The Car Connection Expert Review
Likes
- Tesla-topping range
- Athletic, graceful performance
- Cabin and cargo space
- Clean interface
Dislikes
- High price for top range and performance
- Getting in and out
- Unproven support network
- Work-in-progress interface, safety tech
Buying tip
features & specs
The 2024 Lucid Air outdoes Tesla in driving range and performance, and its distinctive design is a refreshing departure.
What kind of car is the Lucid Air? What does it compare to?
The Lucid Air is a big, luxurious, American-made electric sedan that serves as the flagship model—and only model so far—from California-based Lucid Motors. Across a range of variants, the Air offers the highest range ratings among all electric cars, plus supercar-challenging performance with the new-for-2024 Air Sapphire. In addition to the Tesla Model S, it challenges the Audi E-Tron GT, Porsche Taycan, and Mercedes-Benz EQS.
Is the 2024 Lucid Air a good car?
Yes. If you can afford it, the 2024 Air is an excellent car in nearly all respects, with an 8.6 out of 10. Efficiency, range, and performance are all leading-edge, while safety and tech features are competitive, and it provides a more luxurious cabin than any Tesla. (Read more about how we rate cars.) Lucid’s service operation remains mostly unproven, but with only a few thousand vehicles delivered cumulatively, it’s done well by most accounts with personalized support.
What’s new for the 2024 Lucid Air?
Last year Lucid bulked out the Air lineup with lower-priced Touring and Pure models, and 2024 brings two new versions of the Air—one of them giving the lineup a more affordable entry point, the other the most expensive, highest-performance Air yet.
The affordability play is a rear-wheel-drive version of the Pure, while the Air Sapphire arrives at the top of the lineup with tri-motor performance. It’s a strong rival to the Tesla Model S Plaid, outperforming its key rival in some respects.
Lucid did some heavy lifting on the engineering front to bring the Air to production. The big sedan was engineered while tapping into the battery braintrust of its predecessor company Atieva, and on Lucid’s own Formula E expertise. It includes some of the most power-dense motors on the market, and its emphasis on efficiency and clever engineering mean it goes farther with less energy.
The Air lineup starts with the 430-hp single-motor Air Pure, includes 480-hp Pure and 620-hp dual-motor Touring models, and tops out—for most budgets and needs—with the 819-hp dual-motor Grand Touring model, which for 2024 has been updated with learnings from the defunct Grand Touring Performance model. If you can spare $250,500, the exclusive Sapphire performance model packs 1,234 hp from three motors (one in front, two in back), allowing a 0-60 mph time of 1.9 seconds, 0-100 mph in 3.9 seconds, and a top speed of 205 mph—with lots of other upgrades to make the performance accessible.
Despite the lofty performance claims, the Lucid Air’s range, efficiency, and charging are the true tech highlights of this car, thanks in part to its 920-volt electrical platform. Given a 350-kw CCD DC fast-charging connector, the Air can add 300 miles in 20 minutes, while EPA range ratings span to 516 miles.
The Air is a large sedan, sized about like the Tesla Model S or BMW 5-Series on the outside, but with a cab-forward design statement that pulls design inspiration from aircraft and breaks from the norm. The glass roof included in much of the model line keeps the cabin bright, and earthy tones prevail for the upholstery and trims.
Inside, the Air is more spacious than gasoline models with the same overall dimensions. It’s a testament to not having to worry about engines, tailpipes, and fuel tanks. Riders will likely need to duck heads when getting in and out, despite all the sprawl-out space. Folding rear seatbacks, a deep trunk, and a large front trunk add up to a lot of flexible space.
The Air’s interface focuses on a 34.0-inch-wide span of glass that arcs across the gauge cluster to the middle of a low-set dash. A retractable touchscreen just below it adds more screen space if and when you need it. Lucid teases the potential in its high-res lidar sensors at the core of a future advanced driver-assistance suite, and it uses some of the bandwidth for over-the-air updates.
How much does the 2024 Lucid Air cost?
Less than last year, although the Sapphire adds a very expensive top end. The Lucid Air starts at $78,900 for the Pure trim, with the addition of the single-motor rear-wheel-drive Pure. Above that comes the $87,400 Touring, and that model is realigned somewhat to make the panoramic glass roof and leather interior optional. Just above that is a realigned Grand Touring model that hasn’t yet been priced. And at the top of the lineup is the $250,500 Sapphire.
Where is the Lucid Air made?
In Casa Grande, Arizona.
