Lucid Air - Motor Trend Review

[manitou202]

I'll admit, I'm very interested. I have a reservation for a Air Grand Touring (800hp and 500+ miles of range). In theory this would be faster and more luxurious than the Taycan, way better range and tech, but might not live up to the Porsche driving experience. However, as stated in the article the Air drives like an ultra luxurious Nissan GTR Nismo. Better than I expected.

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2022-lucid-air-dream-edition-r-exclusive-first-drive-review/

"The rear motor of the Model S weighs 295 pounds and produces 430 horsepower, for a power density of 1.46 hp per pound. The Air uses the same motor front and rear; each weighs 163 pounds yet makes 670 horsepower (and spins at 20,000 rpm) for a power density of 4.11 hp per pound. That's nearly three times better. Also, unlike Tesla, Lucid bothered to put a proper interior in its car."

"The interior is another matter entirely. Wow. Whereas every Tesla since day one has seemingly shipped without a finished interior, Lucid not only crafted a perfectly wonderful luxury-car cabin, but it also smartly avoided the screens über alles aesthetic that plagues cars like the Mercedes EQS."

"This isn't just a great interior for an electric vehicle—it's one of the nicest interiors in the car world."

"The Lucid Air Dream Edition R reminds me of a Nissan GT-R, especially one of the NISMO GT-Rs........I assumed the Air Dream Edition R would be decent enough to drive around big sweepers, but about 10 miles into our run up Angeles Crest Highway, I discovered the car enjoyed being manhandled through tight corners. The harder I pushed, the better the Lucid Air got. It leaps and bounds out of corners, much like the way a NISMO GT-R behaves."

"Once we arrived, my limo still had 30 miles of range on the clock, and Rawlinson's car amazingly had 72. This meant my 2022 Lucid Air Dream Edition R had the potential to go 475 miles, whereas Rawlinson's could have traveled 517 miles on a single charge. That's a gauntlet dropped at the feet of you know who. Also, remember range anxiety? As with the internal combustion engine, it's a thing of the past."

 

[Mr.Smith]

Rawlinson is brilliant and it will be a game changer for EVs

Have you seen it in person?

IMO Aesthetically its not a sexy, stand out car, especially the front fascia.
Interior (though per-production) didn't have that luxury feel, more minimal with much better materials than a Tesla

 

[W1NGE]

I'll admit, I'm very interested. I have a reservation for a Air Grand Touring (800hp and 500+ miles of range). In theory this would be faster and more luxurious than the Taycan, way better range and tech, but might not live up to the Porsche driving experience. However, as stated in the article the Air drives like an ultra luxurious Nissan GTR Nismo. Better than I expected.

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2022-lucid-air-dream-edition-r-exclusive-first-drive-review/

"The rear motor of the Model S weighs 295 pounds and produces 430 horsepower, for a power density of 1.46 hp per pound. The Air uses the same motor front and rear; each weighs 163 pounds yet makes 670 horsepower (and spins at 20,000 rpm) for a power density of 4.11 hp per pound. That's nearly three times better. Also, unlike Tesla, Lucid bothered to put a proper interior in its car."

"The interior is another matter entirely. Wow. Whereas every Tesla since day one has seemingly shipped without a finished interior, Lucid not only crafted a perfectly wonderful luxury-car cabin, but it also smartly avoided the screens über alles aesthetic that plagues cars like the Mercedes EQS."

"This isn't just a great interior for an electric vehicle—it's one of the nicest interiors in the car world."

"The Lucid Air Dream Edition R reminds me of a Nissan GT-R, especially one of the NISMO GT-Rs........I assumed the Air Dream Edition R would be decent enough to drive around big sweepers, but about 10 miles into our run up Angeles Crest Highway, I discovered the car enjoyed being manhandled through tight corners. The harder I pushed, the better the Lucid Air got. It leaps and bounds out of corners, much like the way a NISMO GT-R behaves."

"Once we arrived, my limo still had 30 miles of range on the clock, and Rawlinson's car amazingly had 72. This meant my 2022 Lucid Air Dream Edition R had the potential to go 475 miles, whereas Rawlinson's could have traveled 517 miles on a single charge. That's a gauntlet dropped at the feet of you know who. Also, remember range anxiety? As with the internal combustion engine, it's a thing of the past."

Thankfully this won't be coming to UK (sorry guys) - it is just plug ugly from the outside, dash is nae bad though.

