Few vehicle introductions are as dramatic as that of the Lucid Air. New last year, this sleek, understated, glass-topped starship instantly became the most efficient and longest-range electric vehicle ever sold to the public, and one of the fastest, roomiest and most luxurious to boot. A decade after the Tesla Model S made electric vehicles desirable in ways beyond eco-friendliness, the Air finally blew past it (in a 1,111-horsepower whoosh) in a variety of areas. But while 2022’s Lucids were mostly the pricey, first-to-market Dream Editions, more accessible versions arrive this year. Then in August 2023 Lucid dropped its prices across the lineup. Its entry-level Pure knocked off $6,650 to the base price and its mid-tier Touring now starts under $100,000.
While the debut Dream Editions are now gone, Lucid is still offering the 819-hp, 516-mile range Grand Touring ($139,650, including destination, now $125,600) and 1,050-hp Grand Touring Performance ($180,650), which offer nearly as much power, range and style. However, buyers can now get the 620-hp, 425-mile range Touring ($109,050, now $95,000) and soon the 480-hp, 410-mile range Pure ($89,050 initially, but dropped to $82,400). A rear-wheel drive Pure will start production in mid-September. The tri-motor, 1,200-hp high-performance Air Sapphire (approx. $250,000) arrives later this year with production also expected in mid-September. Importantly, Lucid has also been hard at work improving the car’s digital systems and building out its service network.
Lucid certainly isn’t the only company that’s taken aim at Tesla’s flagship, and it already has new rivals. 2022 saw the dawn of the Mercedes-Benz EQS, while 2023 brings the BMW i7, the Genesis Electrified G80 and another Benz, the midsize EQE. Although it looks huge thanks to that low, sleek styling, the 195.9-inch long Air is actually smaller overall than the G80 and much smaller than the EQS or i7. Inside, however, the Air’s remarkable space efficiency yields full-size room, and it plays in the big leagues on power, prestige and price.
Although we haven’t driven the Pure yet, the Touring, Grand Touring and Dream Edition Airs have all been spectacular performers by the standards of big sedans. Even the Touring offers horizon-blurring speed and zero-to-60 times of three seconds or less, precise and fairly communicative steering by high-end EV standards and capable, relaxed handling that mixes a smooth ride with reassuring grip and predictable responses. With all of the Grand Touring’s power, it is possible to get yourself in trouble, but most of the time it’s just a smooth, effortlessly fast companion.
Also, you can drive for six or seven hours at a clip, because the range (from 410 to 516 miles) and MPGe figures (131 MPGe or higher on most versions) are unbeatable, and charging times rapid. After that many hours (or 400-ish miles), most drivers need a break. While you wait, if you can find a 350 kW charger you’ll be back at 80% charge in 30 minutes or less. The Lucid is good for long trips, too, with a giant back seat, lots of luggage room and a gorgeous interior full of nice design details.
Of course, there are also some flaws. Like many new EVs, the Air is overreliant on pretty but sometimes frustrating touchscreens. The company has been steadily improving it with over-the-air updates, including one that recently brought Apple CarPlay compatibility, but it’s still a work in progress. This is also still a new product from a new company, with a service infrastructure that’s still ramping up and some early glitches leading to recalls. That said, this is a remarkable, stylish machine and one on the vanguard of EV technology. It draws a crowd everywhere you go.
Performance: 15/15
After the 1,111-hp dust cloud left by last year’s Dream Edition, one might expect the “lesser” versions of the Lucid Air to feel slower, but that’s really not the case. The Dream Edition would do zero-to-60 in 2.6 seconds, but the 1,050-hp Grand Touring Performance can do it in just about 3.0, with the Grand Touring (819 hp) and Touring (620 hp) not particularly far behind.
All of these versions of the Air are standard dual-motor, all-wheel drive setups, and Lucid makes its own very innovative powertrains. The electric motor, gearbox, inverter and differential are all very compact, and together weigh just 161 pounds.
In 2023, there will be two more versions, however, the Pure and the Sapphire. The Pure will at first be available in a 480-hp, dual-motor configuration, but later in the year will be powered by a single-motor, rear-drive setup with 430 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque and, according to Lucid, a zero-to-60 time of about 4.5 seconds. On the other end of the spectrum will be the tri-motor Sapphire, with 1,200 hp and speeds that match or beat the tri-motor Tesla Model S Plaid.
Every version of the Air, even the “slower” Pure will likely feel very fast to many drivers unless they’ve been behind the wheel of the Model S Plaid, and even then, the Air’s speed is just totally effortless. For a 5,000-pound car, it also feels surprisingly agile, more like a BMW 5 Series than a big luxury barge, and the steering feedback is quite good by sometimes-overassisted EV standards.
