Lucid Air Dream Edition First Drive: Performance And Efficiency
0Lucid Air Dream Edition First Drive: Performance And Efficiency
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Lucid Motors held a "Production Preview" event this week, where we had the opportunity to tour the company's AMP-1 manufacturing plant, chat with Lucid engineers, and take a Lucid Air Dream Edition out for a quick spin. While we have already taken a ride in a Lucid Air, very few people outside of the company have had the opportunity to actually get behind the wheel of one, making this a special event indeed.
Interestingly, the day we were at the factory, Lucid announced that the start of series production for the all-electric luxury sedan had begun, adding another layer of excitement at the facility while we were visiting. We were not told about that before arrival.
Lucid's path to production wasn't a direct one, as there was a time when we openly wondered if the startup would ever make it to production. However, led by former Tesla Model S chief engineer, Peter Rawlinson, Lucid secured the funding necessary, finished development, built out the factory, and will be delivering vehicles to customers before the end of this month. Quick Stats Lucid Air Dream Edition Motor:
Two (One front one rear) Dual ActiveCore OutPut:
1,111 hp (Performance); 933 hp (Range) Drive Type:
Full-time AWD (Both) 0-60:
2.5 sec. (Performance); 2.7 sec. (Range) Top Speed:
168-mph (Both) Range:
481 mi (Performance); 520 mi (Range) Price as tested:
$169,000 (Before incentives) Both versions of the Dream Edition cost $169,000 while the Air Grand Touring starts at $139,000. The Air Touring will set you back $95,000 and the entry-level Air Pure (RWD with available AWD) will have a starting price of $77,400, before incentives.
Inside AMP-1
We toured both Lucid’s powertrain manufacturing facility, as well as its Advanced Manufacturing Plant, called AMP-1. There were workers as well as robots working diligently in both facilities, but it was obvious that production had just begun, as everything was moving much slower than what we're used to seeing in manufacturing plants.
But we've never actually been in a manufacturing facility on day one of production, and the slow, deliberate process was most certainly taking place to ensure quality. Lucid has previously talked about the fact that build quality is its top priority. We'd love to go back in a couple of months to compare the assembly line pace to what we saw at the start of production.
Lucid has only completed phase one of its production facility, which is positioned on a 590-acre site, in less than a year. Phase one will allow the company to produce up to 30,000 vehicles per year. However, Lucid plans to produce only 578 Air in 2021 and didn't give an exact prediction for total 2022 production.
Phase two of the facility is already under construction, and once complete, Lucid will have the ability to produce up to 90,000 vehicles per year. The company then plans to begin phase three, which will fully build out the site and give Lucid a manufacturing capacity of 400,000 vehicles per year. At the heart of Lucid's exceptionally efficient powertrain is the compact motor Efficiency Deep Dive With Eric Bach
Lucid has its engineers available to answer questions and provide interviews and we were quick to schedule time with the Air's Chief Engineer, Eric Bach. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard a Lucid representative say "efficiency", I could...well, I couldn't exactly buy a Lucid Air, but I may be able to take my wife out for dinner. The point is, they say it all the time and credit the company's obsession with efficiency as the reason they were able to create such a powerful vehicle that can also deliver an EPA-rated 520 miles of driving range.
Powertrain efficiency is one of the things that Tesla does best. The legacy OEMs (with perhaps Hyundai as the exception) just can't seem to match Tesla's miles-per kWh efficiency. But Lucid has, and in fact, exceeded Tesla when comparing the Air against the Model S. The Air's battery pack is 112 kWh, which is 12% larger than the Model S's 100 kWh pack.
However, the longest-range Air delivers 28.5% more EPA-rated range than the longest-range Model S, 520 miles to 405 miles respectively. We should point out that the Model S Long Range costs nearly half that of the Lucid Air Dream Edition Range, $89,990 to $169,000. But regardless of the price, Lucid accomplished something that nobody else has so far; they produced a desirable luxury EV that can compet...