So, I wasn't planning on driving a Lucid Air today, but I happened across the showroom, popped inside, checked it out - and went for a drive. Thursdays can be like that. So here we are, the Lucid Air Grand Touring (819hp) vs my 2022 Tesla Model S (Plaid, in my case).
Looks:
1.) So I don't love the look of the Lucid. The trunk lines are all over the map, and the weird Zippy face from the TV show "Rainbow" when I was a kid, - it's not my favorite. That said, if I were to get this car, it would be a Sapphire, which at least stealths up the whole paint job and dumps the two-tone look, which I'm not a fan of.
2.) The front, aside from the weird two-tone, is actually pretty cool looking, especially the fancy headlights. More futuristic than the S, that's for sure, and general fit and finish was pretty good in terms of panel gaps. Interestingly, two demo vehicles there both had some trim above the rear glass that, visible from outside, was literally falling off, - hanging down. Not a good look, but then again, don't get me started on Tesla's QC, eh?
The good stuff:
1.) General fit and finish, as mentioned is good (overall better than Tesla). I really like having a FULL STEERING WHEEL (seriously, next-level stuff this is). Even at 6'5", I was able to see everything clearly on all displays, and the steering wheel never occluded any vital info.
2.) Leg-room. Absolutely in another league from the Model S. In the attached pictures, I have the driver's seat in the right position for me at 6'5", and I was still able to sit behind "myself" with that seat set for me, and not touch the back of the front seat with my legs. This is just epic. There is a downside to this, mind, which I'll touch on in a bit...
3.) Thigh support. This is glorious. For taller drivers, being able to extend that seat toward the front of the car is so great. I wish I had this in my S.
4.) Massaging seats. So, it's simple: I'm 100% sold on massaging seats. They are excellent in the Air (the rolling motion was my favorite massage program, - and it even massages your glutes, oh yeah baby!). My next car has to have this. It's really that simple.
5.) Aside from the massaging front seats, - no vibration noted from the drivetrain at any reasonable speeds I was traveling. That's also an improvement from the refresh Model S which suffers from driveline vibration between ~35mph to 50mph. Lame.
6.) Performance is very good. I mean, you know what to expect here, - it's an 819hp electric car. Torque and power delivery is instant, as you'd expect. The two motors are a little louder than the S Plaid's three motors, but they're not intrusive, and sound futuristic-y. I'm not comparing straight-line performance, of course, since that's pointless.
7.) Regen is exceptional. This is like the S's regen on steroids. You have Low and Normal (as I recall), and Normal is much more aggressive than the S, and it really slows down hard. I love this. The only downside is that it's a little harsh in traffic where you need to move forward at a few mph, and when coming off the accelerator, even as gently as you can - this still results in a little lurch to a stop. No, this is not something you'd adapt to with practice, - it requires a software update to tweak this a little, I'd say, as the car comes to a stop. The S is sheer perfection in the way it fully comes to a stop. Anyway, aside from this one annoyance, I wish I could have this much regen on the S.
8.) The front trunk is exceptionally roomy, and electronically controlled. It even has a sub-frunk it has so much room, I guess because the motor up top is so tiny. This is significantly larger than the S frunk, and the electronic controls mean I'd use it more often, whereas I rarely ever can be bothered on the S because it's such a faff...
9.) Brakes are solid for a daily driver, though I barely used them, - just like in the Model S.
10.) 360 camera view. Top down for parking etc. This is how it should be. The whole suite of sensors and cameras. Whether you believe LIDAR is necessary or not, we can all agree having an extra camera in the front bumper would be so nice.
11.) Large windshield in one piece goes fully above your head (kind of like a Model X).
12.) The doors open a full 90 degrees (see picture), and are soft close, which is just lovely. The S doors really ought to be soft closing (i.e. you can't fail to shut them. If you don't close them hard enough they pull themselves fully closed). The Model X has this feature.
13.) Did I mention the massaging seats? Gawd... so good...