The Air also delivers a good combination of a smooth ride in most situations and fairly sharp resonses on twisty roads. It’s not a sports car, but “Grand Touring” is right there in the name and it’s not a misnomer. There’s a bit of road and tire noise, but the Air is equally happy to indulge in vigorous driving and stoplight grand prix or to ferry you around like a limo.
Its regenerative brakes, with two driver-adjustable settings, are well-tuned and allow effortless one-pedal driving. You don’t have to use the full regen setting, but most drivers (and certainly those used to Teslas) will almost certainly put it in one-pedal mode and leave it there.
Fuel Economy, Range and Charging: 15/15
This is a very efficient machine, and even the lowest-range Lucid Air, the rear-drive Pure, boasts a 410-mile rating. With the most energy-efficient 19-inch rims, the Air returns anywhere from 131 to 140 MPGe, 10 to 20 MPGe better than the (non-Plaid) Model S and anywhere from 38 to 51 MPGe better than BMW, Mercedes or Genesis.
As with the competition, highway driving erodes range faster than stop-and-go, but the Lucid has such a huge range advantage over its nearest competitors (the Tesla Model S tops out at 405 miles, the EQS at 340 and the i7 at 318) that this is almost immaterial. In our real-world test, I drove the Air Grand Touring for six hours of combined highway and mountain road running and only ran it down from 91% to 32%. The Touring is rated at 425 miles, the Grand Touring Performance at 446 and the Grand Touring 516.
Though the inner workings of the packs are the same, the Grand Touring and Grand Touring Performance models use a 112 kWh battery pack while the Pure and Touring get a 92 kWh version. While most owners will charge at home on a Level 2 (eight to nine hours for a full charge), charging “in the wild” isn’t hard, The Air’s 900 volt architecture and sophisticated thermal management system enable very rapid fast charging.
If you can locate a 350 kW fast charger, the Air can add 300 miles of range in just 20 minutes. That requires ideal conditions, but even in my less-than-perfect real-world experiences, the car was very quick to charge, 32% to 80% in 29 minutes on a 350 kW charger and 29% to 79% in 36 minutes on a 150 kW unit a day later. Lucid includes three years of complimentary fast charging sessions at Electrify America stations on every car.
Safety and Driver Assistance Tech: 11/15
Although it hasn’t yet been tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) or the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the Lucid Air earns a top five-star overall rating from the European New Car Assessment Program (EuroNCAP), an EU agency that performs similar tests. The automaker also bundles in an armada of active-safety features including automatic emergency braking, blind spot warnings, automatic parking, collision avoidance and adaptive cruise control with lane centering and stop-and-go capability.
Lucid has also developed a highly capable sensing array for all this tech, including the auto industry’s first production-car lidar unit, which comes as part of the optional ($10,000) DreamDrive Pro system. That adds surround view monitoring and highway assist, and it includes the hardware for a future Level 3 assisted-driving system. That system isn’t ready though, and while all the Lucid’s various functions work reasonably well, competitors like the i7 and Model S offer a little more capability at present.
The Lucid’s lane departure system, like BMW’s, can also be fairly aggressive, yanking you along when it thinks you’ve crossed a line even when you haven’t. The Air’s driver monitor is also always alert, and nags the driver pretty incessantly to keep both hands on the wheel and eyes forward.
Comfort & Room: 14/15
Considering that the Air is about the same size as a Honda Accord, it punches way above its weight on interior space. The front seats, powered, heated and ventilated, are quite comfortable for both driver and passenger, and there’s also an optional massaging function. The driving position is a little high, but few will complain.
In back, there’s just a huge amount of real estate, well beyond Lucid’s quoted numbers. Officially, the Grand Touring has 35.8 inches of rear legroom, about the same as a BMW 3 Series, but in reality, it’s much, much larger and on par with big guys like the (gas-powered) Volvo S90 and the i7. There’s room for a person of 6-foot-4 stature to spread out and ample space for car seats. There are four or five-seat configurations as on the Bentley Flying Spur, but this is really meant as a very comfy four-seater.
The glass top on models other than the Touring and Pure also makes the cabin seem more open and airy than most competitors, as does the chic interior design. The materials look and feel rich, although we’d be a little wary of white carpets in a car. They’ll get dirty quickly.
Infotainment: 10/15
Like many competitors, the Lucid Air uses lots of screens, including a striking 34-inch, 5K display (actually three screens in one) in front of the driver (including a left-hand pad). A second, tablet-like “Pilot Panel” on the center stack can retract out of sight at a touch, recalling Bentley’s rotating center display. The displays and menus look fabulous, but if there’s an area where the Lucid is weakest, it’s infotainment.
