The $100,000+ Lucid Air Executive EV
Could it be? Is a real Tesla competitor ready to go toe to toe with the leader in luxury EVs? It could be happening. Lucid Motors' executive staff includes some former Tesla leaders and it kind of looks like they're doing some of the right things. However, they are taking the market skimming approach, which means most of us won't be able to get our hands on an expensive Lucid vehicle for a while; maybe never. We'll see.
What makes the Lucid Air worth more than $100K? There are a few advantages to this car...
- 400-mile range
- 1,000 horsepower
- Autonomous travel (to and extent that will compete with Tesla)
- Voice recognition with beam-forming microphones
- Fast-charging batteries that age less quickly
The Air's interior is interesting. The rear seats recline but it appears that there is some wasted cargo space behind the seatbacks when they are in the upright position. Still, a reclining seat in the rear is nice, especially because there's a panoramic window overhead.
What do you think about the exterior? It's certainly unique, especially the front end. As you can see, there is a blade-like protrusion above the headlights. We've never seen anything quite like it. From the side, the Air looks a lot like a Tesla but not so much that it would be confused with one. We expect some changes to the design but the exterior should end up looking a lot like this.
There are plenty of questions left to be answered about the first Lucid vehicle. Two of them are "will it really have a 400 mile range?" and "1,000 horsepower??" Even at such a steep price, that seems like a very high-end set of specs. We'll have to wait and see how it turns out.
The Air is set to go on sale in 2018. You can reserve one at the Lucid website now.