Lucid EV wins Motor Trend’s Car of the Year
DrivesToday may have had to put its Car of the Year competition on hold in 2021 because of Covid uncertainty, but Motor Trend’s annual crowning of its Car of the Year has gone ahead… and this year’s winner will certainly stir up a lot of interest.
The all-electric Lucid Air can go 469 miles (516 on 19- inch wheels) on one charge, charge enough for 300 miles in 20 minutes and offers a possible 1111bhp (800bhp standard). It’s also able to do the quarter mile in 9.9 seconds and 0-60mph in three seconds. Lucid’s CEO is former Tesla chief engineer of the Model S, Peter Rawlinson, so it’s only natural to assume that the Lucid Air is an improvement on Tesla’s offerings, including the Model S which is now entering into its second decade – in automotive terms that’s a long time. In electric automotive terms that’s a lifetime! So, what’s the big deal with the Lucid? Well, the powertrain components on the Lucid have been miniaturised, making them more efficient and lighter, which translates into better range, more horsepower and a lot more space in the vehicle. Make no mistake, the Lucid Air isn’t Motor Trend’s first electric vehicle to win Car of the Year (the Tesla S did it almost a decade ago in 2013!); however its ground-breaking drag coefficient of 0.2 is the lowest of any production car ever. Period.
Along with all these exceptional performance capabilities, the Lucid Air carries just about every active safety feature available today, including Dream Drive Pro, which is a semi-autonomous driving function (we’re not sure how safe that is; however, it seems to be the big ‘thing’ at the moment!). The car also offers ‘over the air’ updates, a bit like when your mobile phone installs operating system updates, as well as 32 sensors, including cameras, so as self-driving tech evolves, the Air is ready for it and is effectively ‘future-proofed’.
And the price? A base version is available for $77,400, although the spec Motor Trend seemed to particularly like was the Lucid Air Grand Touring AWD which lists at an eye-watering $139,000.
Lucid is an Arizona-built car. Plenty of high tech.