Lucid is recalling 27,185 Air sedans because the exterior lighting circuit could overheat and start a fire. The luxury EV maker finally found a feature that works as advertised.
The circuit overheats. The car catches fire. This happens on the outside of the vehicle, which means you get to watch your six-figure investment turn into a campfire while you're still making payments on it. Tesla owners had to wait for a crash. Lucid owners just need to turn on the headlights and park near something flammable.
NHTSA issued the recall notice. The same agency that spent decades letting Ford Pintos roast people alive now moves fast when it's a luxury sedan for tech executives. Priorities.
Twenty-seven thousand units sounds like a lot until you remember Lucid's entire business model is selling dozens of cars per quarter to people who think owning the same EV as their neighbor's Tesla is beneath them. This recall represents roughly four years of production at their current pace. They built these cars faster than they've ever built anything since, which should tell you something about quality control when you're trying to impress the Saudi wealth fund.
The Air starts at ninety thousand dollars. You pay that much for German engineering that breaks in interesting ways, not American engineering that breaks in the same way Ford has been f*cking up electrical systems since the Model T. At least when your Mercedes catches fire, you can tell people it happened in German.
Lucid shares trade around two dollars. The market already priced in the fire risk. Every retail trader who bought at fifty dollars and rode it down gets to add "exterior lighting hazard" to their list of reasons why they're never retiring.
The recall fix is free, which is the only discount Lucid has ever offered.
Photo by Oxana Melis on Unsplash
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