Lucid Motors has claimed that the bill of materials for its upcoming Cosmos midsize SUV undercuts a leading American competitor but also a comparable Chinese-built crossover utility vehicle (CUV).
The claim, made by interim CEO Marc Winterhoff and supported by a slide sourced to automotive benchmarking firm A2MAC1, was filmed during Lucid‘s first Investor Day on March 12 and published on the company’s YouTube channel on Thursday.
The Cosmos is Lucid‘s most consequential product bet — a midsize electric CUV planned to be priced from below $50,000 that the company has positioned as the vehicle that will determine whether the Saudi-backed EV maker can reach wider segments and scale its operations.
Cosmos is the first model built on Lucid‘s all-new midsize platform, which also underpins a second consumer SUV called Earth, a third unnamed off-road-oriented variant, and the Lunar two-seat robotaxi concept.
The three consumer models share approximately 95% of components — a deliberate decision to spread development and tooling costs across a broader production base.
The platform represents a clean-sheet redesign from the Air sedan and Gravity SUV, according to the brand.
It is powered by the next-generation Atlas electric drive unit, which Lucid says has 30% fewer parts, 37% lower manufacturing cost, and 23% less weight than the Zeus unit used in its current models.
Chief engineer Zach Walker said Atlas is 40% more power-dense than its closest competitor.
The electronics architecture has been drastically simplified: three ECUs replace the twelve used in the Gravity, with 60% less wiring — approximately 1,100 wires in total.
The body uses a mix of aluminium extrusions, aluminium castings, and stamped steel rather than full gigacastings, which Lucid said reduces both manufacturing complexity and downstream repair and insurance costs.
Atlas uses identical front and rear motor housings and mounts, simplifying tooling.
The front motor is an induction unit; the rear is a permanent magnet motor. The combination delivers a claimed 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds in all-wheel-drive configuration.
The platform uses an 800-volt architecture with a NACS charging port, and Lucid said the Cosmos can regain over 200 miles of range in 14 minutes of DC fast charging.
Auto reviewer Kyle Conner, who became the first person outside Lucid to sit inside the vehicle at the Investor Day preview, described it as a “younger, more modern” Gravity and said it should start under $50,000 — placing it directly against the Tesla Model Y and Rivian R2.
The BOM Claim
In a conversation with Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu — filmed at the March 12 event and released on Thursday — Yu asked Winterhoff what he would say to those who argue US EVs cannot compete with Chinese manufacturers.
“I have yet to see a Chinese car that really has the same driving dynamics like our cars have,” Winterhoff replied. “All of the data that we got, not only from us but also from external providers, suggests that our BOM cost was actually cheaper — than that vehicle.”
He acknowledged the comparison has limits.
“Maybe not in China, when you sell your car under the BOM cost, which I think they’re cracking down on now or want to,” the interim CEO added — a reference to recent moves by Chinese regulators to address below-cost pricing in the domestic market.
A slide presented during the event showed the Cosmos BOM sitting below both a “US EV Leader OEM Midsize CUV” — described as a weighted average of US and China manufacturing costs — and a “Chinese EV OEM Midsize CUV.”
Neither competitor was named. The chart, sourced to A2MAC1, carried the tagline: “Comparable cost with longer range.” Lucid did not disclose absolute BOM figures for any of the three vehicles shown.
The identity of the unnamed Chinese competitor remains unconfirmed.
Based on the midsize CUV segment positioning, the comparison may reference models such as the Tesla Model Y in the US and the Xiaomi YU7 in China, though this has not been disclosed.
Winterhoff also took a broader shot at competitors shifting strategies. “I think that what’s happening right now, particularly here in the US, with everybody flip-flopping — it will come back to bite the companies that do that right now. That’s my opinion,” he said.
The Efficiency Thesis
Lucid‘s cost argument rests on powertrain efficiency rather than labour arbitrage.
BYD Co., the world’s largest EV maker, paid an average of approximately 147,000 yuan ($21,400) per employee in total compensation in 2025 — roughly two times lower than entry-level assembly workers at US EV plants and five to six times lower than company-wide averages at Rivian and Lucid.
The Investor Day presentation targeted efficiency of approximately 4.3 to 4.5 miles per kilowatt-hour for the Cosmos — significantly above the 2.5 to 4.0 range typical of US-market EVs.
CFO Taoufiq Boussaid said the company targets up to 70% lower unit costs versus its current models.
Production Timeline
The Cosmos will begin production at Lucid‘s Saudi Arabian facility in King Abdullah Economic City by the year end, with what Boussaid described as a “slow ramp” through 2027 and full capacity targeted for 2028.
The Saudi plant is being built with capacity for 150,000 midsize units per year. Production is expected to shift to Lucid’s Arizona factory six to 12 months later.
Lucid will not enter the United Kingdom until 2027, when it plans to launch with the Cosmos rather than either of the two vehicles it currently sells, according to an interview with the company’s European president published by Autocar.
The company’s stock closed at $8.82 on Wednesday, near its all-time low.
The company’s market capitalisation has fallen below $3 billion — roughly a third of the more than $9 billion invested in the EV maker by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
