For Lucid’s Air EV sedan, performance and prestige come at a price

The Air’s 113 kWh battery pack is only slightly larger than the 100 kWh used in Tesla’s Model S Long Range Plus yet Lucid claims that the Air will be able to travel up to 517 miles on a single charge, easily dwarfing the Model 3’s 402 miles (and really any other EV vehicle currently on sale). This extended distance is brought about in part by the vehicle’s hyper-efficient battery management system and in part by its ludicrously low 0.21 drag coefficient, which will make the Air the most aerodynamic EV on the market. Of course, the distance Air drivers can travel will depend on the class of Air that they purchase, as the lower tier builds will offer less.  

As the company claimed in August, the Air will be the fastest charging EV on the market when it becomes available. Thanks to the vehicle’s unique 900V electrical architecture, a level 23 DC fast charger can pour up to twenty miles of charge into the Air every minute. That works out to 900 miles of range an hour. What’s more, the Air will offer bidirectional charging, meaning that you can either charge your car from your home’s power supply or augment your home’s power supply with your car in the event of an outage.

The Air also boasts a supremely beefy advanced driver assist system (ADAS), dubbed DreamDrive. Billed as a “first-of-its-kind platform,” DreamDrive leverages 32 separate sensors spanning the optical, radar, ultrasonic, and LIDAR spectrums to keep drivers informed about conditions around them while enabling level 2 and level 3 semi-autonomous operation. The DreamDrive will also offer an array of voice activated commands and facial recognition technology to ensure that the driver remains attentive.

The vehicle’s interior is everything one would expect from a high-end luxury sedan. The Air offers wide views of the surrounding world through its expansive glass roof, while under-the-hood efficiencies enabled Lucid designers to maximize cabin space and provide drivers with the “largest frunk of any electric car to date.” Because if you can’t get some junk in your frunk then what’s even the point?

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The Air’s dashboard is dominated by a “floating” 34-inch curved Glass Cockpit 5K display, though both the driver and front passenger will have access to a retractable Pilot Panel that handles system functions deeper than controlling the radio, A/C and windows. And unlike other EVs like the Polestar 2, which have gone to great lengths to strip every non-essential button and dial from their dashes, the Air offers tactile controls for steering wheel functions, radio volume and climate settings.

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