Lucid Air is Now the Most Efficient EV On Sale - Again

by Chris Teague

Published: July 16th, 2024

lucid air is now the most efficient ev on sale again

The Lucid Air sedan was already one of the longest-range EVs on sale today, but it lost the title of the most efficient EV to the Hyundai Ioniq 6. That’s recently changed, as the automaker has made updates to the luxury vehicle that put it back in the lead.

Lucid added a new heat pump to the Air, helping it conserve energy and reach 5 miles per kilowatt-hour, up from 4.9 miles with the last version.

In a statement, the automaker said, “The new Lucid Air pure requires less electrical energy for any journey taken, A to B, than any other vehicle on the market today. Consuming less energy to travel further enables electric vehicles to deliver the range that consumers expect while reducing the size of costly battery packs.”

The Air Pure also returns 146 MPGe, or miles per gallon equivalent, making it the most efficient vehicle of any fuel type.

Unfortunately for buyers, the Lucid Air Pure’s price tag hasn’t become more reasonable. It still starts at $71,400 after destination, while Lucid’s other variants, the Touring and Grand Touring, cost $80,400 and $112,400 to start, respectively.

Look, more range and better efficiency are great, but high-priced, ultra-luxury EVs are not the way to increase buyer adoption. There will always be a place in the market for brands like Lucid, but it’s hard to celebrate such an expensive vehicle when most buyers can’t afford even the most mainstream EVs on sale today.

[Images: Lucid]

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Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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4 of 24 comments

Cprescott on Jul 17, 2024
Now it would be impressive to see golf cart makers to go back to the real world and to design and right size electric motors that are efficient and low weight per output while benchmarking 0-60 times it the 8 second standard. There is no need for ordinary passenger golf carts to accelerate quicker than a Corvette. Cut weight and complexity, build vehicles for the real world and to get the lard out of these golf carts that are too fat and heavy by 20%.

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- SCE to AUX on Jul 17, 2024
  My 19 Ioniq 1 EV is like that (3100 lbs, 10 seconds 0-60, 4.5 miles/kWh, inexpensive), but the tradeoff is range (124 miles EPA). Even when it was in production, almost nobody wanted such a short-range EV. Battery energy density needs to improve.
  
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- Ithappenedthatway on Jul 21, 2024
  Much of the lard is in the control system that will take exception to any weight reduction effort.
  
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JaVeyron on Jul 17, 2024
It’s even more impressive when you consider how big it is (on the inside). I’ve never seen a metric that incorporates both fuel efficiency and capacity (measured in interior space, passenger count, etc), but this car makes the case for it. What I’m hoping is that Lucid can survive long enough to repeat Tesla’s game plan of starting with low-volume, high-margin luxury cars, and then adding lower cost models once they refine their processes/reduce costs (Rivian too). An attractive competitor to the Model 3/Y with similarly great driving dynamics and efficiency as the Air, and none of the CEO baggage, would be amazing.

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