LUCID AIR EV'S DEBUT COULD NOT HAVE GONE ANY BETTER, OR FASTER.
In the hotly contested world of electric vehicles, accolades help not only with sales of the car in question, but also provide proof of concept which can lead to investors and funding. We’re quite sure that after the California-based Lucid Motors debuted its Air Grand Touring model at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, those with a keen eye for making money would be banging down their front door to get in on the project. After winning the title of ‘Best Luxury Electric Car’, following that up with being the fastest production car up the Goodwood hill is like one massive cherry on top. It always makes you think a little when small companies with a short history are able to put the usual suspects to shame. How do they do it? How is it possible to be able to create a product better than a company with billions at its disposal? We also have no idea, but we love seeing the underdog-style concerns kicking the big ones where it hurts.
With dual ActiveCore electronic motors, the decently-sized electric sedan can be had in a few power configurations, but the spec that headed up the hill at the hands of Ben Collins is the most powerful of the lot with a monstrous 1 050 hp on tap - the Lucid Air Grand Touring Performance. That’s heaps of power for a car that’s actually been built to compete with other luxury sedans, yet it has hypercar power off the showroom floor. Electric vehicles really are rewriting the books about automotive performance. As much as fans of the gas guzzlers want to complain the EVs aren’t cool, they simply cannot argue with the performance figures. Even entry-level EVs are capable of performance equal to cars at the top of their class - my own slightly tweaked turbocharged 1.8-litre GTi battled to stay ahead of a BMW i3. That was not fun to learn.
The video with Ben and Shmee nailing it up the Goodwood hill is a great way to get a feel of the performance that the Lucid Air offers up. We all know that Shmee is no stranger to supercars and hypercars and the performance they have, so when you see the expressions on his face and the reactions to the speeds at different increments up the hill you can get a sense of the stonking performance this luxury electric sedan. Not only are there over a thousand galloping horses harnessed in the Lucid Air, but the car also has a range of 717 km (446 miles) on a single charge, and a whopping 480 km of that can be had from just 20 minutes of charging. Sure the charge will run down a bit faster if you’re driving the car like you stole it, and that may be hard not to do considering the 2.5-second 0-100km/h dash. To put that in a little perspective, Ken Block’s old Hoonicorn Fiesta could only manage 2.8-seconds.
Take a look at the YouTube video below that conveys just how rapid the Lucid Motors Air EV is with commentary by Shmee150 and pilot duties done by the OG Stig during a run up the hill at Goodwood Festival of Speed: FULL SEND! THE STIG Drives 1,150hp LUCID AIR at Goodwood Festival of Speed | Shmee150
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