Aaaaand now the bad:
1.) The reason there's so much leg-room in the car is that, quite simply, the trunk is not very big. It's reasonably deep, but the opening is so shallow it's almost laughable. I'm not entirely convinced a standard-size grocery bag can fit in the trunk without rubbing the roof of the trunk, but I admit - I didn't try this. The way the trunk opens, with me being tall, I have to essentially peer underneath the trunk lid to see into it. I'm not a fan of it at all. Whereas the frunk is glorious, the trunk is... disappointing.
2.) Visibility for me was not ideal out of any of the windows, as the upper frame of the car sits quite low. Coupled with very wide B-pillars, it's not as easy to look around as I'd like.
3.) I'm not a fan of the manual vents. I really like the integrated vents in all the current Tesla line, so this feels like a step back. You also can't tell at a glance if a vent is open or closed, as you close them by rotating the angle-adjustment dial, but there's no visual clue as to which position the vent opening is in. But hey, at least you can close off a vent, something you peculiarly can't do in the Model S.
4.) The steering wheel, while round - and which has a horn in the center (mind blown!), - has the cheapest feeling plastic adorning it that I can imagine in a car of this price. The silver trim is plastic - wraps around the back of the wheel in the center, and creaks all the time. It's just awful. Even the buttons on it creak. Bad, Lucid. Bad. This is your main interaction mechanism, and you ballsed it up. But, at least I can't see the material peeling off it like in a certain car I know...
5.) The windshield is a bit of a downer, despite being very open. Two reasons for this:
a.) The sun visors. They really should be side mounted like on the Model X. As it is, they just break up the visual aesthetic, and just look a bit funny, essentially floating in the middle of a giant slab of glass.
b.) The windshield tinting comes down too low. Yes, I'm taller, but I also sit my seat down low to counteract this, and even still - the tinting cuts my view in half essentially, with ~50% of what I see tinted, and ~50% of what I see not tinted. I'm not exaggerating when I say this tint comes down lower than tint on a windshield should. It's lower than the visors, for goodness sake. Why?
6.) The angle of the windshield means you get a lot of dash reflections on there. The S is really pretty great when it comes to reflections (though not quite as good as the exceptional Model 3), but the Lucid is not very good in this regard at all. In the picture attached with the steering wheel in view, you can get a sense of the reflections as you can see the dash in the windshield - just in the showroom!
7.) In two vehicles I sat in (one the showroom, and the other the test-drive vehicle), I was not super impressed with the center screen that slides in and out of the cubby in the front. It crashes into the center console when it comes out, with a cheap, plastic smack. There's a rubber pad it should land on, but in both vehicles that rubber pad was recessed below the silver plastic around it, so... that needs work.
8.) The arm rest in the center is pretty much worthless. You'd have to be an exceptionally wide person to be able to make use of it. Those with a new Model S know that the arm rest is great. No matter how thin or... thicc you are, you'll be able to rest your arm on it as far as I can tell. In the Lucid? Na. It's too narrow, so I have to properly learn over to the side to be able to use it. Essentially, it won't get used by either driver or passenger. This is a waste. Oh, and with the arm rest down, and the sliding mechanism of the center console retracted, you can't actually get to the slider without lifting the arm rest (or doing hand Jenga). The whole sliding mechanism feels quite cheap, isn't spring loaded, and houses a... wireless charger (more on that in a second).
9.) The software: It's bad. When you tap the navigation button, there's a many-second wait (with a Lucid logo) while you tap your fingers waiting for it to boot up. That's just not acceptable. I think Lucid can probably fix these issues with software updates, but as it is, we have it good with the Ryzen chips in our Teslas, let me tell you. Nothing compares to the speed of the Tesla operating system. Sure, Tesla's software isn't perfect, but it's in another league of speed and responsiveness compared to the Lucid (and any car out there). This lack of responsiveness permeates everything in the Air. Every menu takes a hair longer than it should to open. It's not there yet, but maybe (maybe?) it can be.
