When you see me talk about a masterpiece, an engineering marvel, a car that is able to do things that no other car is able to do, a car that is one of a kind, you might think I am talking about another damn Tesla. Not this time! This time, I am talking about the Lucid Air.
The Lucid Air is an electric luxury sedan, that is quite expensive, but when you see what it offers, you will think that it’s a fair price. It’s story is quite fascinating.
Peter Rawlinson, was the man behind the scenes, that made Elon Musk and Tesla, what it is today. He was the chief engineer of the Model S, the very Model S that put Tesla on the map. But, he was frustrated with Elon Musk. Because Elon Musk, even though he deserves credit for innovating the automobile and doing some great stuff with Tesla, pushing the automotive industry towards electric and more advanced technologies, was just not doing everything conventionally, even though conventional, was better. Case-in-point the weird Yoke steering, that was just more cumbersome and had more drawbacks as compared to a conventional steering wheel, and the weird indicator system with no indicator stalk, and no shift knob! Peter had had enough. He left Tesla, and made a promise that he will make a Tesla, that’s better than the Tesla, in every way. With the Air, he promised to make the world’s best luxury car, not just the best EV. Lucid, was born, and the Lucid Air, showed the world that sticking with conventional results in a better car that more people like, and that Tesla finally has some tough competition, and can be beaten. And the team of engineers that comprised Lucid doesn’t just include frustrated engineers from Tesla, one of the world’s most innovative car companies, it includes engineers from companies like Jaguar Land-Rover, Lotus, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi and even the Formula 1! Those aren’t small names, and this means that Lucid comprised of some of the best automotive engineering talent, in the world! Not just that, they recruited talent from technology companies like Apple and Google, to get technology and software right.
Lucid, with the Air, shows us that benchmarking, can get you a lot of success, if done right. What does benchmarking mean? Benchmarking means, studying the market leader, or the best product in the market, and creating a product that does everything that the market leader does, but better than the market leader, and offering more than the market leader. Lucid benchmarked the Mercedes S-Class, and created a better product than it, while offering the joy of knowing that you aren’t emitting pollutants, you don’t have to pay crazy amounts for fuel, and you don’t have to change oil. The Tesla Model S was extremely important and a success, because it did more things, better. Luxury is doing more things, better. The Tesla Model S has a lot of valuable Silicon-Valley touches that makes it one of the easiest cars to live with, like autopilot, a frunk, one of the best touchscreen infotainment systems, like ever, and okay-ish build quality that’s livable, not to mention one-pedal driving and many other Silicon-Valley touches. What the Lucid Air does is it combines the Silicon Valley touches with an engineering-first philosophy like Mercedes-Benz and Lotus. Which means that it doesn’t have any of the build-quality issues, panel gaps, and it doesn’t feel crappy in the inside, and it doesn’t rattle and doesn’t have cheap plastics, which are some of the most serious criticisms with Tesla products. It feels robust, and well-built, like a luxury car, and the interior is filled with high-quality materials, which makes it classy, simple, elegant, and makes it feel luxurious and expensive. It’s as good and as understated and elegant as a Mercedes S-Class, probably even better. It is indeed a success when it comes to design, because it manages to look like a handsome sedan despite having an extremely low coefficient of drag of just 0.197! (One of the lowest in the world when it comes to production cars) That is lower than that of a Porsche Carrera GT and even lower than a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ! It is more aerodynamic than sports cars! This not just gives it amazing performance, high top speed, and stability around high-speed corners, and high-speed stability in general, it also gives it good range (a mind-boggling 840 kms in the top model) because it cuts through the air. Secondly, it has a dash-to-axle so short, that it should look like a sub-compact car but it doesn’t. The Lucid Air is also a masterclass (or an engineering case-study) in packaging. It’s smaller than a Tesla Model S, by the way. It has unbelievable interior space for it’s size. It has as much space as a Mercedes S-Class, but it’s the size of a Mercedes E-Class! That’s like a hatchback having as much space as a 7-seater MPV inside! It’s like a Honda Jazz or a Renault Triber! A packaging miracle. It also, has three times the cargo space of an E-Class or a S-Class. Not to mention the powertrain. The Air uses two electric motors, each making 670 hp! The Air makes a total of approximately 1111 hp! And since it’s electric, it has instant torque. Which means its fast. And the motor is so tiny, it’s just a bit larger than a basketball. So, using two tiny motors gives you so much space. One at the front, and the other at the back. Which makes it all-wheel-drive. And not just the motor, but the differential, transmission, and power control unit are fit in one compact package. That’s the packaging miracle that Lucid brings to the table. The power unit that’s so compact, when it come out, made three times the power of anyone else’s power unit, Tesla included. Because of the tiny powertrain, the Air can achieve packaging miracles, that everyone in the automotive industry says, is flat-out impossible.
There is one more trick up the Air’s sleeve, something where it just blows the competition out of the water. The way it drives. I am serious. This thing drives really well, even though it weighs around 2.5 tons! Again, benchmarking is the reason why it drives so well. It’s performance benchmark might be the Tesla Model S Plaid, but it’s handling and chassis tuning benchmark was none other than the legendary BMW E39 M5. And believe it or not, they nailed it! It drives, like a rear-wheel-drive sports car, not a luxury land-yacht. Thanks to people from Lotus and Formula One, that helps, I guess. The Air isn’t just a luxury car, it’s one of the best, most well-sorted sports sedans on this planet. A perfectly calibrated driver’s car of the highest order. It will plant a smile on your face on the right, bumpy, twisty back road, will keep you relaxed in comfort, if you are in the backseat, will make traffic and work commutes a breeze, and leave behind random people who challenge you to a drag race. The suspension tuning is also, spot-on. You will never hear a clunk, no matter what you hit. There’s no thumps or whacks, and the car isolates you properly from the outside world, just like a good luxury car should. It’s easy to say that it’s one of the quickest cars of all time, including hyper-cars. 0-100 km/h in less than 3 seconds is no joke. The Lucid Air is the future defined by someone, who understands what is a sports sedan. The Lucid is a Porsche Taycan in the corners, A Mercedes S-Class in comfort, A Lotus in it’s simplicity, efficiency, and the way it drives, and a Tesla in it’s tech. If the measure of a luxury car is doing more things better than other cars, how could the Lucid Air not be the new benchmark of luxury? Not to mention that if this doesn’t satisfy the spec-sheet nerd or the crazy rich guy who wants an even faster car, there is another Lucid Air, the triple-motor Lucid Air Sapphire, which has one extra motor, that’s even faster and crazier, and makes 1,234 horsepower! 0-100 in less than 2 seconds! Imagine taking that thing to a track day and destroying everyone, and going on a family road trip the same day. Cool, isn’t it? And one more thing, you don’t sacrifice space or comfort, the frunk in the Sapphire is twice the size of a Tesla Model S.
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