Elon Musk’s Ex-Chief Engineer Creates A New Car“”And Says It Beats Tesla

Elon Musk’s Ex-Chief Engineer Creates A New Car“”And Says It Beats Tesla

The $169,000 Lucid Air is coming this spring and Peter Rawlinson claims it'll be the fastest, longest-range electric vehicle on the planet. He should know. A decade ago, he engineered Tesla's Model S.

Peter Rawlinson has many goals for the Lucid Air. One is that it be hailed as the world's best electric car. "Nobody believes me but we're about to take it to another level,“ he says in a pre-Christmas Zoom chat from the 300-year-old Warwickshire, England, farmhouse, he calls home when not at Lucid Motors' Silicon Valley headquarters.

It's the same feeling he had a decade ago as chief engineer for Tesla's Model S, the breakthrough all-electric car that took the auto world by storm in 2012. "No one believed me with Model S . . . the hostility to it was shocking. I've found the same with (Air). No one believes it.“

The "Dream“ edition of the Air certainly seems set to wow. It tops the S with an industry-leading 517 miles per charge, faster recharging and the ability to go from 0 mph to 60 mph in just over 2 seconds. (Tesla is responding late this year with a "Plaid+“ Model S that accelerates in just under 2 seconds