I went from a banal conference room at the Los Angeles Auto Show to looking at the big desert sky up above me through the glass on the Lucid Motors prototype.
It’s not the first time an electric car company has used a pair of VR goggles to draw me in to ooh and ahh over their concepts. But after a day of wandering among gasoline-powered crossover vehicles in a dry convention center at the auto show, the seductive simulation was working. I reclined back in my chair, stretched out my legs on the business-class-inspired seats, and enjoyed the sights.
Lucid Motors is among the latest wave of electric car startups to spring out of California with a sleek, dynamic, attractive sports car model. Under direction of the former Tesla Model S lead engineer Peter Rawlinson, the Lucid Motors CTO, there’s a feeling that Lucid has the internal knowledge to tease Tesla’s grip as maker of the ultimate electric luxury sedan — at least when I put on those rose-colored VR glasses.
The car is slated to go into production in late 2018
At the auto show, I met with the Lucid leadership responsible for launching a new car company, including Rawlinson and chief designer Derek Jenkins, who is the former head of design at Mazda, and credited with the redesigned Mazda MX-5.