2024 Lucid Air Styling
The Air goes cab-forward in its design and arrives at a racy shape.
Is the Air a good-looking car?
The 2024 Lucid Air is a good-looking car, albeit in an unconventional way.
On the outside, the Air goes above and beyond in establishing a design statement for the brand, rather than mimicking its peer set. That earns two points, while the interior earns another point for a look that does great things with lighting and ambience, striking just the right middle ground between sparse and excessive—even if the look isn’t as radical or outright opulent as some alternatives. That makes it a 9.
The design of the Lucid Air channels aircraft inspiration for its roof contours and winglike grille, mixing in retro influences with a retro-modern clamshell trunklid. It’s smooth, and the longer you linger on it, the more it impresses as a complete expression. The Air’s silhouette is long and low, and that and smooth sculpting allow a low 0.21 coefficient of drag. Thin headlights, flatter hood contouring, and bulging rear corners help visually exaggerate the width.
Inside, ambient lighting and ambience are the keywords. With a brightness from the available glass canopy roof overhead and earthy, neutral tones throughout, it’s far from a dark, traditional luxury sedan interior. The beltline of the cabin feels low, and the dash follows long horizontal arcs. Overall, the look and feel are more Volvo or Land Rover, than BMW or Mercedes—and a warm alternative to the uber-minimalist look that Tesla has steered toward.
2024 Lucid Air Performance
The Air is graceful and quick, and the Sapphire dials it up to supercar-level.
Based on its shockingly good straight-line performance, the Air earns two extra points. Its very above-average ride and handling earn it another couple points, for a total of 9. While we base our score on the widely available models, if you’re focusing on the Sapphire it’s hard to argue it’s anything but a perfect 10.
Is the Air 4WD?
Most of the Lucid Air lineup offers a dual-motor rear-wheel-drive layout, although base Air Pure models come with a single-motor rear-wheel-drive layout and dual-motor AWD is optional.
The Sapphire offers a three-motor layout (two at the rear wheels, one in front).
How fast is the Lucid Air?
Very, very fast—especially if you skip directly to the three-motor Sapphire. An exclusive version costing $250,500. With 1,234 hp and 1,430 lb-ft of torque on tap, the Sapphire lays all that power to the road without the complexity of an air suspension—albeit with bigger brakes, retuned steering boost, grippier tires and advanced stability systems.
Throughout the rest of the lineup, the dual-motor Lucid Air models are all very quick, and while they might not have the punch of the Tesla Model S or Porsche Taycan from a standing start, they make up for it with blistering passing performance. Acceleration numbers range from 4.5 seconds for the Pure down to just 3.0 seconds for the Grand Touring, and Lucid claims just 1.95 seconds for the Sapphire—or 3.9 seconds to 100 mph, if you dare. And if you’re considering that model, of course you do.
Top luxury Grand Touring versions of the Air offer 819 hp from a dual-motor system that can deliver up to 516 miles of range as well as a 3.0-second 0-60 mph time—although not likely at the same time. The Grand Touring Performance sacrifices some range but delivers 1,050 hp and a 0-60 mph time of 2.6 seconds. Air Touring versions make 620 hp, while the base-level Air Pure delivers up to 480 hp and still manages a 0-60 mph time of 3.8 seconds.
The 2024 Lucid Air lineup starts with the 430-hp single-motor Air Pure. Stepping up to the 480-hp rating brings a dual-motor design, as does the 620-hpTouring model. Below the Sapphire is the dual-motor Grand Touring model. For 2024, Lucid is updating this 819-hp version with better thermal management, for longer periods of “spirited driving.”
The Sapphire gets a second motor at the rear wheels for a total of three.
Across the entire lineup, the Air is no performance slouch, with quick, strong, silent acceleration combined with graceful handling. This isn’t a pillowy luxury car, but it’s firm enough to feel athletic when it’s asked to be, and it’s composed and easy to control but not sharp-edged.
On the move, the Air’s ride and handling balance is a pleasant surprise benefitting both the driver and passengers. The Air weighs more than 5,000 pounds in all its variants, yet its ride damps out harshness and heaves, it steers precisely, and it’s nimble and graceful through turns. That’s all the more impressive considering that it skips the air suspension that’s favored by Tesla and much of the luxury EV set. Instead, the Air has semi-active dampers at all four wheels, a mechanically variable steering rack, and confident tracking on the open road.
