Lucid Motors CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson had a clear vision for how to take an electric car to another level. The former chief engineer of the Tesla Model S just didn’t expect it to take quite so long.
Today, nearly four years since the company first announced its intentions to produce electric vehicles, Lucid Motors revealed the final version of its all-electric luxury Air sedan. The Air has eye-popping performance specs, an estimated range of up to 517 miles and a design that manages to balance technology and luxury without feeling opulent or cluttered. Two of the four variants — the $169,000 flagship Dream edition and a $139,000 Grand Touring model — will go into production first at its new factory in Casa Grande, Arizona this year. Deliveries of these variants are slated to begin in spring 2021. Two other variants, a Touring model priced at $95,000 and a base model that’s a smidge below $80,000, are expected at the end of 2021 and into 2022, respectively. (all prices are before the $7,500 federal tax credit is accounted for) The Air is meant to be an EV replacement to the Mercedes S Class — an electric vehicle category that Rawlinson says has not existed until now. “Tesla (Model S) is premium, it’s beautifully engineered and it’s super disruptive, but it is not an S Class Mercedes replacement in the EV space and that’s what we’re offering,” Rawlinson said in a recent interview ahead of the September 9 reveal. The Air is dripping with luxury in an understated way. It’s spacious inside the cabin, the result of what Rawlinson and VP of design Derek Jenkins have described as a clean sheet approach. The company has “redefined the three-dimensional puzzle that is a car through the miniaturization of electric powertrain and that’s making the space concept work, where the car is more compact on the outside, and bigger on the inside,” Rawlinson said, who added that it’s shorter and narrower than the Tesla Model S or the Porsche Taycan. The vehicle’s four variants offer a variety of performance levels all via its dual-motor, all-wheel drive architecture. The Dream edition boasts 1,080 horsepower and can travel from zero to 60 mph acceleration in 2.5 seconds. As a result of the power, the Dream edition has 465 miles of range. Meanwhile, the Grand Touring has 800 horsepower and can hit that same acceleration in 3 seconds, but has the highest range of 517 miles. The Air will be loaded with 32 sensors, a driver-monitoring system and an Ethernet-based architecture all for its advanced driver assistance system, which is designed to support hands-free driving on highways. Inside, a 34-inch curved glass 5K display sits in front of the driver, and appears to float above the dashboard. Another center touchscreen is retractable, revealing more storage. Meanwhile, a few physical controls remain on the steering wheel and just above the center screen to control volume, activate the ADAS and Amazon Alexa, which is integrated into the vehicle. Below that center touchscreen and moving to the console is a spot for inductive charging, cupholders and USB-C ports along with additional storage. Owners of the Air will have an app that will control and communicate with the car, such as locking and unlocking the vehicle. But it will also be equipped with facial recognition that confirms the identity of the owner.