- Electric powertrains are just better when it comes to straight-line performance.
- Exhibit A: The Lucid Gravity is now the quickest SUV Car and Driver has ever tested in the quarter-mile.
- It beat gas-powered SUVs from Porsche and Lamborghini—and nearly bested the Corvette Z06.
When I drove the Lucid Gravity earlier this year at its press launch, I was blown away by the electric-vehicle startup’s second act. But there’s a lot you can’t learn in a few hours with a new vehicle. Now, reviewers are getting their hands on the electric family-hauler for more in-depth testing, and it continues to impress.
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about Jason Cammisa’s “Mom Missiles” drag race, in which he pitted several super-powered SUVs against one another. The Gravity smoked them all—including Rivian’s quad-motor R1S SUV.
Photo by: Tim Levin/InsideEVs
Now, Car and Driver is out with a similar result after evaluating the Gravity on track. On Friday, the outlet said that the Gravity Dream Edition is the quickest SUV it has ever tested, crushing the quarter-mile in a blistering 10.6 seconds at 140 mph. It also sprinted to 30 mph in 1.4 seconds, hit 70 mph in 3.7 seconds and blew past 100 mph in just 5.9 seconds.
Let me remind you: This isn’t some low-slung supercar. It’s a big, three-row, seven-seat SUV. It just goes to show how astonishingly high-performance electric cars can be, especially when done right. The Dream-edition Gravity has two motors, 1,070 horsepower and 909 lb-ft of torque. It’s Lucid’s second vehicle after the Air, which launched in 2021.
The impressive results are also a powerful endorsement of the fledgling startup’s tech. But Lucid needs a lot more than devilishly quick quarter-mile times to become a healthy, profitable business. What it needs is volume. The Gravity should deliver more of that than the Air ever did, but sales have been slow going thus far.
Lucid kicked off SUV production late last year and only sold 70 in the first half of 2025, according to data from Cox Automotive. (Lucid, for its part, doesn’t break out model-by-model sales and has said the Gravity’s production ramp would be gradual.)
Photo by: Tim Levin/InsideEVs
Car and Driver notes that the Gravity slugged some of the most powerful gas-powered SUVs. It proved quicker than the Lamborghini Urus Performante, which notched a quarter-mile in 11.2 seconds at 122 mph. And it beat the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT, which also recorded an 11.2-second run. High-powered electric SUVs like the R1S Tri Max, BMW iX M60 and Mercedes-AMG EQE53 were no match for it either. (The outlet says it hasn’t tested a Tesla Model X Plaid yet.)
What’s more, the seven-seater nearly matched the Chevrolet Corvette Z06, missing that sports car’s quarter-mile time by just a tenth of a second. In Car and Driver’s testing, the Gravity actually beat the Z06 to 150 mph by about three seconds. The outlet notes that the Gravity seems to get a second wind above 60 mph.
The comparison further proves something we already knew: If your mission is to go as quick as possible in a straight line, it’s electric or bust. And next time you show up to the drag strip, if a minivan from the future pulls up next to you, you’re about to get got.
Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com
