Now that the major players in the emerging electric vehicle industry seem to have mostly established themselves, it’s time to iterate on EV design. We get it, they’re electric—but simply not using gasoline or diesel fuel won’t be enough. Going forward, EVs will start competing not only on range but also on efficiency, just as modern internal combustion vehicles have evolved to develop more power using less fuel. Advances can be generated by aerodynamic tweaks, chemistry changes in the battery, new components, and more, and Lucid now claims it has the most efficient car—not just EV—in the world: the updated 2025 Lucid Air Pure electric sedan. Here’s what’s changed to make it meet the claim of “most efficient new car in the world.”
The 2025 Lucid Air Pure EV is capable of an average of 5.0 miles of driving range per kilowatt hour used from the battery pack, recording a 146 MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) EPA rating for the electric luxury sedan. That’s calculated from a 84 kWh battery pack promising 420 miles of driving range on the Pure model. This all means that the new Pure sedan requires less energy to go further than any other vehicle, gas or electric, currently on the market.
The Lucid Air sedan features an ultra-compact, high-performance heat pump for maintaining optimal battery temperatures, ensuring performance even in cold weather. Moreover, the entire 2025 Air sedan lineup has received an upgrade in infotainment hardware that offers triple the processing power and double the memory compared to the previous model. All 2025 Air models will come equipped with Lucid’s DreamDrive Premium Advanced Driver Assistance System, which includes 3D Surround View Monitoring and live blind spot monitoring.
When comparing efficiency, the U.S. EPA reports that the 2023 Tesla Model S electric sedan achieves only 120 MPGe, while the smaller Tesla Model 3 manages 132 MPGe. Other competitors include the Hyundai Ioniq 5 at around 100 MPGe, depending on the trim, the Kia EV6, which scores about 117 MPGe in its most efficient version, and the Ford Mustang Mach-E, which gets around 93 MPGe.
