It’s been two long years since the Lucid
Air was supposed to enter production, and a further two since a little-known
Californian startup called Lucid Motors made a splash with the electric luxury
sedan. Since then, we’ve heard very little, but the car is slowly but surely
inching towards the assembly line, and this week we’re getting our first look
at what the finalised product will look like.
The production Air, billed as a rival to
the Tesla Model S, was due to be unveiled this month at the New York International
Auto Show which has since been cancelled. Instead, the company buried a single
photo in a press release announcing that the car is now open for booking in
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
At first glance, the car looks very much
like the svelte four-door that Lucid Motors showed us back in 2016, with its
slim integrated LED headlights and grille, clamshell bonnet, clean surfaces,
low roofline and the large chrome bar at the front with the Lucid script.
Interestingly, it still looks to retain the one-piece glass roof and
windscreen, which should give passengers a wonderful view of the sky.
There are a few production-ready details,
however, like the larger LED projector modules at the inner edge of the
headlights, minor styling changes around the centre air intake and the addition
of various sensors for parking and driving assistance. Most apparent are the
notably larger door mirrors, the upper half painted in the same silver as the
cant rails, giving the car that “floating roof” look.
Production is finally set to kick off at
the end of the year at the Casa Grande factory in Arizona, with a promised
range of 640 km, a zero-to-100 km/h sprint time of 2.5 seconds and a top speed
of over 320 km/h. That’s with the range-topping model, which will get twin
motors to provide all-wheel drive and over 1,000 hp; a single-motor model will
also be available, with a shorter range.
