Introduction
Streamlined Lucid Air is an Electric Rocketship
This ultra-luxury sedan proves a compelling entry from a young automakerOverview
The first model from Lucid Motors, a California EV startup, is the Air, a large ultra-luxury sedan, and an SUV is also in the works. The company may remind you of Tesla from a decade ago for good reason: Peter Rawlinson, who heads Lucid, was the chief engineer behind the Tesla Model S before departing for Lucid. It’s clear that a page or two from Tesla’s playbook is being used here.
Lucid’s distinction is with its in-house production of motors and accompanying electrical systems, along with the high energy density and efficiency of its batteries, which in turn yield the longest range of any EV so far at 520 miles for the top version. The system also relies on a 900-volt electric architecture that allows a maximum acceptance rate of 300 kilowatts at public DC fast-charging stations. As a comparison, Tesla claims a max rate of 250 kW on the Model Y Long Range. Lucid’s compact motors benefit packaging, thus maximizing interior space, and contribute to weight reduction.
The Air, which has been in production at a plant in Arizona since fall 2021, comes in a few different levels of power and range.
We rented a Lucid Air Grand Touring from the company for first impressions before we buy our own for a fully instrumented, comprehensive road test. After driving the Air on the streets of Manhattan and through the Connecticut countryside, there is no question that the Lucid is a striking looking car and a conversation starter.
We typically don’t address visual design aspects of a car. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That said, we found Lucid Air Grand Touring to be gorgeous in person—a streamlined, rolling sculpture. No matter how you slice it, the Air is an impressive first vehicle from Lucid. And it should be for the stratospheric $150,000 price tag. As such, it is aiming to challenge other six-figure EVs like the BMW i7, Mercedes-Benz EQS, Porsche Taycan, and the Tesla Model S.
To date there is no EV with a longer range than the Lucid Air. The version we tried, the Grand Touring, has an EPA-estimated 469 miles of range. Even if you deduct 25 percent due to cold weather or high speeds, you’re still very comfortably approaching the range of a gas car, which allows days of typical usage without having to plug in.
It takes 13 hours to charge the large 113-kWh battery from empty on a typical home charger. At public DC fast-charging locations the car can take a maximum acceptance rate of 300 kW, which is the fastest charging of any current EV. Lucid claims the Air can gain 300 miles of range in 22 minutes. Most other EVs typically gain about 150 miles in 30 minutes as we’ve found.
Interior storage is plentiful. The center console is functional, and we liked the hidden cubby behind the lower touchscreen, which does a magical “open sesame” trick. The door pockets are long, but you won’t be fitting anything too tall in there. The front trunk (aka ”frunk”) is quite massive, especially if you lift the cargo floor. At the rear, the trunk opening is super wide and the lid opens clamshell style. The rear seats fold flat, and there is a pass-through for long items.
The adaptive cruise control worked well during highway driving, in terms of keeping a set distance to the vehicle ahead and adjusting the speed up and down in a gradual, unobtrusive manner. We like that the Lucid employs a direct driver monitoring camera, but it can be a bit too eager to issue a warning to the driver to pay attention to the road, such as when you’re just making a routine temperature adjustment.
Unlike Rivian and Tesla, which show images of surrounding cars in the instrument cluster and have no warning lights in the mirrors, Lucid employs conventional blind spot warning with warning light in the side mirrors. We, and consumers we surveyed, think that’s the more intuitive design.