Lucid Motors released a new teaser image of its upcoming Cosmos midsize SUV on Tuesday — not through a social media campaign, but as the cover photo on the LinkedIn profile of its newly appointed permanent CEO, Silvio Napoli.
The image, set as the banner on Napoli’s LinkedIn page, marks the first new visual of the Cosmos since the company showed a design mockup behind closed doors at its Investor Day in New York on March 12.
No exterior photographs were published at the time — phones were confiscated before attendees entered the viewing area.
Before Tuesday, the company had released only three teaser images — two silhouettes shared ahead of Investor Day in early March, and a third revealed during the March 12 event itself.
All three showed the vehicle under covers or in heavily obscured form, revealing only its proportions and roofline.
What We Already Know
The Cosmos is the most consequential product in Lucid’s pipeline. Priced below $50,000, it is the company’s first midsize model and its entry into the high-volume segment where the Tesla Model Y and Rivian R2 compete.
It is built on an entirely new platform powered by the Atlas drive unit — a ground-up redesign with 30% fewer parts, 37% lower manufacturing cost, and 23% less weight than the Zeus powertrain used in the Air sedan and Gravity SUV.
Chief engineer Zach Walker said Atlas is 40% more power-dense than its closest competitor.
The platform uses an 800-volt architecture with a 69 kWh battery delivering approximately 300 miles of range at an efficiency target of 4.5 miles per kWh.
The Cosmos can regain over 200 miles of range in 14 minutes of DC fast charging and reaches 60 mph in 3.5 seconds in AWD configuration.
As EV reported last week, Lucid’s director of cost engineering Cory Steuben — the former president of teardown benchmarking firm Munro & Associates — said the Cosmos uses approximately half the wire count of a comparably equipped Chinese model and achieved a wire harness cost target set at 40% of the Air and Gravity.
The midsize platform uses just three pieces of electrical hardware, compared to twelve in the Gravity.
Steuben said the Cosmos programme is landing “at or near should-cost predictions across the board.”
The platform targets an 80% reduction in battery assembly components, 50% lower labour and overhead costs, and up to 70% lower unit costs relative to the company’s current models.
On March 12, then-interim CEO Winterhoff claimed, citing A2MAC1 benchmarking data, that the Cosmos bill of materials undercuts both a leading US midsize EV and a comparable Chinese-built model.
The company also deliberately avoided full-underbody gigacasting — the manufacturing technique used by Tesla, Rivian, and others — in favour of four corner-node mega castings with bolt-on replaceable crash structures.
The decision, Steuben said, was driven by insurance repairability and total cost of ownership.
What Reporters Saw in March
At the Investor Day, Car and Driver’s team said the Cosmos is a smaller, sleeker echo of the Gravity — shorter, lower, with five seats instead of seven and a drooping roofline.
Design chief Derek Jenkins told reporters the drag coefficient will be below 0.22 — a figure that would be remarkable for any utility vehicle and would beat the Gravity’s already-low 0.24.
Kyle Conner of Out of Spec Reviews, who became the first person outside Lucid to sit in the vehicle, described it as a “younger, more modern” Gravity with a “totally unique” rear end and a “striking” interior.
The cabin replaces the dual-screen layout of the Air and Gravity with a single 36-inch-wide display.
An AI-powered voice assistant called “Lucid Intelligence” will serve as the primary interface.
The front light bar hides camera, radar, and LiDAR sensors — the first confirmation that the Cosmos will carry LiDAR. The vehicle uses mechanical door handles, a bottom-hinged accelerator pedal, and frameless windows with electric glass lowering.
Conner described the frunk as “insanely large” and said total cargo volume exceeds that of a Toyota RAV4.
Manufacturing and Timeline
Lucid plans to begin Cosmos production at its AMP-2 plant in Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Economic City by the year end, with a “slow ramp” through 2027 and full capacity targeted for 2028.
The Saudi facility has capacity for 150,000 midsize units per year. US production at the Arizona plant is expected to follow six to 12 months later.
The former interim CEO Winterhoff said the project is “on schedule.” The public debut of the Cosmos is planned for this summer.
The body-in-white production-validation vehicle shown to reporters at Investor Day confirmed that factory tooling is already being tested — a stage beyond prototyping. Prototypes were being assembled at Lucid‘s Casa Grande, Arizona, headquarters as of late January.
The Cosmos will not contribute meaningfully to 2026 volumes.
The company guided for 25,000 to 27,000 vehicles this year, with the Gravity accounting for the vast majority.
The Midsize Lineup
The Cosmos is the first of three midsize models.
The second, called Earth, targets a more adventurous buyer and follows approximately one year after the Cosmos.
A third unnamed model aimed at “active explorers” will come later and focus on off-road environments.
All three share approximately 95% of their components. The platform also underpins the Lunar, Lucid‘s two-seat robotaxi concept revealed at the same event.
On Tuesday, Uber expanded its purchase commitment from 20,000 to at least 35,000 Lucid vehicles — now including the midsize platform alongside the Gravity. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the midsize platform “creates an even clearer path to stronger unit economics.”
Why the Teaser Matters
Lucid has been secretive about the Cosmos’s exterior design.
At the Investor Day, attendees were given their first hands-on access to a finished design mockup and a body-in-white production-validation vehicle — but under strict conditions.
Phones were confiscated before entry, and no exterior photographs have been published. Only written descriptions from attending journalists exist.
Jenkins said at Investor Day that the public debut of the Cosmos will take place this summer.
