Extensive testing with the second generation of the Porsche 919 Hybrid Le Mans prototype began on January 18 at the Abu Dhabi Yas Marina Circuit.
As scheduled, this marks the start of the 2015 motorsport season for the Porsche Team. The new Porsche 919 Hybrid already had its initial roll-out at the Weissach test track, near Stuttgart, Germany, on 15 December, 2014. As a next step, there will be several performance and endurance tests before the World Endurance Championship (WEC) season opener on April 12 at Silverstone, UK.
The new Porsche 919 Hybrid is a comprehensive evolution of last season’s successful car, which marked the return of Porsche to the top class of the WEC in 2014. It features the same innovative drivetrain concept consisting of a 2-litre V4 turbocharged petrol engine, supplemented by an electric motor powering the front wheels, and two energy recovery systems.
Porsche 919 prototype starts testing at Yas Marina Circuit
Porsche 919 prototype starts testing at Yas Marina Circuit
Price cuts drive sales of Saudi-owned electric car
- Lucid delivers more vehicles than expected as it prepares to launch luxury new Gravity SUV
RIYADH: The majority Saudi-owned electric car maker Lucid delivered more vehicles than expected in the past three months as price cuts helped boost demand.
The company delivered 2,394 cars from April to June 30, above analysts’ predictions of 1,940.
Lucid produced 3,838 vehicles in the first six months of 2024 and needs to make more than 5,162 cars by end of the year to meet its annual output forecast of 9,000. It made 8,428 cars in 2023.
“I think at this point everything is shaping for them to achieve that,” said Andres Sheppard, senior equity analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald. Lucid will produce and deliver more cars in the second half of the year because of the usual seasonal effects on the industry, he said.
Demand for electric vehicles has grown more slowly than expected pace in the past year, under pressure from high borrowing costs, economic uncertainties and consumer preference for hybrid alternatives.
Lucid and the market leader Tesla have responded by slashing prices and offering incentives such as cheaper financing options. Lucid, which is 60-per-cent owned by the Public Investment Fund, the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, cut the price of its flagship Air model by 10 percent in February.
Its new Gravity SUV model, a rival for Tesla's Model X, goes into production this year and will cost about $80,000.
