With 1,050 horsepower, the new Grand Turing Performance Edition has become the most powerful version of Lucid’s electric air sedan.
Lucid Motors
Electric vehicle maker Lucid is launching a new version of its popular and powerful air luxury sedan.
The Lucid Air Grand Touring announced on Tuesday will be shipped with 1,050 horsepower and a starting price tag of $ 179,000. The company’s Air Sedan has impressed critics in various ways since its launch last fall for its dazzling performance of the 1,111 horsepower Dream Edition.
But that model was not easy to find. Lucid has limited production of the Dream Edition to just 520 instances, all of which were talked about months before Lucid began first air shipping from its Arizona factory last October.
Lucid said Tuesday that the Grand Touring performance – a specification that almost matches the Dream version and the starting price is just over $ 10,000 – will not be limited to production.
Although the air has made a big impression on the upper end of the luxury EV market, Lucid is still in the early stages of production. The company said in late February that it had built about 400 vehicles since starting production last September and had saved about 25,000 for the air.
It now expects to deliver 12,000 to 14,000 vehicles by 2022, less than the previous forecast of 20,000 because the ramp-up of wind production has slowed down due to global supply-chain disruptions.
Peter Rollinson, CEO of Lucid, says the company has moved to create a high-performance model after realizing that there is considerable demand for range-topping air with a four-digit horsepower rating.
Lucid was able to develop the new model quickly because of its “vertical integration”, Rollinson said. Lucid builds and manufactures its own electric motors and battery packs in-house, without relying on third-party suppliers for components like most major automakers.
The combination of performance in Grand Touring is the result of a supply-chain challenge that has hit almost all automakers around the world. But the new Air’s glasses are still impressive:
- Zero to 60 mph in just 2.6 seconds (as opposed to the 2.5 seconds claimed for the high-performance version of the Dream version.)
- EPA-estimated range 446 miles (471 miles vs. high-performance Dream version.)
- Lucid’s advanced driver-assist system, the DreamDrive Pro, is standard with a leader sensor and most of the hardware required for fully autonomous driving.
- Lucid’s Super-Quick 900-volt charging system, which allows a user to add up to 300 miles in just 21 minutes on a 350kW DC fast charger, is also ideal.
The new Air loses the most performing Tesla in most ways, but not in acceleration. The Tesla Model S Plaid last year claimed 1,020 horsepower, an EPA-estimated range of 396 miles, over $ 130,000 – and 60 times from zero to 1.99 seconds.
Grand Turing Performance is a high-performance variant of the previously announced Lucid Air Grand Turing, which claims 819 horsepower. That model has started shipping, Lucid said on Tuesday.
US delivery of the new Grand Turing Performance model will begin in June.