The epiphany didn’t hit me right away. I was in the middle of borrowing this Lucid Air Pure for a weeklong test, and it wasn’t until day six that this question flashed through my head: “Is this the best electric vehicle I’ve ever driven?”
The more I thought about it, the more I was sure that the answer was somewhere between “maybe” and “probably, yes.”
I know that’s high praise, especially coming from the editor of a publication that covers electric vehicles. But it’s meant to be. The Lucid Air, especially in its most affordable Pure form, shows us what every other EV manufacturer should be aiming for and, if they’re smart, will be in the years to come.
Gallery: 2024 Breakthrough Award Nominee: Lucid Air Pure
That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, however. Or enough to win our Breakthrough of the Year Award.
(Welcome to The Breakthrough Awards, InsideEVs' year-end awards program recognizing the EVs, people and technologies that are paving the way for our clean energy transition. Read about the awards and the other contenders below.)
Why The Lucid Air Pure Is A Breakthrough
My first experience with any Lucid Air actually came earlier this year, Contributing Editor and State of Charge YouTube host Tom Moloughney and I drove one from New York to Boston and back in a day. The Air in question was the Grand Touring, good for a staggering 516 miles of electric range (or 480 miles with the wheels we had.)
That’s a hell of a figure to go with its 819 horsepower, sleek looks and plush, comfortable interior. That Lucid Air GT was one of the best road-trip cars I’ve ever driven, if not, again, the best. With its 900-volt architecture, the Air GT added 250 miles of range in a mere 13 minutes on a 350-kW charger. I didn’t miss gas.
It also cost $125,550. If you “need” 1,234 horsepower and the ability to do zero to 60 mph in 1.89 seconds, you can splurge for the top-level Sapphire flavor of Air. That’ll put you out a cool $249,000.
The Lucid Air Pure, introduced late last year, is a much more reasonable proposition. An Air Pure can be yours starting at $69,900. With options, my tester came in at $74,350—still not “cheap,” and I’ll get to that issue momentarily. But that’s a whole car cheaper than the six-figure Lucid Air trims we’ve experienced before, and in many ways, it’s actually better.
The Air Pure delivers a still-better-than-damn-near-everything-else 420 miles of EPA-rated range, or 384 miles of range with the 20-inch wheels my tester used. That's impressive given that the Air Pure gets an 88-kWh battery (down to 84 kWh for 2025), compared to the Grand Touring's 111-kWh pack. Plus, the Pure's not even an ounce less comfortable inside than its more expensive big brothers, either.
“It's hard to quantify how cavernous the interior of the Lucid Air is,” Contributing Editor Abigail Bassett said. “It's very future-forward and comfortable.”
Staff Writer Kevin Williams agreed with me that the Pure is actually the best-driving Air, in part because it weighs almost 1,000 pounds less than a GT or Sapphire thanks to that much smaller battery.
“I was worried that the lack of brain-melting four-digit power numbers would make the car feel less special,” Kevin said. “It doesn’t. If anything the lack of power makes the Air more likable, because doesn’t feel like you’re piloting a guided missile.”
But the reason the Air Pure is a breakthrough is because of how it delivers that range: efficiency. That term is nerdy as all get out, invoking some condescending guy pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose before he lectures you about the thermodynamic shortcomings of your F-150 Lightning.
Yet the proof is in the pudding: by emphasizing class-leading electric motors (made in-house by Lucid), aerodynamics, high-efficiency battery cells, a heat pump and so on, a Lucid Air Pure can drive further while using less energy than any other car out there. That’s a less grating way to put it. It means you can get more range without bumping the battery size, the key to avoiding stratospheric curb weights and prices.
Of all the cars we tested this year, some of the most effusive praise was saved for the Air Pure.
“The Lucid Air Pure has the best combination of efficiency, comfort, driving dynamics and cost of any car on sale today,” Contributing Editor Tom Moloughney said. Williams concurred: “Out of all the contenders, I like driving the Air the most,” he said.
Why It’s Not Our Winner
As fast, comfortable, powerful and (God, there’s that word again) efficient as the Air Pure is, it’s also kind of a car for nerds. Yes, it outdoes the technology on the Model S, but it has none of the swagger—the sex appeal, even—that the Tesla did when it broke ground. Blame marketing or its engineering-led focus, but it’s hard to explain to most people what the hell Lucid Motors even is. The brand’s entire vibe needs a hell of a lot less Saab and a ton more Porsche or BMW.
But that’s for the ad guys to figure out. The Air Pure is objectively excellent on specs and experience alone. We just had to decide if it was a breakthrough or not.
One key question we asked ourselves going into this process was, “What brings us closer to an electric future for everyone?” That thought held me back from giving this award to another $70,000-ish luxury car. (It also led me to similar marks against a few others in this crop, to be fair.) It’s time for the EV market to move beyond that sort of thing.
I’ll also be candid and say the Air Pure might’ve clinched top honors in spite of that if it was perfect in its execution; it is, however, not. Lucid is a small company and it’s abundant that the R&D cash goes to production and powertrains. Its software experience and automated driving assistance tech are both lackluster for the class, and there are still some weird quality quirks that Lucid needs to iron out.
“The dual-screen setup sometimes left me scratching my head,” Senior Reporter Tim Levin said. “The highway driver-assistance system, too, was problematic. It constantly reminded me to put my hands on the steering wheel when my hands were there all along. And, when I was wearing a baseball cap, the Air regularly told me to pay attention to the road when I’d look away for a split second.”
Not things you want in any car, but especially not one that costs $70,000 or more.
Ultimately, however, our judges came to the same conclusion: the Lucid Air feels like the car the Tesla Model S should’ve been in 2024, at a time when the world has moved on to the Tesla Model Y and cheaper options.
“To the average buyer today, the Pure doesn’t move the needle,” Deputy Editor Mack Hogan said. “A car that was already among the most efficient vehicles on sale got more efficient. Hooray. But this car represents the exact sort of car that Americans have completely moved away from. No one is buying $70,000 sedans, and those who do aren’t buying them from Lucid. That’s why the company’s future hinges on the Gravity, not the Air.”
Kevin agreed: “This incremental breakthrough is not selling cars. $70,000 is a lot of coin. And people aren’t buying sedans. They need something cheaper and/or crossover-shaped.”
Lucid is working on all of that. And the company itself is a work in progress. But I do hope it figures things out; I could easily see a day where the Gravity or Project Midsize take full honors at the Breakthrough Awards.
“Efficiency” may not sound sexy, but it is the future of electric transportation. Lucid’s thesis has been proven right again and again. When all of that trickles down to more mainstream EVs, they’ll be unstoppable.
Right now, the best EV you can buy is another expensive sedan. And we just don’t need more of those in 2024.
Contact the author: Patrick.George@insideevs.com.
2025 Lucid Air Pure Specs
