Engineer behind the Tesla Model S finally unleashes the beautiful, wild Lucid Air – but is it the ultimate electric luxury car?
Few luxury limos are as phenomenal as the 829kW Lucid Air Dream Edition under hard acceleration. In fact, for neck-snapping abilities you’d need a Bugatti Chiron to beat it off the line. Or a Tesla Model S Plaid. In the strange automotive world we live in, fast all-electric four-door sedans rule the roost, but the Lucid offers far more than sheer acceleration. The Air is nothing short of drop-dead gorgeous in the flesh and its beauty is more than skin deep. All-new from the ground up, it features the finest EV tech money can buy this side of a Rimac, while for fit, finish and cabin quality the Air is, well, a breath of fresh air beside the Model S. But is it a Tesla beater on the road? And can it hold a candle to the luxury electric limos rushing in from legacy brands?
Something special
In the US, the range kicks off from $US77,400 ($A108,800) for the cheapest Lucid Air Pure that comes with 358kW and a very respectable 653km range under the US EPA test regime.
At that sort of money the Air costs $30,000 less than the entry-level Tesla Model S, at least before pricing was pulled from Tesla’s local configurator.
Buy the cheapest Air and it comes with a metal roof in place of the ‘Glass Canopy’ found on more expensive models. It’s also fitted with smaller 19-inch wheels and gets faux leather seats.
The good news is all models come with a fully digital instrument cluster ahead of the driver that is flanked by a large, clear infotainment system. Below it, an even bigger touch-screen tablet lives that cleverly interacts with the one above, allowing you to swipe the upper screen down to input a sat-nav address, for example.
Mercifully, there’s also physical buttons to raise or lower the temperature within the cabin without having to resort to endless sub-menus.
Pay $US95,000 ($A133,500) for the Lucid Air Touring and you bag the dual-motor all-wheel drive powertrain that pushes out 462kW and still-decent 653km range.
The Touring rides on larger 20-inch rims, sticks with the steel roof, but sports a premium leather cabin that’s combined with wood trim.
Choose the Air Grand Touring at $US139,000 ($A195,000) and you benefit from the larger 118kWh battery that provides for up to 829km of range. Power, too, increases to an incredible 783kW.
Within the cabin you gain the Glass Canopy roof and an extended Nappa leather interior that’s combined with timber and Alcantara inserts.
The Grand Touring also rides on big 21-inch Aeroblade wheels and comes with a 21-speaker premium sound system that uses Dolby Atmos – new tech that fires sound waves both vertically and horizontally for a claimed richer, more immersive soundscape.
Finally, the Touring comes with the car-maker’s DreamDrive Pro semi-autonomous cruise control, instead of the standard adaptive cruise. The advantage of the more sophisticated driver aids is that it will be continually improved via over-the-air updates.
At the top of the tree is the $US169,000 ($A237,000) Air Dream Edition that offers the maximum 837km range (when on smaller 19-inch rims) and winds power up to its maximum 829kW.
The most expensive Air gets everything the Grand Touring bags, but benefits from a different finish for its Nappa leather, a special silver eucalyptus wood veneer and unique Alcantara trim.
In the US, all Lucid Air models are protected by a four-year/80,000km warranty which includes a 10-year/160,000km cover for the powertrain. All models come with three years of free charging, too.
Lucid Motors recommends an annual service check of every Air sedan that is carried out by either certified mobile Lucid mechanics or at an approved network of service and repair centres.
From Tesla to Lucid
Having the father of the Tesla Model S, Peter Rawlinson, as your chief engineer (and CEO) certainly has its advantages and it shows with every single aspect of the 2022 Lucid Air.
Throw in a former F1 Red Bull Racing aerodynamicist, who slashed the drag coefficient to just 0.21Cd, and you’ll soon see how Lucid has left no stone unturned to gain an advantage over its rivals.
Perhaps the most striking achievement is each individual power unit is nothing short of a masterpiece of packaging.
The compact motor, inverter and transmission all weigh just 72kg and are all so small, combined, it slips into a carry-on bag but produces an incredible 500kW each.
Better still it is up to three times as power dense as a Tesla Model 3’s motor.
Perhaps surprisingly, Lucid engineers didn’t copy and paste what Tesla has done in the past but refined a motor design pioneered by GM with the current Chevrolet Bolt.
The ‘hairpin’ square-section copper arrangement manages to pack more copper into less space than Tesla’s and takes a huge leap forward with Lucid as engineers bored tiny cooling channels within the ‘dead zones’ between the windings.
So efficient the fix is that Lucid now doesn’t even bother to monitor motor temperatures as even repeated performance runs no longer exceed operating temps.
The result is a dual-motor powertrain that can produce 829kW and 1390Nm of torque – an incredible feat from just two motors, and even with a hefty 2383kg kerb weight the Air Dream Edition shrugs off 0-60mph (0-97km/h) in around 2.4 seconds.