 

[manitou202]

Rawlinson is brilliant and it will be a game changer for EVs

Have you seen it in person?

IMO Aesthetically its not a sexy, stand out car, especially the front fascia.
Interior (though per-production) didn't have that luxury feel, more minimal with much better materials than a Tesla

I haven't seen one in person. Looking forward to it.

The Taycan is still, by far, the best looking EV, and will probably be the best driving for a while. But again for the price, the technology, range, and GTR like performance, make the Air Grand Touring a very interesting option.

 

[Kingske]

Rawlinson is brilliant and it will be a game changer for EVs

Have you seen it in person?

IMO Aesthetically its not a sexy, stand out car, especially the front fascia.
Interior (though per-production) didn't have that luxury feel, more minimal with much better materials than a Tesla

I saw one in person at Lucid’s Miami/Brickell showroom. The exterior is not very exciting. Nothing wrong with it but does not hit your emotions. A bit of a similar vibe as with the Mercedes EQS which I only saw in pictures and videos, by the way.

 

[Torv]

I'd love to see them kick Tesla’s ass.

 

[fullmetalbaal]

I think all startups that don't already have cars on the road now and are manufacturing at scale are going to have a rough time going forward. Maybe with the exception of Rivian, both because they don't have an imminent competitor just yet, and because they have Amazon backing them.
I think we'll always see hype pre-launch and for a year afterwards, with each claiming one innovation or another. But they will struggle to have real impact on the market.

Lucid cannot afford to have a bumpy launch or initial quality issues. They will be measured against Mercedes for interior, Porsche for driving dynamics and Tesla for software. They don't have an established customer base and get neither the marketing budget of established companies nor the massive mindshare that being first gave Tesla. It is not as special as driving a Tesla in 2013 nor is it as prestigious as an established brand today.

Longer term, I think we'll see this settle back to some of the big OEMs (VW, Kia and Toyota for sure, maybe Ford, but Stellantis and some of the others won't make it) , 2-3 Chinese newcomers, and Tesla.

 

[Mr.Smith]

I saw one in person at Lucid’s Miami/Brickell showroom. The exterior is not very exciting. Nothing wrong with it but does not hit your emotions. A bit of a similar vibe as with the Mercedes EQS which I only saw in pictures and videos, by the way.

Well said. Emotionless is how I would describe it

It seems Lucids focus is to make a better Tesla. It should be to make a fantastic car that happens to be an EV

 

[porsche_coyote]

They are all over the roads doing testing here in the Bay Area. To me, the car looks like a bar of soap. Not exciting. Huge admirer of the powertrain technology, but the exterior is yawns-ville.

 

[steen]

Yeah, boring exterior, and non appealing interior. Also, very few preorders, think about 20.000 deposits, which I sent even real orders.. I doubt the company will survive, but the tech can be bought out by Tesla.

 

[Mr.Smith]

Yeah, boring exterior, and non appealing interior. Also, very few preorders, think about 20.000 deposits, which I sent even real orders.. I doubt the company will survive, but the tech can be bought out by Tesla.

Rawlinson is missing one key competent that Musk has. His ability to raise money and lots of it. Which is why its almost impossible Lucid will make it

Also the minute Tesla cant rasie money, they are gone too. $12b raised last year alone, $10b with at the money offerings

 

[XLR82XS]

Wonder why they did not implement 'foot garages' like Taycan. I'm sure they could put batteries in elsewhere. 1 thing I love about my backseat is the foot wells - especially for my tall passengers. (I'm 6' 3")

 

[Tsingtao]

They are all over the roads doing testing here in the Bay Area. To me, the car looks like a bar of soap. Not exciting. Huge admirer of the powertrain technology, but the exterior is yawns-ville.

The exterior is worse than yawnsville. I went on the Lucid site a while back and could not come up with any exterior color that was acceptable against the shiny steel roof. It is a matter of personal preference and some may find the Lucid roof to be quite lovely, but I like black cars and this thing in black looks too much like an old squad car color scheme. (I suspect that the auto-wrap industry is already licking its chops.)

 

[kort]

as far as I am concerned the lucid is a tesla model s 2.0, no real style, another 4 door sedan

 

[W1NGE]

Yeah, boring exterior, and non appealing interior. Also, very few preorders, think about 20.000 deposits, which I sent even real orders.. I doubt the company will survive, but the tech can be bought out by Tesla.

..or Mercedes ?