Lucid Air Touring Luxury Electric Sedan with Long Distance Comfort

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In the world of high-performance electric vehicles, the Tesla Model S and the Lucid Air emerge as titans, each competing to redefine luxury, speed, and innovation. With a shared commitment to delivering cutting-edge driving experiences, these vehicles boast remarkable acceleration, large batteries, and unparalleled comfort.

Yet, beneath these similarities, several differences help them stand out in this race. This comparison will thoroughly evaluate several key aspects of both vehicles, including their performance, range, interior and exterior designs, battery and charging capabilities, and pricing.

Performance

When comparing the performance of the Lucid Air and Tesla Model S, it's best to evaluate the performance of these models' most powerful iterations, the Air Sapphire and the Model S Plaid.

The Lucid Air Sapphire boasts a three-motor setup with a staggering maximum output of 1,234 horsepower, which edges out the Plaids 1020 horsepower. Both vehicles claim a top speed in excess of 200mph, promising an exhilarating experience for those daring enough to explore their full potential. Additionally, Lucid claims the Air will hit 60 mph in 1.89 seconds, slightly ahead of the Tesla's 1.99-second time.

However, the real distinction emerges in a quarter-mile race. As the Sapphire gains momentum, it starts building a lead over the Tesla Plaid. Lucid Air's official claims state that its quarter-mile time is around 8.95 seconds, while Tesla holds a record of 9.23 seconds for the same distance with a 155-mph trap speed.

It's important to note that while Air Sapphires performance claims are undeniably impressive, they remain untested in real-world conditions. Should these claims prove accurate, Lucid's Air Sapphire could potentially dethrone Teslas Model S Plaid as the quarter-mile king.

The Model S Plaid, never one to back down from a challenge, matches the Air with its 200 mph top speed.

Range

One of the crucial factors that potential EV buyers look out for is range, as it directly influences the vehicle's usability and convenience. More range provides increased flexibility for longer journeys and reduces the need for frequent charging stops.

In this case, the Lucid Air Sapphire's EPA-estimated range of up to 427 miles on a single charge significantly outshines the Tesla Model S Plaid's estimated range of up to 396 miles, and both are listed among the longest-range EVs. The trend continues with the Lucid Air Grand Touring variant, which offers an even more impressive range of 516 miles compared to Tesla's Model S, which provides a range of 405 miles.

The Air can travel so far on a full battery thanks to several factors, such as its larger battery back, compact and lightweight powertrain, and aerodynamic design. With such a long range, the Air is one of the best EVs to alleviate range anxietya common concern among EV owners regarding the distance they can travel on a single charge.

Exterior

The Lucid Air wins the exterior battle with its unique aerodynamic design, showcasing a meaner front. Base Air Pure models feature a basic Stellar White paint; however, for a few thousand dollars extra, you can choose black, silver, gray, and red colors.

You can have an Air with a platinum exterior and a glass roof, which makes the interior feel more airy and gives panoramic views of the sky. It also incorporates a protective layer that efficiently blocks heat and excessive sunlight.

Lucid has also upped its game with the introduction of the Stealth Look upgrade. Priced at $6,000, this package lets you choose a darker color for 35 exterior components, giving your vehicle a more aggressive look.

The Tesla Model S doesn't feel as fresh as the Lucid Air, but it still packs a visual punch with its low stance and muscular body. It may be on the market for more than a decade, but after it was given a facelift in 2021, the Model S still looks like a desirable modern luxury sedan.

Interior

The Lucid Air's luxurious and well-crafted interior looks and feels great, and it can accommodate up to five people. It strikes a balance between modernity and tradition, featuring a sizable portrait screen in the center (which retracts into the dashboard to reveal a large storage compartment) alongside physical buttons for essential functions.

The cabin's ambiance is light and less formal than that of the Tesla (you can even get a two-tone interior with a back seat that's a different color from the front), but it still looks conventional. Additionally, the choice of materials inside the Airs cabin is diverse, including animal-free alternatives like PurLuxe and sustainable alpaca wool trim.

In contrast, the Tesla Model S maintains Tesla's signature minimalist interior design. The Model S interior is dominated by a 17-inch touchscreen, with no physical controls protruding from behind the steering wheel. Theres also a smaller screen at the back for rear-seat passengers and other interior tech features specific to Tesla.

Among Tesla Plaids many amazing features, the most talked-about and unique one is the U-shaped yoke you can specify instead of a traditional steering wheel. Functions like the horn, turn signals, windshield wipers, and high beams are accessed through small touch-sensitive buttons embedded in the yoke's two horizontal prongs.

Other notable features of Teslas interior include a durable glass roof, expansive rear cargo space, excellent levels of legroom in the front and rear seats, and heated leather seats.