There are, happily, buttons for temperature and volume controls, manually adjustable vents, stalks for turn signals and shifting and, fortunately, no weird yoke. But the left-hand screen, controlling defrosters and wipers, is annoyingly far away and imprecise. There are many byzantine menus to learn and operate, and the screens can lag. Some minor adjustments are a pain to make and the whole system will take a long while to get used to. Speech recognition is only so-so, and so is the premium audio system. The company’s mobile app and digital key system is useful, but only to a point.
Lucid has now added standard Apple CarPlay (not available at Tesla), which should help paper over some of these issues, but the vehicle control interfaces are still native. Because Lucid can beam out updates over the air at any time this situation will improve, but expect a learning curve.
Cargo space and storage: 15/15
Thanks to a generous “frunk” and clever clamshell-like rear trunk, the Lucid Air offers lots of cargo room. The compact electric drive components help maximize the space, and the rear trunk offers 16.1 cubic-feet of volume while the frunk adds 10 more. The rear trunk’s low load height is especially helpful for awkward or heavy items, too.
That space leaves BMW, Genesis and the Mercedes-Benz EQE far behind, but the Tesla S and Mercedes-Benz EQS are both larger vehicles with hatchbacks. They offer more cargo room overall thanks to their folding seats, but only just as much with the seats in place, and they don’t have the low loading height of the Lucid.
Lucid has built in a good amount of in-cabin storage too, as on the Tesla S, and when the center tablet retracts, there’s even a little bit more than in that vehicle.
Style & Design: 10/10
Aerodynamics are the name of the game for maximizing range, and the Air has one of the lowest drag coefficients of any production car ever made, just 0.197, slightly lower than the Mercedes-Benz EQS’ slippery 0.200. But aerodynamics don’t have to mean sameness, and while the EQS is an amorphous lozenge on wheels, the Lucid is handsomely stylish, helped by its contrasting roof rails, glass top, snazzy wheels and cool lighting signatures. It gets lots of compliments and curious interest from onlookers.
The Lucid’s pretty, well-appointed and warm cabin puts Tesla’s cold blandness and mediocre materials to shame. As at Tesla, there have been some early fit-and-finish issues on the Air, but in all the versions Forbes Wheels has sampled, the interior has been a well-made thing of beauty. The various interior themes are named for California locales, including ”Santa Monica,” which features open-pore wood, perforated Nappa leather, gleaming metal, Alcantara and a lovely high-touch blend of alpaca wool and recycled plastic yarn.
Is the 2023 Lucid Air Worth It? Which Lucid Air is the Best Value?
Big electric luxury sedans don’t come cheap, but by the standards of such cars, the Lucid has a great deal to offer. The pluses include undeniable style, class-topping range and energy efficiency and plenty of room and technology features.
As you’d expect, the priciest Grand Touring Performance ($180,650) offers the most speed and the similarly lofty Grand Touring (now $125,600) the most range, and these models also offer the glass roof and the full range of interior colors and luxury options. The Grand Touring is probably the best all-around option if you want the full-on experience. It’s not much slower than the Performance, offers the most range of any electric vehicle you can buy and come with nearly all the best gear.
The sweet spot for most buyers, however, will be the freshly discounted $95,000 Touring (all prices including a $1,650 destination fee). Although some of the gear that’s standard on the Grand Touring is optional here ($4,500 for the glass roof), the Touring still offers breathtaking performance and the full range of interior color and fabric choices. Notably, it undercuts the price of the i7 while being about the same price as the EQS 450 4Matic.
The new Pure ($82,400 for AWD) offers a much more approachable price and one that hovers near the entry-level Tesla Model S. Tesla’s price cuts have widened the gulf between the S and the higher trim Lucids, but an August 2023 price cut make the Lucids slightly more competitive again. But the Pure base model is a good competitor for the standard S and has a nicer cabin when the two cars are compared. This is also the only Air that really undercuts most of the competition on price, though the Electrified G80 and Mercedes-Benz EQE still cost less.
Legacy brands, of course, have more established service infrastructure, but Lucid has been steadily building out new service facilities for two years now. The Lucid also comes with a warranty similar to Tesla’s, 5 years or 50,000 miles of full coverage and 10 years and 100,000 miles of powertrain.
How Much Does it Cost to Insure the Lucid Air?
Because the Lucid Air is still new, its insurance costs are varied. Coverage isn’t cheap, but that’s also true of the other cars in this class. According to our research, a typical 30-year-old female driver with a clean record can expect an average annual premium of approximately $4,300. That compares to $5,383 for the Mercedes-Benz EQS 450, $4,436 for the Tesla Model S, and $6,534 for the Porsche Taycan Turbo. To get a more accurate picture of your potential insurance expenses, visit our car insurance calculator.