2023 Lucid Air Touring Hits the Candy Spot

Lucid’s Air Dream isn’t any extra, however our take a look at crew’s recollections of its otherworldly energy and vary dwell on. Its dual-motor powertrain cranked out a reality-bending 1111 horsepower in Efficiency guise, whereas the range-oriented variant dialed that again to a mere 933 horsepower to be an authorized 520-mile bladder killer.

Spectacular? Completely. However does anybody actually require that a lot, particularly when you think about the fee? For 2023, the top-trim 1050-hp Grand Touring Efficiency instructions over $180,000, whereas the 516-mile range-specialist Grand Touring hovers simply south of $140K. The larger gotcha is an unwelcome facet impact of the big battery—112 kWh for the Grand Touring, 118 kWh for the Efficiency variant—essential to unlock all that energy and vary: It occupies the rear footwells, making a knees-up seating place that is exacerbated by extraordinarily little toe room below the entrance seats. Legroom is definitely plentiful, so it is nonetheless roomy again there, however the seating posture is uncommon.

The Touring, which at 10 paces appears to be like equivalent to the higher-trim variants, deviates in a single essential approach that reverberates up and down the spec sheet: Its underfloor battery consists of 18 modules as an alternative of twenty-two. That drops its capability to 92.0 kWh, however the lack of these 4 modules provides again rear-seat footwell room and offers a significantly extra luxurious expertise for passengers. In actual fact, Lucid was in a position to flatten the Touring’s backside cushion angle barely as a result of the rear seat not must help legs that jut up.

Much less battery capability does scale back energy and vary. Whereas the Dream and the GT have each in abundance, the Touring’s vary continues to be a wholesome EPA-rated 425 miles with 19-inch all-season tires or 384 miles with our take a look at automotive’s no-cost 20-inch summer season rubber. The Touring additionally gives 620 horsepower and 885 pound-feet of grunt. Round city, you will not miss the absent horses, as a result of that is nonetheless a frisky powertrain. Surging from 30 to 50 mph, for instance, takes simply 1.8 seconds. Even in case you flooring it off the road, as we do in our observe assessments, the distinction between 1111 and 620 horsepower is a scant 0.4 second to 60 mph, with the Touring notching a still-impressive 3.0 seconds. Whereas the Touring cannot match the Dream’s 10.1-second, 142-mph quarter-mile, patrons actually should not really feel shortchanged by 11.0 seconds at 126 mph.

The smaller battery helps shed 270 kilos, and the 5012-pound Touring certainly feels lighter on its toes in corners. Its lateral grip is a tick higher at 0.93 g, whereas 70-mph panic stops are simply 4 toes longer at 167 toes. Our Touring’s 20-inch Michelin Pilot Sport EV summer season tires are fractionally extra supple than the Dream’s 21-inch Pirellis, however in any other case the 2 vehicles’ dynamics mirror one another. On the open street, the Touring makes the miles disappear, as it’s a particularly calm and succesful cruiser. The journey is relaxed and easy with no trace of float or wallow, and the taller sidewalls of its 20-inch efficiency rubber add an additional measure of rolling consolation.

The dead-ahead sense you get from the steering is kind of pronounced, and it evokes sufficient confidence that we felt extra comfy utilizing the steer-it-yourself adaptive cruise setting on the interstate as an alternative of the Freeway Help lane-centering operate that is a part of the $10,000 DreamDrive Professional possibility. A driver-monitoring system is current, however Lucid just isn’t but utilizing it to permit Tremendous Cruise–type hands-free driving, so you may nonetheless get the same old warning to maintain your arms on the wheel in the event that they’re absent for 15 seconds.

Whereas the Touring’s rated vary is kind of good, we discovered the precise distance to be extra velocity dependent than we anticipated. Regardless of a acknowledged vary of 384 miles, our take a look at automotive managed simply 280 miles in our 75-mph freeway take a look at. Later, the automotive basically matched its estimated vary on a random drive that was highway-heavy however featured a median velocity nearer to 63 mph. All advised, our Touring averaged 107 MPGe, which falls nicely wanting its lofty 121 MPGe EPA mixed score however continues to be a great exhibiting in comparison with different giant luxurious EVs.

Maybe our Touring take a look at automotive’s most noteworthy new function was associated to charging, not vary. Like with a Tesla Supercharger, plug-and-charge is now absolutely applied right here. Nothing greater than plugging in was essential to get going at Electrify America refill stops, with cost initiation and billing taking place within the background utilizing a preconfigured account that is arrange by way of the Lucid possession portal. These of you who’ve futzed round getting a fast-charge going at non-Tesla websites know this can be a life-changing improvement.

Throughout our 75-mph vary take a look at, we had loads of time to ponder a couple of quirks of the Lucid Air’s instrumentation and its management interfaces, that are fairly eye-pleasing when it comes to design and supplies. The absence of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto reportedly will likely be rectified with a “coming quickly” over-the-air replace, however till then, your telephone is suction-cupped to the windshield. The turn-signal stalk is kind of quick, so it is easy to set off the end-mounted wiper button when making an attempt to energetic the flip indicators. The sweeping instrument panel and central pill are beautiful, however quite a lot of display actual property is wasted. A big Air brand occupies a outstanding spot to the correct of the speedometer, with a rudimentary journey odometer on the left.

For all of that, the Air Touring carries a extra palatable value of $109,050. That determine features a typical aluminum roof, which implies patrons within the Solar Belt will not want the $4500 glass cover high. Our tester stickered for $127,550, which included the glass roof, a $4000 premium audio system, and that $10K DreamDrive Professional driver-assistance possibility we may fortunately do with out. Of all of the Air variants, the Touring strikes us because the candy spot the place value, efficiency, vary, and passenger consolation overlap.