 billion in the U.S. to support electric vehicle technology. According to BlueWeave Consulting, the deal gives Lucid another leg up against Tesla and signals increasing competition in the luxury electric car segment. Electrify America is making a lot of changes lately in the positioning of its forthcoming large network of electric vehicle charging stations in the U.S. Electrify America is encouraging more than 2,000 chargers with power levels up to 350kW. The wave towards the increasing demand for Electric Vehicles, owing to its positive impact on environment, has already been established within the major automobile players, and is working towards their upcoming models of Electric vehicles. The shift to electric vehicles from the conventional combustion engine vehicles will fetch a change in the overall ecosystem of Automobile industry. According to a recently published report by BlueWeave Consulting, on “Global Electric Commercial Vehicles Market by Propulsion type (BEV, HEV, PHEV, FCEV), by Vehicle type (Bus, Truck, Van, Others), by Component (Motor, Battery, Others) – Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast by 2018-2024, the Global Electric Commercial Vehicle is projected to grow over a CAGR of 12% during the forecast period of 2018-2024 by value. The market is expected to reach around USD 149,316 Million by 2024. The expansion of the electric vehicles market is influenced by growing demand for fuel-efficient, high-performance and low-emission vehicles coupled with, stringent rules and regulations in several countries and growth of public charging infrastructures in countries like Norway, France, China and other developed countries. This is in-turn creating an opportunity for automakers to flood the market with electric vehicles. The highly populated developing countries like India, China will provide the future market for Electric Vehicles and its charging stations.