Lucid Motors competing with Tesla in many ways, offering American-built high-performance electric cars. Like Tesla, Lucid has a different sales model than traditional dealers but still needs a pleasant customer environment for direct sales. The type of facility that can only be offered by a brick-and-mortar showroom, service, and pick-up experience. Problem is, that these "experiences" cost money to build, and even though Lucid Motors is expanding, it can't build everywhere to suit the geo-location of buyers.

Even a massive auto retailer like AutoNation with over 300 locations was unable to have dealerships in every state and pivoted to internet sales. But in the Lucid model, the start-up will construct pop-ups to take various trims of the Lucid Air on the road.

The pilot project by Lucid has been dubbed the Dream Ahead tour, which will integrate its 'studio' experience into temporary locations. The aim is to get those with reservations behind the wheel of one of its models or trims to give the driver a feel of the raw power of say, the Lucid Air Grand Touring Performance trim, which recently set a production car record for the 2022 Goodwood hill climb.

The Dream Ahead pop-up experience was recently introduced at the Electrify Expo in Long Beach, CA, which was a promising inaugural event for the world of EV. And like the Electrify show, the Dream Ahead pop-ups will tour several cities starting with Las Vegas and the Napa Valley. Other future locations have yet to be announced but expect them to be where EVs, charging infrastructure, and the subsequent demand are in large supply. The Dream Ahead traveling show will bring with it paint samples, interior fabrics, displays of battery systems and drive units along with experts to explain all the tech.

While it might only cost $300 for a deposit for a base Lucid Air Pure and $1,000 for the Air Grand Touring trim, these luxury EVs are not cheap with recent price increases. One of the complaints concerning Tesla was that none were affordable. However, considering the upcoming Air Pure trim will be just over $89,000, the Air Grand Touring is $155,650, and the future top-line trim Air Performance will be a whopping $180,650, Lucid cars aren't for the masses.

While these lofty top-trims might make a Tesla Model S Plaid look affordable, the Air Grand Touring has the Plaid in it's sights with impressive performance and outstanding range of 516 miles. With 30,000+ orders confirmed to shareholders (roughly two years of production output) the company will have challenges meeting that demand but the Dream Ahead program should get those deposits flowing in.