Lucid Air: The Future of Electric Vehicles
“It’s all over,” I said to myself. I was in the passenger seat of Lucid Air car number 17. Why 17? Because it’s the last two digits of the car’s VIN. It’s an early enough build that the steering wheel is from a Cadillac CTS, as Lucid hadn’t started making steering wheels when car 17’s chassis was built. John Culliton, the senior mechanical engineer of chassis and vehicle dynamics giving me hot laps around Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, had finally unleashed all 1,080 horsepower in the Air just before the apex of turn 5. “This is the end,” I thought.
Not of my life—John’s pretty handy behind the wheel—but rather of the internal-combustion engine and its domination of racetracks. I’ve lived a ridiculously charmed existence, assuming you’re into riding shotgun with amazing drivers like Walter Röhrl, Jochen Mass, David Donahue, Justin Bell, Jethro Bovingdon—the list goes on. I’ve been through turn 5 countless times and have never experienced anything like the way this Lucid hustled up that hill. Moreover, because of people who bought homes nearby, the sound booth that yells at you for being loud is between turns 5 and 6. Yet I could scream “holy sh*t!” louder than the noise generated by the dual-motor Air whooshing past. It’s a warm-up for the tri-motor model hitting the track in search of a new EV lap record; when it’s done, I head to a suite to observe.
Efficiency Is Everything
“How many customers will ever use all 1,080 horsepower?” I asked Lucid’s CEO/CTO, Peter Rawlinson. He noted that the focus often is on headline-grabbing numbers like power, the 9.9-second quarter-mile time, and the promised 500-plus miles of range. Instead, he insists we should look at the true story of Lucid: efficiency. “We’re 17 percent more efficient than the long-range Model S,” he noted. Consequently, if Tesla wanted to match the Air’s range, they might have to add a 17 percent larger battery, which adds weight. “Efficiency is the key to everything,” he stated. “With our car, you get both performance and efficiency.”
Three Motors Are Better Than Two
The tri-motor car has just finished a lap—”1:32.75,” a black-clad Lucid employee shouted up to the suite. Anything in the 1:32 range is quick, that much I know. Our man Kim Reynolds previously witnessed a lesser version of the Air tri-motor post a 1:34.2 lap, which is as quick as an Audi R8 V10, but not in the top 20 lap times. Once I checked the lap record list, I saw that the newer 1:32.75 time was good for eleventh place all time. “Four seconds,” Rawlinson stated. “That’s four seconds quicker than the Tesla!” referring to a Model S Plaid prototype’s time.
To those who haven’t wasted years timing cars running around racetracks, four seconds is a significant gap. Lucid has a tri-motor Air with powerful capabilities. Each of Lucid’s miniaturized motors has the potential to produce impressive horsepower. Eventually, I asked for an actual number, and the five different answers I received indicated uncertainty within the company. As the Dream Edition dual-motor Air approaches customer deliveries, the tri-motor version is still a year out at least. It is easy to see how the tri-motor Air can achieve phenomenal performance with the right upgrades.
Innovative Breakthroughs
I didn’t get a ride in the tri-motor Air, but from the various dual-motor rides I experienced, I could observe critical performance insights. One significant concern was that Lucid didn’t seem to have the brakes necessary to handle a car with such immense power. Eric Bach, Lucid’s vice president of hardware engineering, spoke passionately about their innovations, but simple electric car brakes fail to match the car’s potential speed. They need to innovate in this area to enhance lap times.
The Future Ahead
I had to leave the track around 2:00 p.m. to catch a flight back to Los Angeles. When I landed, I received a text confirming that Lucid had just achieved a 1:31.34 lap time, good for a placement ahead of a Dodge Viper ACR and very close to a Porsche 918 Spyder. This achievement underscores the remarkable potential of the Lucid Air. Both Lucid and Tesla, along with the entire automotive industry, are just beginning to unlock the future of electric vehicles. As I stated before, “it’s all over.” However, the new beginning—for EVs and lap times— is off to an incredible start.