Charging

The Lucid Air makes charging easier with its ultra-fast 900V Wunderbox system, capable of adding around 200 miles in just 12 to 15 minutes. It comes with a CCS charging port that works with almost all public charging stations, automatically recognizing your Lucid Air and optimizing the charging process for maximum efficiency.

Adding to the convenience is Lucid's partnership with Electrify America, which gives access to over 700 stations and 3,200 chargers nationwide. This collaboration makes charging the Lucid Air easier. Additionally, you can also charge your Lucid Air at home via the Lucid Home Charging Station, which will cost you $1,200 plus installation fees.

The Lucid Air's charging port is thoughtfully positioned at the front of the car for added convenience, and a lighting system indicates the charging status. Theres also a dedicated Lucid Air app that helps schedule and monitor your charge using your mobile phone.

In contrast to Lucid Air, Tesla boasts a significantly broader network of 45,000+ Supercharger stations across the US, along with multiple other charging alternatives. Tesla owners can conveniently charge their vehicles at home and work using convenient mobile and wall connectors.

The charging time from 0 to 100% varies based on the chosen method. The fastest option is a Tesla Supercharger, which you can find on major routes in the US and globally. Tesla Superchargers can also replenish a Model S' range at a rate of around 200 miles in 15 minutes or about the same as the Lucid.

Moreover, Tesla has established partnerships with well-known hotels, restaurants, resorts, and other destinations that offer wall connectors for charging. These are known as Destination Chargers, they exceed 40,000 in number. They are scattered across mostly urban but also some rural areas. This widespread availability of charging infrastructure makes Tesla a more dependable option for long-distance travel. Plus, Teslas battery longevity is certainly one of the best on the market as well.

Price

The basic versions of the Tesla Model S and Model S Plaid in white paint cost $88,490 and $108,490, respectively. The black, blue, and silver colors each cost $1,500 extra, while the red paint will cost you double that amount. Both models come with 19" Tempest wheels, but you can opt for the 21" Arachnid Wheels for an extra $4,500.

Inside the Tesla Model S, the standard interior is all black. For $2,000 more, you can personalize the interior in white and black or cream and black themes. While the base price includes a regular round steering wheel, you can get the yoke for only $250 more.

The Lucid Air lineup offers three models with varying price points. The Grand Touring starts at $125,600, the Touring at $95,000, and the Pure at $82,400. Depending on your preferences, you can personalize parts like the exterior color, interior color, appearance features, and wheels. The final cost of your Lucid Air sedan will reflect these customizations and exceed $200,000.

Keeping the base prices and the final costs after add-ons of both sedans in mind, its fair to say that the Lucid Air models are far more expensive than variants of the Tesla Model S. In fact, the Air Sapphire costs around $249,000, or more than double the price of the Tesla Model S Plaid.

Lucid Air vs. Tesla Model S: Which Luxury EV Is Worth the Price?

In the showdown between the Lucid Air and the Tesla Model S, both vehicles shine as remarkable contenders, each with its own unique strengths and offerings. The Lucid Air impresses with its record-breaking performance, superior range, and luxurious exterior. Conversely, the Tesla Model S stands out for its established Supercharger network, rich interior design, and competitive pricing.

Ultimately, the choice between these two luxury EVs rests on your preferences and priorities. Whether it's features, speed, range, or driving comfort you require, you won't go wrong with either the Lucid Air or the Tesla Model S.

2024 Lucid Air Grand Touring review

Get used to the name because youll be hearing a lot more about it.

The Lucid Air Grand Touring luxury EV saloon, which won't launch in Australia for another two years, is guaranteed to pull bigger crowds than the Tesla Model S, the visually polarizing BMW i7 and that aggressively aerodynamic jellybean, the Mercedes EQS.

The Air Grand Touring is a very pretty car inside and out, and with a claimed drag coefficient of 0.197, it narrowly beats the almost-equally slippery competition.

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The other USPs of the newcomer from Silicon Valley are the larger-than-life 283-litre frunk which backs up a sizeable 627-litre boot, a maximum charging power of 300kW and a record WLTP range of up to 843km.

So why is the brainchild of the CEO Peter Rawlinson (who worked at Lotus and Jaguar before co-engineering the Tesla Model S) not selling like hotcakes across the globe? Because ramp-up has been slow, the budget is still tight and Lucid is struggling to match even no-name Chinese start-ups for familiarity and awareness.

The starting price of the 462kW Lucid Touring AWD is US$96,500 (A$151,000). Similar money buys a 335kW Mercedes EQS, a 406kW BMW i7 xDrive 60 or a 761kW Tesla Model S Plaid.

Note: This story uses a selection of Grand Touring and Grand Touring Performance photos.