10.) Driving dynamics: So OK, I didn't throw this car around, but even so - you can tell this does not have a sports-car feel like the S does, and the S isn't a sports car by any means, - more of a GT car, ironically, than the Lucid Air GT. The Lucid feels bigger and boat-ier than the S (despite its physical dimensions being smaller), and the lack of air suspension is exceptionally noticeable by comparison to the S, with some crashing over bumps at times.
11.) Due to the GT battery configuration, sitting in the rear you can't actually slide your feet under the front seat. There's a lot of legroom here, but the feet room isn't as good as it can be. Apparently with the lesser-specced models this won't be a problem, as there won't be the battery cells taking up this vertical room.
12.) The phone wireless charger is a travesty. You get one slot in the center console (passengers are screwed, sorry!), and it doesn't work with even the thinnest of phone cases on. I was able to charge my iPhone 13 Pro Max without a case, but it failed to charge with the thin, Apple OEM silicone case. The Model S has four charging areas, two in the front, and two in the back. They work with cases on, and... well, yeah - they just work. The Lucid? Nope. Just bad.
So, what's my take-away here?
The Air is a great first attempt by Lucid. There are some issues here, some of which are integral parts of the design and can't be changed, and some (like the software), that hopefully can be. This is an expensive car at $154,000 starting price. Is the value there? Well, it's hard to say. I'd argue it's certainly a nicer place to sit on a longer drive, with a real steering wheel, more comfortable seats, the massaging function etc. It's a nice place to be, no question. But as a driver's car it's less involving than the S, certainly less practical in terms of storage, with some frustrations like crappy wireless charging, unusable arm rest, questionable visibility and dash reflections, - those are just a few of the things that really need work.
The remarkable thing, really, about the Lucid is that overall the build quality is unquestionably better than Tesla's, and this is Lucid's first car. If anything, just this one aspect makes Tesla look amateurish by comparison.
Now, looking to the future, the Sapphire variant and it's supposed Plaid-beating specs will likely be something special, but it's not going to solve some of the inherent problems with the design of the car. That said, I'm glad this car exists, because competition is good for everyone.
Looks:
1.) So I don't love the look of the Lucid. The trunk lines are all over the map, and the weird Zippy face from the TV show "Rainbow" when I was a kid, - it's not my favorite. That said, if I were to get this car, it would be a Sapphire, which at least stealths up the whole paint job and dumps the two-tone look, which I'm not a fan of.
2.) The front, aside from the weird two-tone, is actually pretty cool looking, especially the fancy headlights. More futuristic than the S, that's for sure, and general fit and finish was pretty good in terms of panel gaps. Interestingly, two demo vehicles there both had some trim above the rear glass that, visible from outside, was literally falling off, - hanging down. Not a good look, but then again, don't get me started on Tesla's QC, eh?
The good stuff:
1.) General fit and finish, as mentioned is good (overall better than Tesla). I really like having a FULL STEERING WHEEL (seriously, next-level stuff this is). Even at 6'5", I was able to see everything clearly on all displays, and the steering wheel never occluded any vital info.
2.) Leg-room. Absolutely in another league from the Model S. In the attached pictures, I have the driver's seat in the right position for me at 6'5", and I was still able to sit behind "myself" with that seat set for me, and not touch the back of the front seat with my legs. This is just epic. There is a downside to this, mind, which I'll touch on in a bit...
3.) Thigh support. This is glorious. For taller drivers, being able to extend that seat toward the front of the car is so great. I wish I had this in my S.
4.) Massaging seats. So, it's simple: I'm 100% sold on massaging seats. They are excellent in the Air (the rolling motion was my favorite massage program, - and it even massages your glutes, oh yeah baby!). My next car has to have this. It's really that simple.
5.) Aside from the massaging front seats, - no vibration noted from the drivetrain at any reasonable speeds I was traveling. That's also an improvement from the refresh Model S which suffers from driveline vibration between ~35mph to 50mph. Lame.