For Pure, Touring, and Grand Touring versions, Smooth, Swift, and Sprint modes do as promised. Drivers have two regen settings to choose from, the greater offering something close but just short of the one-pedal driving some might prefer. Brake pedal feel and feedback are also especially satisfying and precise. Lucid, like Tesla, sets its motors to recoup energy when you lift off the accelerator, not to blend more in as you press on the brake pedal. The Sapphire performance model also gets Sapphire, Track, Drag Strip, and Endurance modes, with only Drag Strip allowing the full 1,234 hp.
2024 Lucid Air Comfort & Quality
A spacious cabin prioritizes a bright, calming ambience.
There’s plenty of room to sprawl out inside the Air, with comfortable seats front and rear, and great cargo space in back, plus a frunk that’s big enough to be useful. Altogether that means it’s an 8 here.
The 2024 Lucid Air is a large sedan that superimposes pretty much 1:1 on the outside with the Tesla Model S, BMW i5, or Mercedes-Benz EQE sedan. But the Air’s profile is different. It follows more of a cab-forward design, pushing the cabin farther ahead, and it’s why the cabin feels more spacious—with one noteworthy exception—than any of those models on the inside.
That exception in the Lucid Air is ingress and egress. The Air’s thick roof pillars mean that getting into the front or rear seats is likely to require a duck of the head you’re not accustomed to. Once in, accommodations are about perfect. You sit low but there’s plenty of headroom in front as you look out over a low hoodline, and in back you’ll find ample legroom—made more-than-ample in Touring and Pure models with their smaller battery pack, as you can tuck your feet under the front seat. The interior is also very quiet; there’s little EV-noisemaking dazzle here, and that’s just fine.
Throughout the cabin, earthy hues and an emphasis on textured and woven materials bring a luxury-car ambience—a bright one in most combinations, with the glass roof overhead. Air Pure and Sapphire models have a metal roof instead.
Lucid claims the largest frunk among electric cars—not trucks—at 9.9 cubic feet. Add the space afforded by the trunk, which has a deep well, and there’s an expansive 26.1 cubic feet of cargo space. The rear seats of this sedan also fold forward for longer items.
In all, that rear seat folding, the abundant legroom, and smart packaging are a testament to the Air’s dedicated EV platform, which makes no concessions for driveshafts, gas tanks, or exhausts.
2024 Lucid Air Safety
The Air includes plenty of active safety features, and the potential for more with software updates.
How safe is the Lucid Air?
Technology first: The 2024 Lucid Air is loaded with some of the latest sensors, architecture, and processing power. Its hardware suite boasts up to 32 sensors, including high-resolution lidar, cameras, radar, and ultrasonic units. For now, Lucid makes good use of it with automatic emergency braking, active lane control, blind-spot monitors, a surround-view camera system, and adaptive cruise control; but a DreamDrive Pro driver-assistance system with “semi-autonomous driving” remains in the works, to be enabled by a future version of Lucid’s software.
The Lucid Air is a low-production product, as well as the first product from a new automaker, and even into its third model year there are still no crash-test results from the IIHS or NHTSA. Without those results, we can’t give it a rating here.
The Air has a strong, modern, aluminum-intensive structure that was engineered for an EV and to meet all the latest crash-test requirements. The Air’s platform is the basis for a future SUV, called Gravity.
While the battery pack is mounted low, it’s protected by a ballistic shield against collisions or debris, and Lucid’s battery-cooling smarts come from experience with Formula E racing.
2024 Lucid Air Features
Don’t expect a vast array of options, but the Air is well-equipped in all its versions.
The Lucid Air is a luxury car and has a strong list of features for even the base Pure.
Key points of distinction between the Pure, mid-range Touring, and high-line Grand Touring versions include the glass roof, wheel choices, premium audio, and the battery pack. The Pure gets an 88-kwh battery pack; the Touring has 92 kwh; the Grand Touring gets 112 kwh; and the Sapphire has 118 kwh.
Overall, the 2024 Lucid Air gets a point for its good standard feature set. Lucid’s concierge-based service and at-your-door help from mobile technicians earns another point, to an 7.
What’s essentially the same across the Air lineup is its interface. It’s refreshingly intuitive, most information is kept high and in the line of sight, and it’s neither uber-minimalist nor over-the-top on screen space. A 34.0-inch-wide glass screen arcs in front of the driver and is split into three subscreens, with gauges directly in front of the driver, media and communications on the right, and switches and controls on the left.Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are supported, and it includes Tidal and SiriusXM (as an app, not a tuner). Grand Touring models take a big step up in audio quality, with full Dolby Atmos, as part of 21-speaker premium audio.