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Our Lucid test car arrived fully charged, yet the digital range indicator showed only 650km to empty, suggesting that the previous user had a very heavy right foot.

But we could match that, and the Air duly delivered. Forget about the 0-100km/h sprint which is a once-in-a-lifetime three-second affair; what really matters is the truly awesome and positively physical acceleration on the fly.

While most high-end EVs quit the V-max contest between 210km/h and 250km/h, the silver -over-maroon glass-roof beauty pulls an impressive indicated 282km/h. To hell with range anxiety! Let's go find a Porsche Taycan Turbo and battle it out. Or, better, still, pull the Plaid off that Model S.

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While the driver and the front-seat passenger travel in complete comfort, the occupants in row two are let down by the tightly packaged and uncomfortable bench which is short in the cushion and too casually padded.

The steep backrest puts you at an odd upright angle with the legs sharply bent and the knees akimbo - big and tall frames would be much better off in the back of a Skoda Superb.

The Air is also quite firmly sprung and damped, and it's again the rear which raises complaints regarding minor jolts and an underlying restlessness on bumpy roads and over transverse ripples.

Driven flat out on the autobahn from Munich to Stuttgart on a weekday morning, the advertised range shrank in no time at all from 843km to a tad over 480km.

This just confirms that high-performance EVs still cannot match their ICE rivals as long-distance high-speed cruisers; they simply use too much energy when pushed hard [https://www.whichcar.com.au/car-advice/what-does-ev-kw-mean], and they take too long to replenish it.

However, the Air Grand Touring is the new undisputed pit stop king. While its rivals can spend between 29 and 34 minutes hooked up to high-voltage umbilical cords, the Lucid, which can be charged at rates up to 300kW, nails the 10-to-80 percent fill in 20 minutes flat; an achievement worth a bonus point because every extra minute of waiting time at grimy truck stops sucks.

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To be fair, one should mention that vast parts of Europe, Asia and North America are not exactly drowning in suitable ultra-fast chargers, let alone Australia.

At a WLTP average consumption of 14.9kWh/100km, the Lucid is the most efficient contender in the high-performance six-figure price segment, too. On paper, it is even more energy efficient than a 91kW Renault Kangoo E-Tech or a 152kW VW ID.Buzz.

The Air shares its footprint with the Model S, but at 2360kg it packs 100kg more heft, and its 118kWh battery cannot quite match the Tesla's mightier 130kWh power pack.

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Although the Lucid loses the 0-100km/h duel to the top-notch Muskmobile by almost a second, it is still incredibly quick by super saloon standards, EV or not.

Less brutal than the Plaid, the Air behaves in a more composed manner, is equally well balanced and absolutely loves corners, not merely show-off straights where the car from Texas excels.

The steering of the Grand Touring expertly fuses intuition and feedback, its brakes are potent and responsive, the chassis talks you through its motions in a confidence-inspiring fashion, and there is an unfiltered honesty in every move this precision tool makes.

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Downsides? Even the lower of the two regenerative braking stages is quite aggressive and thus too close to the controversial one-pedal feel, and requires constant throttle adjustments to maintain a steady flow.

The drive modes labelled Smooth, Swift and Sprint are not sufficiently pronounced to have a sweeping effect on the dynamic composition, but that doesn't really matter much because with up to of 1200Nm of instant torque, the right foot calls the shots.

Sublime as it is, the Air may not do well in markets like China because it comes across more like an introverted class act, with pleasantly conventional ergonomics that are devoid of avatars, nicely put-together high-end materials in sedate rather than eye-scorching shades and a wholly functional rather than an overly intricate driver environment.

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Minor software glitches still need fixing, though, as does that uncomfortable rear seat bench, and a virtual update to the brittle suspension set-up would not hurt, either.

But the Lucid is the only EV with a frunk worth a damn, and it is poised to win the street cred sweepstakes; the 358kW Pure AWD, for example, cost over twenty percent less than its main opponents while still eclipsing them all in terms of acceleration, range, consumption and charging time.

After a recent $US1.8bn cash injection from Saudi Arabias investment fund and a freshly inked cooperation agreement with Aston Martin, Lucid appears to be back on safer ground. This should boost buyer confidence in the Air, which has just come down in price by up to $US12,500/A$19,600 in America, with the base model starting at $US89,300 (A$139,900).

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At the top of the range beckons the all-in 828kW Dream Edition Performance, but the 210kW extra horses are an answer to a question only very few high rollers will ask.

While the Grand Touring may not be the highest-tech thoroughbred in the EV corral, it certainly is a smart buy, a charming alternative to the prestigious German nameplates, its charge time versus driving range equation is positively compelling, and it is almost as mind-boggling as the Tesla Model S Plaid when its let off the leash.

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