That compares well against the Tesla Model S Plaid that claims a 2.1sec 0-97km/h sprint.
Top speed, meanwhile, for the Air Dream Edition is 270km/h – all the more astonishing considering it only has one-speed transmission.
Driving lessons
With that level of performance, the 2022 Lucid Air Dream Edition has enough in reserve to humble almost any hypercar you care to mention, especially in the way its acceleration still builds at an alarming rate well above 110km/h – and even above 200.
You might begin to think, then, that the US car-maker has built a zero-emissions, guilt-free alternative to super-sedans like the BMW M5 or Mercedes-AMG E 63 S, but behind the wheel you soon realise that’s not the case.
Despite its missile-mimicking thrust, on a typical sinuous stretch of country road the Air feels as heavy as it is.
Strangely, it’s not a matter of lack of grip, more like a lack of athleticism, the Lucid struggling with brisk changes of direction.
The steering is precise enough, but there’s little engagement available and our car also had a tendency to scrub its snout on bumps even in its firmest damper setting.
In the sportiest driving mode with maximum power (and torque) available, the Air isn’t responsive to the throttle and continues to deliver mind-boggling traction.
Other black marks against the driving experience include excessive levels of regenerative braking when you lift off that can’t be wound back or even turned off.
Put simply, a fossil-fed Mercedes-AMG E 63 S offers more fun.
Speaking of the AMG E 63 S, despite looking significantly on the larger side the Air measures in at 4976mm long, 1936mm wide and stands 1407mm tall. Those figures are 17mm shorter, 129mm narrower and 53mm lower in height compared to the fast E-Class.
Despite distinctly European dimensions, the 2960mm wheelbase enables Lucid to claim that the Air offers Mercedes-Benz S-Class levels of room. And, yes, the space available is indeed remarkable.
The rear boot holds 626 litres, while innovative packaging of the radiators that includes advanced air intakes to aid cooling provides another decent 283L up front.
Across the rear bench there’s lots of headroom and knee-room. However, if you opt for a Lucid Air with the largest 118kWh battery, foot space is robbed and there’s an annoyingly high knee angle reducing comfort.
A pair of airline-style seats are on the way that should help enhance comfort further.
Another bugbear goes back to the suspension set-up. Despite the Air lacking sport sedan-crushing credentials on an entertaining stretch of road through a forest, when you’re back on the highway, or in town, the ride misses out on matching the levels of comfort delivered by an S-Class.
That’s in part because it uses steel springs. One engineer told us that air suspension was in development, but another Lucid exec clarified those comments and said that despite the platform being developed to accommodate air suspension, there’s no definitive plans to introduce it.
Another area where the Lucid falls short is with refinement; specifically, noise.
In most cases, the Arizona-built limo is near silent, but at speeds hovering around 50km/h and again at 115km/h, the Air’s electric motors begin to whine like hell. Lucid says it’s both deliberate and intentional and help the driver draw a meaningful connection with the powertrain.
We wished it wasn’t there…
Compensating for the powertrain’s whining is the lack of anxiety when it comes to range, which is a huge achievement. Better still, find a fast charger that can match the Lucid’s maximum 300kW rate and more than 480km of range can be added in just 20 minutes.
We tried the Lucid’s semi-autonomous cruise control and came away unimpressed. Despite the car-maker making no outrageous driverless claims, the Air wandered out of clearly marked lanes on the highway just a few miles away from the company’s HQ – roads on which the car was presumably developed.
Lucid has not revealed when it will roll out its Mercedes S-Class-matching Level 3 autonomy, but it’s worth mentioning the technology will rapidly improve in the coming months and years thanks to over-the-air updates.
The infotainment system was also laggy, while the rear-view cameras were too slow, often firing up to project what’s happening behind long after a lane-change.
Winning feeling
In many, many ways, Lucid Motors has nailed the 2022 Lucid Air on its first attempt.
The fit and finish of the early-build car we drove was in another league compared to the Tesla Model S, which despite being on sale for a decade is still far from perfect.
A bigger threat arguably comes from legacy car-makers like Mercedes-Benz, which has seven generations’ worth of experience with the S-Class.
From our first drive, the Lucid Air still can’t match Mercedes for fit, finish and quality.
But does it have to?
Tesla has proved that quality, perceived or otherwise, has never been a barrier to put off the wealthiest of buyers and we think the Lucid Air’s blend of stunning looks, wonderful powertrain, rocket-ship performance and unbeatable range should give it the edge.
How much does the 2022 Lucid Air Dream Edition Performance cost?Price: $US170,500/$A240,500 (plus on-road costs)Available: TBCPowertrain: Dual permanent magnet synchronous motorsOutput: 829kW/1390NmTransmission: Single-speed reduction gearBattery: 118kWh lithium-ion (useable)Range: 726-758km (US EPA)Energy consumption: 13.5-15.2kWh/100km (US EPA)
Safety rating: Not tested
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Keyword: Lucid Air 2022 Review