Lucid offers regular over-the-air updates for the Air, and we’ve seen plenty of improvements to the interface over a relatively short time—most notably making the system generally quicker and more responsive, although some settings and adjustments are a couple layers deep in the menus.
Down to options, if you only need the smaller battery pack and rear-wheel drive, you can dress up the base Air Pure with much more. There, you can add a Comfort & Convenience Package that brings soft-close doors, a four-zone climate system, power rear sunshades, heated rear seats, and a heated steering wheel. On Touring models a version of that package brings a power frunk and heated wipers. Massaging seats with up to 20-way adjustability are also a new option on the Pure and Touring.
With the revamped Grand Touring, set to be detailed in early 2024, Lucid is planning to lower the price somewhat, making the glass roof optional while it had been standard on previous top-trim versions.
Lucid offers a 4-year/50,000-mile vehicle warranty, with an 8-year/100,000-mile powertrain and battery warranty. Service depends on remote diagnostics as much as possible, with a fleet of mobile service vans and regional service depots.
Which Lucid Air should I buy?
The base Pure model starts at $78,600, but you can add dual-motor all-wheel drive to that for $5,000 more, amounting to $83,600. Add premium audio and the Comfort & Convenience Package and you have a well-equipped all-wheel-drive luxury sedan with an EPA-rated range of 411 miles and 3.4-second 0-60 mph acceleration, for $92,300.
If you can do without some of the extras but want an upgraded interior, the Touring starts at $86,400 and has a similar range estimate.
The Touring models effectively split the difference, at $108,900. The glass canopy roof is a $4,500 option.
How much is a fully loaded Lucid Air?
Details haven’t yet been confirmed for the top-trim 2024 Lucid Air Grand Touring, but it started at $139,500 for 2023 and Lucid has hinted that it’s going to start lower, with more of the previously standard features (like the glass roof) made optional instead. And if you count the Sapphire, you may need to wait in line to spend more than a quarter of a million.
2024 Lucid Air Fuel Economy
Leading-edge efficiency, not a huge battery pack, is what yields the longest range of any production EV.
The Lucid Air earns well over 500 miles of EPA range in some of its versions, more than any other electric vehicle and topping the next closest range leader, the Tesla Model S, by more than 100 miles.
Top-notch efficiency is how Lucid has pulled that off, rather than just upsizing the battery pack, and it’s one of the most efficient electric cars no matter vehicle size. The 2024 Lucid Air earns a 10.
The Air Pure in single-motor rear-wheel-drive form earns a 419-mile range rating from its 88-kwh battery pack. Neither the Pure AWD nor the Air Touring AWD are listed by the EPA at the time of writing for 2024, but Lucid says the Air Touring, with a 92-kwh battery and higher-output (620-hp) dual-motor system versus the Pure AWD, will achieve a 411-mile range.
Air Grand Touring models step up to a 112- kwh battery. Lucid has made some thermal improvements for the Grand Touring that are performance-focused, and it’s yet unclear whether these models will manage the same 516 miles as in past model years.
Wheels can disproportionately affect the range rating. For instance, the EPA range of the Grand Touring dropped to 469 miles by selecting the 21-inch wheels.
Those who choose the three-motor Sapphire also pay some performance price for it, along with this model’s far greater price tag. With its 118-kwh battery, it earns a 427-mile range, but even this figurative guzzler of the Air lineup gets more than 3 miles per kwh in the EPA combined cycle.
The Air’s approach of extracting more miles and power from less battery bulk helps speed up charging, too, as does the Air’s 920-volt electrical architecture. On a 350-kw DC fast charger, the Air can gain up to 300 miles of range in just 20 minutes, if you make sure the pack is preconditioned to the proper temperature (the Air’s interface helps with that along the way).
Sapphire and Grand Touring versions of the Air include two years of “reasonable personal use” access (subject to idle fees) to Electrify America DC fast chargers, while Pure and Touring versions get a year of access.
Lucid also includes a 19.2-kw onboard charger in every Air, as part of what the integrated unit for both AC and DC charging it calls the Wunderbox. Lucid’s home charging unit, connected to a 100-amp circuit, will easily top you off by morning. The Air and its charging hardware are bidirectional-capable for future home-energy ecosystems, to be enabled in the future, and in the meantime Lucid has enabled a RangeXChange feature that allows you to recharge another EV at up to 9.6 kw from the Air.
