New for the 2022 model year, the
Lucid Air is interesting from a design standpoint. That's because it is a luxury or perhaps semi-luxury car that needs to appear suitable for that price range. And it has an electric power train, which imposes the problem of not needing a front air intake, a design feature most buyers are conditioned to expect to find. Most important, the new brand's visual characteristics trademark needs to be established. That's a tall order for a styling director
In Lucid's case, the stylist is
Derek Jenkins, a man with a good deal of automobile experience plus training at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
Images below are factory-sourced.
Gallery
The front features a strong horizontal sweep that's a variation on a current styling chiché. It differs in that it's narrow. I'm not sure about what appears to be a chin-level air intake: is it functional? Note that its shape and color are echoed along the bottom of the car's side.
Side sculpting is typical of current cars. The car's profile is interesting due to the long, low, six-window passenger compartment greenhouse. Also the short "hood." What we see is something like 1990s Chrysler Corporation "cab forward" proportions.
Unlike many current cars with two-tone paint schemes, that of the Lucid Air works well. In fact, I find it a rare instance where two-toning looks better than single-tone paint.
This light-colored car shows off cut lines as well as the flowing dark areas noted earlier. The flow is repeated at the rear of the car. This is clever and unique -- especially the flow transitions by the wheel wells.
Front end cut lines.
Overhead view. Hood sculpting adds interest, and vaguely reminds me of hood sculpting on pre-1960 Vauxhalls.
The greenhouse is low compared to the lower body height, furthering a racy appearance. That low height reduces potential visual bulk for that lengthy feature. I include this image because I recently saw a similar Lucid Air while driving, thus inspiring this post.
So did Jenkins succeed? Yes, the car strikes me as looking fairly luxurious, thanks to the low greenhouse. There is enough going on at the front that the lack of a grille isn't too obvious. The brand identification matter is more difficult to evaluate. In part, that's because it would be necessary to view follow-on designs to find out which features were carried over (keep in mind that Lucid could easily become a market failure). The horizontal sweeps for the front and rear head- and tail-light assemblies are too cliché-like to serve that purpose. The interesting flowing details along the lower edges of the car have potential, but their location makes them easy to ignore when casually viewed. The low, six-window greenhouse with two-toning has the most potential, but also might not be enough. A distinctive grille design would help the most, but that's not likely to happen.
You didn't mention a few things: the windshield goes up into the roof past the sun visors like one or two previous Citroens only farther (god forbid it ever needs replacement). The top has a sort of retro later 50's hard top style wrapped back window creating a tapering C pillar, something previously seen in the somewhat similar Opel Adam roof, and it's divided from the body unlike most current cars. And the rear trunk lid is a big clamshell with the cut line lining up in side view with the back window edge. These are all things I like about the design, the rest of which like you wrote is very much in line with all kinds of cars in the past decade. The shallow vertical scoops ahead of the front wheels look too linear given the rest of the swoopiness, but maybe look OK in person.
ReplyDeleteLucid has been stumbling and everyone agrees the software is not ready for prime time and hasn't been improved enough since introduction but I hope they succeed based on this car, although I'm not exactly in their potential customer base (unless maybe they go on sale at 80% off). They could be like the last SAAB, except I've actually seen a couple of those in real life.