2022 Lucid Air Review: So Good That It Will Spoil Your Appetite

Lucid’s first effort at car building just embarrassed a lot of legacy automakers’ attempts at the same thing.

“Don’t eat that before dinner, it’ll spoil your appetite,” a familiar refrain of mothers worldwide. Mom knows best, the second a kid has scarfed down those sweets, they won’t want to eat anything else. In a way, the Lucid Air is kind of like that — it is so darn good that it’ll spoil the automotive enthusiast’s metaphorical appetite.

The Lucid Air Grand Touring (and Grand Touring Performance), is a large, fully-electric luxury sedan. It’s in the same vein and directly competes with the Tesla Model S, and Mercedes-Benz EQS. True, the Lucid Air has already been on sale for a short while, nabbing Motor Trend’s “Car of the Year” for 2022, but most Lucid Air on sale have been of the “Dream Edition”. The Dream Edition is a limited-run, limited-production only sold to early adopters and initial reservation holders. These Grand Touring and Grand Touring Performance trims are the top-of-the-line trim available to all customers. The two trims are mostly the same, save for the Grand Touring Performance special 21″ Aero wheels, and its goliath-sized 1,050 horsepower and $179,999 US ($242,000 CAD) base price. By contrast, the Grand Touring only has 819 horsepower and a trimmer $154,000 US price. But, when equipped with the 19″ wheels, the Grand Touring is rated for a range of 516 miles, compared to 446 for the Grand Touring Performance.

Nonetheless, the EV revolution is a top-down affair, as luxury manufacturers have planned to drop their gas-engined offerings en masse. Thus, no longer shackled by traditional ergonomics and proportions dictated by gas engines, manufacturers are free to completely rethink what ‘luxury’ is. There is no real history here, the idea of electric luxury is a totally new concept, and it’s anyone’s game who will define it first. For some, like BMW and Mercedes, they’ve crafted a new aesthetic and design ethos that is very love-it-or-hate-it. By contrast, Tesla’s sleek, minimalist, almost European look, seems to be the standard dejure that most EV aspirational automakers tend to emulate.

Lucid, however, has ignored that, aiming for a distinctly California, distinctively American style. The Newark, California-based company’s sedan seemingly pulls directly from the 1960s, the Mid-century modern era, for inspiration. The Lucid Air’s side profile is slim, sleek, and svelte, yet, the design doesn’t shy away from brightwork, either. Silver trim adorns the windows, and comprises the slim front fascia that houses a sort of faux-hidden headlight setup. The Air’s window brightwork leads to a mid-century modern-esque script of the vehicle’s model and trim, aft of the C-pillar, that terminates right at the base of the vehicle’s rear window. The sedan is low and appears long, wide, and large, a striking contrast in the area where every electrified vehicle is seemingly a tall crossover or out-of-scale hatchback.

Inside, the mid-century modern themes continue. In front of the driver sits a thin, curved, and angled information center with three screens, one for ancillary functions like wipers and headlights, one for speed and range, and a third which serves as infotainment. At first glance, the information center looks almost freestanding, with a delicately center-mounted support that’s basically invisible to the driver. The top half of the dashboard is finished with soft-touch leather, real wood, subtle metal accents, and even Alcantara. On the bottom half of the dashboard, sits a low-mounted screen that houses HVAC controls, and other less-than-often-used functions. The screen is easily hidden away with a simple swipe, and although there HVAC is touch screen based, there are physical hard keys for volume, fan speed, and temperature. The whole bottom half of the dashboard is surrounded by a tweed-like material, that when coupled with the Nappa leather seats, harks back to the old American glamour from the 1960s. Ray and Charles Eames would be proud.

It means, that the Lucid Air, absolutely scoots. Launching in the Lucid Air will redefine a person’s concept of speed; Lucid claims that 0-60 comes in a hard-to-grasp 2.6 seconds. The slightly less powerful Lucid Air Grand Touring “only” has 819 horsepower, (and a smaller 112kWh battery), and is good for a 0-60 time of 3 seconds flat. The sense of speed is akin to a modern launched roller coaster, like Cedar Point’s Top Thrill Dragster or Six Flags’s Kingda Ka. Yet, despite the Lucid Air’s staggering power levels, it never feels overwhelming on the road. Throttle calibration is progressive and forgiving, and the topmost levels of power are locked behind a drive mode that requires driver confirmation to use.

Never feeling overwhelming is really the whole ethos of the car. EVs tend to be a lot heavier than traditional fuel-powered vehicles because batteries are very, very heavy. Thus, although EVs are generally quick in a straight line, sometimes their heft can make itself known in the curves, with a suspension that feels a little floaty and bouncy, as the springs, dampers, and chassis, work hard to keep all that weight in check.

The Lucid Air isn’t like that.

The car feels trim, light, and svelte – which is funny because it is more than 5,200 pounds. Whereas cars like the Polestar 2, Mustang Mach-E, and even Tesla Model S feel like large, heavy cars, the Lucid Air feels deceptively light. When driving fast, the car feels as if it shrinks around the driver, as sort of a weird electro-car body extension, not at all what one would expect from a super luxury sedan. The chassis and suspension tuning are unflappable, the Lucid refuses to be upset by mid-corner bumps, high-speed transitions, or weight transfers. The Lucid Air will make even the worst driver feel like they’re The Stig.

Dynamically, the Lucid Air is probably one of the best driving, four-door vehicles one can buy with money. Yet, there are some things that could be dealbreakers.

For starters, the infotainment UX (user experience), although pretty and ergonomically good, can be slow. Navigation in particular isn’t always the easiest to use; the low-mounted screen should handle address inputs, but the keypad’s performance was inconsistent. The UX also was missing some functionality, too. There is no way to view song or track titles while using the navigation screen. Also, there’s no support for iPhone album art when connected via Bluetooth. Maybe a silly complaint, but for a car that costs $179,999 (Grand Touring Performance), it should work. Lucid did preview a UX software update at the event that addressed these concerns and a few more from the handful of Lucid owners. An over-the-air update will come soon.

Then, there aren’t any real autonomous driving features. For some (many), this is great news, because most don’t really work all that well, anyways. But, for that select techie-early adopter few, a lack of Lucid “autopilot” could be a dealbreaker. Lucid claims that a more sophisticated Level 2 Autonomy is coming, dubbed “DreamDrive”, but for now, the car will have to make do with run-of-the-mill ADAS systems.

Finally, the battery’s underfloor packaging in the Grand Touring and Grand Touring performance lends itself to a rear seat that is somewhat close to the floor. Coupled with front seats that have zero underfoot room, and the Lucid Air takes a bit of getting used to. Interestingly, the lower-priced Lucid Air Pure has a smaller battery with cutouts that allow for a better seating position.

The 2022 Lucid Air is so good, that driving it can make every other vehicle seem horrible and bad, by comparison. It’s the automotive equivalent of having ice cream before dinner, how do you compare any other vehicle to a super sedan that’s legitimately good at nearly everything? That’s the thing, you kind of, well, can’t. The Lucid Air Grand Touring is a big electric sedan that feels expensive and is probably one of the fastest things that a normal person, anywhere, ever, will drive in their lifetime.

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