6.) Performance is very good. I mean, you know what to expect here, - it's an 819hp electric car. Torque and power delivery is instant, as you'd expect. The two motors are a little louder than the S Plaid's three motors, but they're not intrusive, and sound futuristic-y. I'm not comparing straight-line performance, of course, since that's pointless.
7.) Regen is exceptional. This is like the S's regen on steroids. You have Low and Normal (as I recall), and Normal is much more aggressive than the S, and it really slows down hard. I love this. The only downside is that it's a little harsh in traffic where you need to move forward at a few mph, and when coming off the accelerator, even as gently as you can - this still results in a little lurch to a stop. No, this is not something you'd adapt to with practice, - it requires a software update to tweak this a little, I'd say, as the car comes to a stop. The S is sheer perfection in the way it fully comes to a stop. Anyway, aside from this one annoyance, I wish I could have this much regen on the S.
8.) The front trunk is exceptionally roomy, and electronically controlled. It even has a sub-frunk it has so much room, I guess because the motor up top is so tiny. This is significantly larger than the S frunk, and the electronic controls mean I'd use it more often, whereas I rarely ever can be bothered on the S because it's such a faff...
9.) Brakes are solid for a daily driver, though I barely used them, - just like in the Model S.
10.) 360 camera view. Top down for parking etc. This is how it should be. The whole suite of sensors and cameras. Whether you believe LIDAR is necessary or not, we can all agree having an extra camera in the front bumper would be so nice.
11.) Large windshield in one piece goes fully above your head (kind of like a Model X).
12.) The doors open a full 90 degrees (see picture), and are soft close, which is just lovely. The S doors really ought to be soft closing (i.e. you can't fail to shut them. If you don't close them hard enough they pull themselves fully closed). The Model X has this feature.
13.) Did I mention the massaging seats? Gawd... so good...
Aaaaand now the bad:
1.) The reason there's so much leg-room in the car is that, quite simply, the trunk is not very big. It's reasonably deep, but the opening is so shallow it's almost laughable. I'm not entirely convinced a standard-size grocery bag can fit in the trunk without rubbing the roof of the trunk, but I admit - I didn't try this. The way the trunk opens, with me being tall, I have to essentially peer underneath the trunk lid to see into it. I'm not a fan of it at all. Whereas the frunk is glorious, the trunk is... disappointing.
2.) Visibility for me was not ideal out of any of the windows, as the upper frame of the car sits quite low. Coupled with very wide B-pillars, it's not as easy to look around as I'd like.
3.) I'm not a fan of the manual vents. I really like the integrated vents in all the current Tesla line, so this feels like a step back. You also can't tell at a glance if a vent is open or closed, as you close them by rotating the angle-adjustment dial, but there's no visual clue as to which position the vent opening is in. But hey, at least you can close off a vent, something you peculiarly can't do in the Model S.
4.) The steering wheel, while round - and which has a horn in the center (mind blown!), - has the cheapest feeling plastic adorning it that I can imagine in a car of this price. The silver trim is plastic - wraps around the back of the wheel in the center, and creaks all the time. It's just awful. Even the buttons on it creak. Bad, Lucid. Bad. This is your main interaction mechanism, and you ballsed it up. But, at least I can't see the material peeling off it like in a certain car I know...
5.) The windshield is a bit of a downer, despite being very open. Two reasons for this:
a.) The sun visors. They really should be side mounted like on the Model X. As it is, they just break up the visual aesthetic, and just look a bit funny, essentially floating in the middle of a giant slab of glass.
b.) The windshield tinting comes down too low. Yes, I'm taller, but I also sit my seat down low to counteract this, and even still - the tinting cuts my view in half essentially, with ~50% of what I see tinted, and ~50% of what I see not tinted. I'm not exaggerating when I say this tint comes down lower than tint on a windshield should. It's lower than the visors, for goodness sake. Why?
