Lucid Air

[Zorro]

Like others who follow events in the EV marketplace, I’ve been reading articles about Lucid Motors and their recently released Lucid Air (Motor Trend’s 2022 Car of the Year); the car has a 520 mile range, fast charging speeds, and reported quality design features. So I was intrigued when I discovered a Lucid showroom in the local mall yesterday.

My comments and observations on the pre-production model:

The light gray/dark gray exterior color combination was quite striking, and to me the front three-quarters of the design was attractive, but the rear trunk area seemed slightly incongruous; that being said, the actual trunk opening is enormous, which might explain why the rear design seemed a little odd. The front trunk was a nice size, with more room than dual-motor Teslas have.

The interior material quality seemed high; the seats were extremely comfortable, but the space seemed to be more cramped than I expected. The dash and console displays had quite a few options, which could be confusing until one gets used to it, I suppose. I’m not a short person, so the dash seemed to be uncomfortably low for my line of sight, as did the visor.

I’m glad to see there’s real competition emerging with Lucid and other EVs hitting the market; that should lead to even more technical improvements as public acceptance increases. I’m interested if others have yet encountered a Lucid Air EV in a showroom or in the wild, and what their impressions are; the company is backed by Saudi money, so Lucid may be around for a while.

[beaglelover]

1. They look nice and their current model seems to be a Tesla Model S competitor.

The car starts at $73K which is very expensive.

I currently have a Model 3 and will give them a look once they come out with a Model 3 competitor.

But so far, the Tesla is the best car I've ever owned. And I've owned a LOT of cars!

[Zorro]

3. They say they're a Mercedes S class competitor

I think they're emphasizing passenger comfort and range, as opposed to outgunning the Model S on the dragstrip. They're also offering 3 years of free charging at VW's Electrify America stations, which seem to be popping up in more and more places these days.

What was interesting was that Lucid salesperson told us he's a Model 3 and Model Y owner. I think Lucid will need a plan to come up with a comparably priced vehicle to really be a force in the market, but the Lucid Air is getting tremendously favorable press reviews, so maybe they'll get there.

In any case it's good to see some real EV competition emerging.

[Kablooie]

2. Problem is that it starts at nearly $80,000

That’s out of range for most people.

It took years before Tesla could sell a car for $35,000 which made it high but still affordable for many.

It will be a long time before Lucid is able to produce an affordable version of their car, unfortunately. At least by then they will have had time to work out the bugs in their new cars.