• Much of the auto industry is spending big to optimize EV batteries.
  • Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said the battery isn't what the industry needs to prioritize.
  • "The car has the range, not the battery," Rawlinson said.

Automakers and startups are investing billions of dollars in batteries in the hopes that new or revamped chemistries, materials, and manufacturing processes will give them a leg up in a future where electric vehicles rule. 

Ford recently announced it is spending $11 billion on battery factories with partner SK Innovation. General Motors' new Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center will aim to bring the company's new Ultium batteries to market. Startups like Sila Nanotechnologies, Addionics, QuantumScape, and SES are pulling in billions from investors who see big returns in solving battery challenges. 

Peter Rawlinson, CEO of EV startup Lucid Motors, believes this emphasis on the battery is wrong. An EV's range — and its customer appeal — he said, has little to do with how many kilowatts it hauls around.

"The battery pack is totally overrated and most people don't get it," Rawlinson told Insider. "The car has the range, not the battery," he said. "And the car has the efficiency, not the battery."

The "Dream Edition" of Lucid's first model, the Lucid Air, offers an industry-trouncing range of 520 miles. That achievement, the CEO said, is "90% not the battery and 10% the battery." 

The Air's roughly 113-kilowatt-hour battery pack is among the largest in the industry, but its size alone doesn't deliver the 520-mile figure. 

Rawlinson said that offering that kind of range hinges on mastering every element of the car, including the motors, inverter, transmission, drive shafts, tires, aerodynamics, and cooling system.

"You could put the most rubbish battery in a Lucid Air and it would still go farther than anyone else because the rest of the car is so damned efficient," he said. "If you put the same capacity battery from anything else in there, it would still go 500 miles, as long as it's got that capacity."

Lucid just began rolling cars off production lines in Casa Grande, Arizona, and plans to begin customer deliveries sometime this month. 

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