California-based Lucid Motors ramped up its presence in Canada with its second showroom and plans to add a third.
Following the opening of the electric vehicle company’s Canadian debut last October at the Pacific Centre in Vancouver, B.C., Lucid opened a second location this week at the Yorkdale Shopping Mall in Toronto, Ont.
Lucid plans to expand its footprint in Montreal, Que., though its V.P. of Sales and Service, Zak Edson told Canadian auto dealer there is no specific timetable for it. He said a service centre will be built first for customers who already purchased the company’s initial product, a luxury sedan called Air.
Hans Ulsrud, Lucid’s Senior Manager, Canada, said the company chose Vaughn as the place to service its cars, because it is central to the Greater Toronto Area and is the base for many dealer groups. He also said Lucid will have mobile service vans with technicians to go to its customers.
Zak Edson, V.P. of Sales and Service/Hans Ulsrud, Lucid’s Senior Manager, Canada
Overall, Lucid opened 23 showrooms in North America. Edson said they selected Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal because B.C., Ontario, and Quebec sell the most cars in Canada and each of them have strong EV audiences. He said the company is not concerned that Ontario does not have a provincial rebate program like Quebec and B.C.
“We look at (rebates) as a bonus or optional,” said Edson. “What we’re setting out to do is build a product that people desire and want, not because there’s some sort of government incentive in place. Certainly we embrace government incentivizing people to make this transition into electric vehicles, but we don’t see that as a necessity for adoption of a Lucid.”
Air is a luxury sedan which will start with a base price of $105,000. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said last November he is not going to give rebates to people that are buying $100,000 cars. He referred to them as “millionaires.” The Ontario EV community tried to dispel that in hopes of bringing back rebates, as sales in Ontario dropped precipitously when the initial program ended. Lucid partnered with Electrify Canada to give two years of complimentary charging for people who order Air by June 30.
Lucid chose the Yorkdale Shopping Centre, because it is the third largest enclosed shopping mall in Canada and annually has 18 million visitors. It is the same mall where Tesla Motors opened a showroom in 2012. Both Edson and Ulsrud are both former Tesla employees.
“We’re looking for a certain type of traffic that’s within our target audience,” he said. “Certainly we like the exposure overall as well, because of our mission to inspire the adoption of sustainable energy. It’s not just people buying the car that we want to reach. We want to reach a broader audience as well to educate them on electric vehicles and help answer any question.”
Edson said Lucid is banking on consumers embracing Air because it has the longest range of any EV in history—up to 800 kilometres on a single charge. “We really wanted to make an impact with the first vehicle, but the true impact is for more cars, more volume and lower price points,” he said.
Edson said deliveries of the Air will be done in the next couple of months.
