Upstart Lucid EV delivers high-end luxury and power 

WINFRED CROSS | THE CHARLOTTE POST

The electric Lucid Air Grand Touring has electronic all-wheel drive, travels 512 miles on a single charge and accelerates from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.0 seconds.

I get excited when I get a chance to drive something I’ve never driven before. Imagine how I felt when I was getting Lucid.

What’s a Lucid, you ask? It’s a high-end luxury electric car company that’s been selling vehicles since 2021.

It started in 2007 as a Atieva, a Southern California-based company that specialized in powertrains and batteries for automakers.

The company changed focus in 2013 when it hired Peter Rawlinson, chief engineer of Tesla’s Model S. He convinced the company to develop its own cars. Eventually the company became Lucid Motors and secured $1 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which was enough to bring the Air Pure to life. How good was it? The car debuted in 2021 and won Motor Trend magazine’s prestigious Car of the Year award, the first time the publication issued that award to a new company.

There are now several different Air models and even a higher end model called the Sapphire. I got a chance to drive the Air Grand Touring (GT) which sits directly under that model.

I think the Air GT is a thing of beauty. It has a slippery shape with a drag coefficient of 0.197 (the lower the number the better the car manages air flow around itself, allowing for better range). It’s wide, long and somewhat low which allows for an interior with lots of space. The tinted glass roof doesn’t open but it gives the car a more spacious feel. It has a “frunk” (front trunk) and a trunk that hold a great deal.

The GT’s interior is truly something to behold. The choice of materials took a lot of thought. There is leather, glass, wool, metal and whatever other expensive stuff you can think of. All those elements are blended in a way that looks more curated than simply picked. My car’s interior had a Mojave Extended leather theme. The sun visors are attached to glass because there is no headliner. The glass is tinted but I wish there was a way to darken the roof or Lucid should provide a shade at least. There is a power-adjustable shade for the back window.

The dash is a 34-inch piece of glass that houses a lot of info. There’s a digital gauge cluster and room for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. I found it to be the right height, so it doesn’t block the driver’s view of the road. There is a 12-inch screen over the center console that is power operated. Actually, about everything in the car is power operated. I found both screens to have sharp, clear graphics and everything responded quickly. A four zone-climate control system is controlled on the lower screen. Ambient lighting is also controlled on that screen as is most of the car’s functions.

The infotainment system is a Surreal Sound Pro Audio setup that uses Dolby Atmos sound processing with 21 speakers.

The front seats are as comfortable as your favorite living room recliner but far more supportive. Both seats offer a multi-setting massage mode. Each can be manipulated to find the perfect seating position as well.

Both seats are heated and cooled.

WINFRED CROSS | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Interior of the Lucid Air GT. At speed, the vehicle is quiet and keeps wind noise at a minimum.

The rear seat has an enormous amount of leg room. The floor is flat so even the middle person has plenty of room. The roofline drops off in the back so tall folks may wish for more head room. There are vents for climate control, USB-C outlets, heating and a rear center console display screen for rear passengers.

Electric cars produce horsepower instantly. It also helps that the motors are on the axles. The GT has two motors to give it electronic all-wheel drive. The motor combination makes 819 horsepower, which propels the Air GT to 60 miles per hour in 3.0 seconds, which is really quick for something this large. Power comes on smoothly and, of course, quickly. It’s also deceptive. I found it hard keeping this car under 35 mph. Going through a school zone took a lot of concentration to not speed. This car likes to run.

You find out how well the Air GT runs once you get on the freeway. This car accelerates so smoothly you’ll be above the speed limit in no time. There are selectable drive modes so you can choose how to attack these streets. You basically get a sport, economy and cruising mode and they do feel different. The car rides on an electronically adaptable suspension that figures out road conditions and adjusts accordingly. 

You can blast down open road with confidence. Hit the accelerator and the GT whisks you down the road in eerie quiet. Chance upon some curvy roads and the Lucid’s suspension digs in and give stability. You can slice up the road with no worry. Cornering is just as inspiring. There’s little body roll.

If you’re wondering how far you can go on a full charge, you will be surprised. The Lucid GT Air can get up to 512 miles on a charge, depending on the wheel size you select. It takes about 12 minutes to get 200 miles of charge. I charged the car twice. Each time I was around 290 miles. It took about 70 minutes to get to 100%. I was using an ultra-fast charger, but the network was charging at regular speeds. A charging cord comes with the car, and it can be charged on Tesla’s network.

The GT is quiet. You don’t hear the tires and of course the engines are quiet. Wind noise is also at a minimum. This vehicle is certainly impressive on the highway.

I did have a few gripes about the Lucid but most of them apply to all EVs. I’m ol’ school, so I prefer at least a start/stop button. If you have the key fob on you, the car can be started by touching the door handle. You can also start the car by pressing the key fob twice. There are no buttons on the key fob. You can get a headliner, but my car had an all-glass roof. Again, it’s tinted but I would like to be able to adjust the tint. 

My biggest concern is the price. The Lucid GT starts at $114,000, which is a lot of cash. If I calculated correctly, my test car was $132,900, which does not include destination. This is a lot of car, but asking so much for something that’s unproven may be why the company is struggling.

Quality certainly isn’t Lucid’s problem. I found the fit and finish to be good and the quality of selected materials was spectacular. My one-week encounter with the Lucid makes me think I could easily learn to live with this spectacular electric car.

Pros:
• Luxury branded EV
• Elegant exterior styling
• Posh interior 
• Expensive feeling materials
• Ridiculously long range
• Smooth, quiet ride
• Excellent handling
• Copious amounts of room
• Loaded with tech and standard equipment

Cons:
• Sky-high price
• No start/stop button
• Limited rear headroom for tall folks

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