- The Lucid Air can be the most efficient, the longest-range or the quickest accelerating EV. But it can’t be all three at once.
- Opt for the 1,234-horsepower Sapphire model and you’ll give up a lot of range, as Out Of Spec proved in its recent video.
- There has always been an efficiency penalty for grippier tires and more aggressive aero, but it’s even bigger in the electric era.
The Lucid Air is the most efficient electric car on sale in the U.S. But that’s really only true if you get the lightest, slipperiest model, the Lucid Air Pure. The Air is also the longest-range EV, yet again only if you get the right model. While the Grand Touring offers a world-beating 512 miles of range, the high-performance Sapphire gets “just” 427 miles of EPA range. And if you’re on the highway, expect a lot less than that.
Out Of Spec recently put the Air Sapphire through its 70-mph highway range test. These 70-mph tests, and the ones performed by State of Charge, are my favorites because they represent the median U.S. road trip scenario. Speed limits vary wildly, and since high speeds are exponentially less efficient in EVs, you need to know how it handles a brisk 70-mph trip.
The Environmental Protection Agency is of less help here. The agency’s test cycle is a mix of 55% city and 45% highway driving. That roughly represents America’s overall driving split, but it’s a particularly bad fit for EVs. You’re rarely driving 300 straight miles in the city unless you’re a rideshare driver. Highway efficiency is what really matters for range, and the Air Sapphire proves it.
The 1,234-horsepower super sedan can sprint to 60 in under 2.0 seconds. But doing so requires ultra-grippy, high-performance tires. Those tires have far more rolling resistance than the efficiency-optimized rubber on a Lucid Air Pure. And because drag increases exponentially, not linearly, with speed, that makes the delta between the Lucid Air Sapphire’s city and highway efficiency even greater.
Though it can do 427 miles on the EPA split cycle, on Out Of Spec’s test, it managed 339.5 miles before it died. It started reducing power miles before that. So if you want to plan a road trip in a Sapphire, and you plan around the EPA figure, you might fall 90 miles short of your destination.
It’s a tough trade-off. The grip and speed of a Sapphire is intoxicating, but to get it, you have to give up on the Grand Touring’s claim as the best road-trip EV on sale.
All of these things are true with every car; A BMW M3 on grippy rubber won’t get as good of fuel economy as a 330i with eco tires. But because the powertrain of an electric car is so efficient, the range variance between models comes down almost entirely to aerodynamics and rolling resistance. The more you speed up and the heavier you roll, the bigger the penalty gets for grippier tires and high-downforce bodywork.
Even so, it’s worth noting that 340 miles of total highway range is still quite good by modern EV standards—especially for one packing more than 1,000 horsepower. Maybe that’s a tradeoff you can live with.
Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com.
