Lucid has finally fully unveiled the production version of its first car: the Lucid Air, a luxury electric sedan.
For those of you who have been following our coverage over the past few months, there won’t be many surprises since Lucid has gradually leaked the most important information. But it’s still worth diving a little deeper with all the final details.
Lucid Air Design
First of all, let’s check the final design since it’s one of the few things that Lucid kept close to its chest until today.
For those familiar with the early version of the car unveiled in 2017 before Lucid ran into some financial troubles, you will find it to be very similar.
Not much has changed. It features very simple yet sleek lines, resulting in a striking luxury sedan that looks small from the outside but feels big in the inside.
With the Air, Lucid followed a California-inspired design philosophy that transpires throughout the entire vehicle, especially with the color schemes.
Here are a few pictures of the Lucid Air’s exterior:
The interior is a little more different than what we saw on the prototype unveiled a few years ago.
Most of the changes happened in the back seat, which Lucid significantly toned down in the production version:
As for the cockpit, it still features that large curved instrument cluster and a retractable screen in the center console.
Lucid Air Specs
We already knew about the headline-making specs due to Lucid’s slow drip of information leading up to the unveiling, but now they have released more details for all the different trims.
Here are the main specs of the Lucid Air:
| Models | Price (USD before incentives) | Range (EPA Est.) | Horsepower | Performance Specs (0-60s acceleration, 1/4 mile time, top speed) | Charging (up to) | Availability |
| Air | Below $80,00 | TBA | TBA | TBA | 300 miles in 20 mins – 1,200 mph | 2022 |
| Air Touring | $95,000 | 406 miles | 620 hp | 3.2s, 11.4s, 155 mph | 300 miles in 20 mins – 1,200 mph | Q4 2021 |
| Air Grand Touring | $139,000 | 517 miles | 800 hp | 3.0s, 10.8s, 168 mph | 300 miles in 20 mins – 1,200 mph | Q2 2021 |
| Air Dream Edition | $169,000 | 503 miles | 1,080 hp | 2.5s, 9.9s, 168 mph | 300 miles in 20 mins – 1,200 mph | Q2 2021 |
For the Dream Edition, which is going to be the first to be delivered and requires a bigger deposit to reserve, the 503 miles is only going to be achieved if you go with the 19″ wheels.
If you want the cool 21” AeroDream wheels, the range will drop to 465 miles. How will you survive with only 465 miles?
Lucid confirmed that the biggest battery pack, and the first to be delivered in the GT and Dream versions, is going to have a capacity of 113 kWh.
The vehicle is also equipped with a 19.2 kW bidirectional onboard charger that will enable vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-vehicle charging.
Electrek’s Take
I think they have a solid entry for their first vehicle.
The exterior design is sleek and simple. The car looks a bit flat to me, but I still find it appealing.
Where it really shines is with the interior design, which really maximizes the vast space thanks to the small (yet powerful) electric powertrain.
It looks extremely refined and the materials used in the configurations that they released are stunning.
As for the specs, they without now represent the new standard in the industry. It beats everything on the market.
However, it beats everything on the market today, and the Lucid Air is not really available today.
It is going into production at Lucid’s new factory in Arizona early next year, and the first deliveries are planned for the spring of 2021.
In a preview for the media last week, CEO Peter Rawlinson made several references to surpassing Tesla, saying that “they will be the new EV leader.”
He is not wrong right now.
Lucid has some truly impressive powertrain technology. First of all, they are using an industry-leading 924-volt system, a three-phase AC electric motor, and inverter that is packaged into only a 74kg unit that fits into a suitcase.
With an output of 500 kW, that’s about 2.5 times smaller than Tesla’s motor for the same power.
The entire system end ups being about 17% more efficient than the Tesla Model S, and obviously, with the slightly bigger battery pack, they beat Tesla’s currently leading range of 402 miles.
But that’s against what Tesla achieves right now with a vehicle that has been released eight years ago, and it has gradually been improving over the years.
I would also bet that Tesla is going to make several other improvements to the Model S by the time Lucid can deliver the Air next year.
Therefore, I will take their claims of being the new market leader with a grain of salt. It’s all about the pace of innovation, and they haven’t really proved they can keep up with Tesla on that front yet.
We will have to wait and see.
But in the meantime, they do have a really impressive vehicle on their hands that I’m confident will find a market.
It’s not cheap, and it’s hard for a newcomer in the auto industry to ask people to spend six figures on a vehicle without brand recognition like BMW, Audi, Porsche, and now Tesla.
But I think they have the luxury design, materials and the specs to justify this high sticker price.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