6.) The angle of the windshield means you get a lot of dash reflections on there. The S is really pretty great when it comes to reflections (though not quite as good as the exceptional Model 3), but the Lucid is not very good in this regard at all. In the picture attached with the steering wheel in view, you can get a sense of the reflections as you can see the dash in the windshield - just in the showroom!
7.) In two vehicles I sat in (one the showroom, and the other the test-drive vehicle), I was not super impressed with the center screen that slides in and out of the cubby in the front. It crashes into the center console when it comes out, with a cheap, plastic smack. There's a rubber pad it should land on, but in both vehicles that rubber pad was recessed below the silver plastic around it, so... that needs work.
8.) The arm rest in the center is pretty much worthless. You'd have to be an exceptionally wide person to be able to make use of it. Those with a new Model S know that the arm rest is great. No matter how thin or... thicc you are, you'll be able to rest your arm on it as far as I can tell. In the Lucid? Na. It's too narrow, so I have to properly learn over to the side to be able to use it. Essentially, it won't get used by either driver or passenger. This is a waste. Oh, and with the arm rest down, and the sliding mechanism of the center console retracted, you can't actually get to the slider without lifting the arm rest (or doing hand Jenga). The whole sliding mechanism feels quite cheap, isn't spring loaded, and houses a... wireless charger (more on that in a second).
9.) The software: It's bad. When you tap the navigation button, there's a many-second wait (with a Lucid logo) while you tap your fingers waiting for it to boot up. That's just not acceptable. I think Lucid can probably fix these issues with software updates, but as it is, we have it good with the Ryzen chips in our Teslas, let me tell you. Nothing compares to the speed of the Tesla operating system. Sure, Tesla's software isn't perfect, but it's in another league of speed and responsiveness compared to the Lucid (and any car out there). This lack of responsiveness permeates everything in the Air. Every menu takes a hair longer than it should to open. It's not there yet, but maybe (maybe?) it can be.
10.) Driving dynamics: So OK, I didn't throw this car around, but even so - you can tell this does not have a sports-car feel like the S does, and the S isn't a sports car by any means, - more of a GT car, ironically, than the Lucid Air GT. The Lucid feels bigger and boat-ier than the S (despite its physical dimensions being smaller), and the lack of air suspension is exceptionally noticeable by comparison to the S, with some crashing over bumps at times.
11.) Due to the GT battery configuration, sitting in the rear you can't actually slide your feet under the front seat. There's a lot of legroom here, but the feet room isn't as good as it can be. Apparently with the lesser-specced models this won't be a problem, as there won't be the battery cells taking up this vertical room.
12.) The phone wireless charger is a travesty. You get one slot in the center console (passengers are screwed, sorry!), and it doesn't work with even the thinnest of phone cases on. I was able to charge my iPhone 13 Pro Max without a case, but it failed to charge with the thin, Apple OEM silicone case. The Model S has four charging areas, two in the front, and two in the back. They work with cases on, and... well, yeah - they just work. The Lucid? Nope. Just bad.
So, what's my take-away here?
The Air is a great first attempt by Lucid. There are some issues here, some of which are integral parts of the design and can't be changed, and some (like the software), that hopefully can be. This is an expensive car at $154,000 starting price. Is the value there? Well, it's hard to say. I'd argue it's certainly a nicer place to sit on a longer drive, with a real steering wheel, more comfortable seats, the massaging function etc. It's a nice place to be, no question. But as a driver's car it's less involving than the S, certainly less practical in terms of storage, with some frustrations like crappy wireless charging, unusable arm rest, questionable visibility and dash reflections, - those are just a few of the things that really need work.
The remarkable thing, really, about the Lucid is that overall the build quality is unquestionably better than Tesla's, and this is Lucid's first car. If anything, just this one aspect makes Tesla look amateurish by comparison.
Now, looking to the future, the Sapphire variant and it's supposed Plaid-beating specs will likely be something special, but it's not going to solve some of the inherent problems with the design of the car. That said, I'm glad this car exists, because competition is good for everyone.
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