Car Design Review X: Derek Jenkins, Lucid
By Car Design News2024-03-20T08:00:00
Lucid design boss Derek Jenkins shares his personal approach to design in this exclusive Car Design Review X interview
This year has been busy, to say the least. We’re finishing up the Lucid Air Sapphire, our ultra-high-performance, limited-edition model, which is ready for production. But of course, the big news is the launch of our SUV, Gravity, coming near the end of this year. Our engineering department has been testing prototypes in camouflage and here at HQ we have this mini scale line where we’re building bodies in white. All the production leads are training here and then we’ll take the teachings and the techniques to our factory in Arizona, scale it up, and we’ll have our Gravity line.
Although I can’t give you specifics yet, I can tell you that Gravity was designed to set the segment benchmark for range, efficiency and design. I’ve always been of the opinion that every three-row SUV has something missing, even in the premium luxury space. We looked at this as an opportunity to take the understanding of how SUVs have evolved and blend that with Lucid’s approach to EV technology and stellar attributes that truly matter: drivability, space and utility, range, and performance. The Gravity will be the quickest in the segment, and that means beating vehicles like the Lamborghini Urus and the Tesla Model X ‘Plaid’ edition. In the electric era people expect it all and to be able to give them that in an SUV is a big deal.
There’a been a rapid evolution in design over the last ten years. These…