Crafting a California Luxury Experience

Finding Inspiration for Lucid Air’s Colors, Materials, and Finishes

Posted by Sue Magnusson, Manager, Colors, Materials, and Finishes

First impressions define how we perceive a luxury automobile and its brand, from the depth of its paint, to the smell of its leather, to the touch of the wood inlays. Immutable once made, first impressions must be crafted carefully through a car’s colors, materials, and finishes (CMF).

The CMF team at Lucid started with a clean slate, unbound by convention but dedicated to a clear vision of what the Lucid Air should be. Our mission is to define a new premium mobility experience, with a signature look and feel that carefully balances innovation with tradition and technology with nature.

We have recognized a special source for inspiration. We call it home, the beautiful state of California. Known for its inclusivity and open-mindedness, California is a melting pot of languages, cultures, and traditions. From Hollywood to Silicon Valley, the state has built a reputation for forging new frontiers.

California’s ability to inspire, however, goes beyond its culture of diversity and innovation. The state also has some of the most geographically diverse landscapes in the world, with nearly 300 days of sunshine annually, fostering a sense of optimism that influences how we see the world around us. We made the beauty of California a central part of the Lucid experience, creating color and material themes for the Lucid Air that symbolize specific locations and times within the Golden State.

Let’s look at how these locations and times inspired our team.

Santa Cruz, 12:09

Santa Cruz, 12:09

Santa Cruz sits on the central coast of California at the northern tip of Monterey Bay, where the redwoods meet the ocean. 

By noon, the sun has burned off the morning fog along the coast. The sky is a brilliant blue, and the sunlight is nearly blinding. The waves end in tips of silver, a color that looks brilliant in all lighting when applied to the exterior of the Lucid Air.  Slide inside, and the inspiration for our Santa Cruz theme becomes evident, with colors that mimic the shoreline cliffs and sand, from a deep espresso and a warm grey to a light shell. We’ve inlaid the doors and console with genuine walnut trim, with a natural-looking grain. The seats are covered in a soft and supple leather that is minimally processed to maintain its natural qualities and to preserve its breathability and flexibility for perfect seating comfort.

Located within the Sierra Nevada mountains, Lake Tahoe sits between the border of Nevada and California. In the early evening, the sun appears large and glowing as it disappears behind the mountains, setting the sky on fire. Warm tones of red, yellow, and orange create a golden glow against a darkening sky. Here we find the inspiration for our Tahoe theme, with its warm black and saddle-brown leather interior with contrast stitching. The fumed-oak trim is a nod to the native oaks of California, instilling in the Lucid Air a sense of luxury as impressive as a Tahoe sunset.

Tahoe, 19:01

Tahoe, 19:01

Just a minute before midnight, all is quiet in the Mojave Desert. Deep within is a dark sky paradise, where near-zero light pollution leaves the sky the deepest black. We look up and experience something so beautiful – a galaxy of stars, casting beautiful shadows off the landscape. It is within these shadows that we find the inspiration for our darkest theme, the Mojave. We’ve designed the theme with two special shades of luxurious nappa-grain leather: a deep black for the front and a dark charcoal grey for the back. The effect is similar to a shadow cast by starlight, transporting you to the beauty of the desert.

Mojave, 23:59

Mojave, 23:59

It is the beginning of the day in Santa Monica, a coastal city west of downtown Los Angeles. The light is still low on the eastern horizon. The fog is lightly hovering above the waves, and the air is fresh and cool. The city has not yet come alive. It is a time for reflection about the day ahead, when our minds are rested, calm and clear. As we look across the sand and down the long stretch of beach, everything seems to be bathed in subtle greys and whites. Here we find the inspiration for our Santa Monica theme, with its cool-tone leather and light washed woods reminiscent of driftwood. As you slide into the driver’s seat, no matter where you are, you will have a sense of the beauty of the city that inspired us.

Santa Monica, 05:11

These themes, along with others that the Lucid CMF team is developing, honor the natural beauty of California. Our goal is to create innovative interiors that fuse classic materials with high-tech design. We have taken great care in developing the colors, materials, and finishes we use in our themes not only to preserve a specific place and time but also to offer our customers a memorable driving experience that is as unique as our state.

Check out the Santa Cruz theme applied to one of our alpha cars.

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