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Saturday, October 2, 2021
Friday, October 1, 2021
520-mile Lucid Air production has begun
| If you have trouble reading this message, view it in a browser.  Tesla is testing owners' driving skills before letting them try FSD, we drive the 2022 BMW iX xDrive50, and FIA World Rallycross will be getting an all-electric series soon.  The past month has already been an important one for EV production launches, with the first production examples of the Rivian R1T rolling off the assembly line in Illinois. This week saw another major milestone when Lucid Motors began production of the Air sedan, boasting an industry-leading 520 miles of range confirmed by the EPA a few days prior. This was a big moment for the EV start-up, just as competition in the segment is about to heat up with the arrival of even more challengers, especially from Team Germany.  Three flavors of the Lucid Air will be available initially. The first customer deliveries are expected in late October, with Lucid pointing out that it has received over 13,000 reservations for the sedan. "The proprietary EV technology that Lucid has developed will make it possible to travel more miles using less battery energy," said Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, Lucid Group. Like a number of other automakers, Lucid will focus on building and delivering the more expensive versions of the sedan first, with deliveries starting late next month, but less expensive versions are on the way in the future.  Electric delivery vans are on the way from GM's BrightDrop, in time for the holiday season. Yet another production milestone took place this week, with GM starting to assemble the first examples of the BrightDrop electric vans, with Ultium battery tech on board. BrightDrop, GM's start-up focusing on last-mile deliveries, will offer the EV600 and EV410 vans promising up to 250 miles of range each. The model names themselves denote the amount of space inside in cubic feet, with the EV410 also featuring a shorter wheelbase than the EV600. If it feels like this whole BrightDrop project materialized very quickly, that's because it actually set a record, advancing through development in just 20 months. And the early units will be making deliveries for FedEx in yet another short span of time, before the busy holiday season later this year.    Earlier this week, Polestar—Volvo's one-time performance tuner and current EV sub-brand—revealed plans to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). With an intended value of $20 billion, this would make Polestar one of the most valuable EV makers out there. But why does Polestar need this if it already has the backing of Geely and Volvo?  Created by a consortium of British automotive suppliers and tech companies, the Aura aims to be a glimpse of EV sports cars of the future, with a decidedly classic recipe that recalls vintage British roadsters. The car itself is a fully functional prototype, rather than some static concept made out of plastics and meant to look convincing on the floor of an auto show.   Spread the word: If you know someone interested in staying on top of the rapidly growing EV segment, feel free to pass this newsletter along.
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