The Lucid Air Prompts A Lot Of Questions: This Was My Answer

For a few years, the Tesla Model S was just about the only option if you wanted a big, electric luxury sedan. Mercedes and BMW soon joined in with cars that bore a striking resemblance to each brand's respective gas-powered cars. Then, came Lucid. It tried to beat Tesla at its own game, and then diverted into sort of its own thing, with the lineup expanding with the Gravity. When the Lucid Air first appeared on the scene, it was pitted against the Model S in several dozen videos online (and won in a fair amount of them when it came to quickness and range).

Among car aficionados, Lucid is well known as being the anti-Tesla. It's not as flashy, the CEO remains out of the headlines, and the brand isn't cloyingly tongue-in-cheek like Tesla. It's also, you know, firmly committed to remaining a car company than whatever upsetting futuristic nonsense Elon Musk is trying to morph Tesla into. 

But to everyone else, it's a bit of an unknown name. To the outside world, Lucid Motors is an EV company with its corporate headquarters based in Arizona, where a lot of its EVs are made. Financially, Lucid Motors is partly owned by the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, which, according to Lucid's financial filings "own a significant equity interest in us and have significant influence over us." Do with that information what you will.

The car I received was a 2026 Lucid Air Touring, roughly in the middle of the automaker's luxury sedan line-up. Its dual motor drivetrain gives you 620 horsepower and a 0-60 time of 3.2 seconds. Absurd range numbers are arguably the real selling point of Lucid, and the Touring, with its 20-inch wheels, has an estimated 396 miles of range (Lucid notes that the 19-inch wheels will get 431 miles on a charge). I found the 396 miles to be pretty accurate, although you could probably break into 400 miles with some careful driving.

As far as actually driving a car I've really only seen pictures of, it's pretty darn good. 620 horsepower is obviously enough for whatever you would need it to do, and it's almost impossibly quick given its heft. It reminded me a little bit of the BMW M5, a car I am quite fond of. 

Now, the M5 would beat the Lucid in a race given its much higher top speed and more massaged track-ready suspension and tweaks, but as a huge and powerful sedan to glide around town, the Lucid does a convincing German accent. It's not the most comfortable car I've ever driven, but it's certainly very nice.

It snowed pretty heavily during my time with the Lucid and I'm pretty pleased with how it handled itself. It's powerful and big enough to drive over small snow banks (like I did with it) and the all-wheel drive system is competent enough that I didn't feel like it had too much power in the same way that big, unwieldy, and fast cars can get a little trepidatious when the weather gets bad. 

Still, the cold weather hurt the Lucid's range pretty grievously. You can certainly power through the bad weather, but how long you are able to do that might be affected.

Actually living with the Lucid for a little over a week was a delight. The huge frunk and trunk were plenty for a trip to Costco and it had no issue fitting five adults in the cabin. There's really something to be said about a long wheelbase and a bunch of storage space. Ergonomically, the Lucid is funky with its long instrument cluster/infotainment screen, but given the generally minimal font choice and styling decisions, it's not distracting for very long. The same can be said about the secondary screen that governs climate control and drive modes. That screen can be hidden away with a swipe if you have distaste for the sight of yet another display in a car.

The interior is minimally designed, as is the case with a lot of EVs, but the 20-way massaging, heated, and ventilated front seats are certainly a nice touch. I certainly wasn't complaining. Road noise was a little more than I thought it would be, and the overall fit and finish of the interior was "pretty good" for a newer car company, but certainly not like what you would see in a comparably priced Mercedes or BMW. It's not in dealbreaker territory, but it's something to consider.

On the outside, there were a few panel gaps in the sheet metal that attracted my attention. Once again, do with that information what you will. As loathe as I am to give "the benefit of the doubt" to a multi-billion dollar automaker with international governance, I suspect those problems I mentioned will get harder to notice as the company matures.

Despite those flaws, it does a good enough job as a luxury car. It's no Maybach, but it's by no means horrible. 

As for price, it ain't cheap. The Air Touring sits just above the "base" model Air Pure and carries a starting price of $79,900. However, the Lucid I tested was fitted with a number of optional extras. The mostly gray "Fathom Blue Metallic" paint is $800. By far the most expensive option was Lucid's autonomous assistive driving tech by the name of "DreamDrive Pro" it's a hardware upgrade that retails for $6,750 and claims to be ready for future, closer-to-autonomous updates to the technology.

The 21-speaker sound system is $2,900. $1,750 gets you the 20-inch bling-ier wheels I mentioned earlier; the Stealth Appearance blackout package is the same price. The comfort and convenience package includes soft close doors, power functions to the frunk, heated rear seats, a heated steering wheel, four-zone climate control, and sun shades for the rear seats. It's $3,000. 

Lastly, the 20-way power seats I wrote about are $3,750. A destination charge of $1,500 brings the 2026 Lucid Air Touring to $102,100.

Over six-figures lands it within fighting range of models from Rivian, Mercedes, and BMW, and just a bit higher than the outgoing Tesla Model X and Model S. It's a lot of money, certainly, but that just goes with the territory. 

When it comes to big electric sedans, there aren't really any better options than the Air. It has the most range by a significant margin (up to 512 miles if you spring for the Air Grand Touring). The Tesla Model S is about to be discontinued and it only has a maximum range of 410 miles. The BMW i7 tops out at 314 miles and the Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan has a maximum range of 390 miles. The Beamer and Merc are probably much nicer when it comes to build quality, but range is king with the Lucid.

There's a lot working in the Lucid's favor, monstrous distance between charges being the chief benefit of this car. If you can live with just average fit and finish from a pretty new company on the scene, I think the range, power, good enough comfort, and overall so wacky-it's-cool styling of the Lucid Air makes it a winner for me.