Lucid
Lucid has simply revealed the small print of its mannequin yr 2025 updates, and among the many tweaks to its good-looking electrical sedan is a formidable bump in vary effectivity. The entry-level Lucid Air Pure, which begins at $69,900, can now journey 420 miles on a single cost of its 84 kWh battery. That equates to five miles/kWh (12.4 kWh/100 km), making the Air Pure probably the most environment friendly electrical automobile on sale right now.
The vary bump is usually due to Lucid making a warmth pump commonplace throughout the vary, after first including one to the ultra-powerful, ultra-expensive Air Sapphire.
Lucid has additionally upgraded the pc {hardware} that oversees the Air’s varied subsystems. The automaker says it has tripled processing energy and doubled the system’s reminiscence, which ought to translate to sooner and higher infotainment. And Lucid has made its superior driver help system commonplace throughout the lineup, too.
Whereas the Air Pure is likely to be the primary manufacturing EV on sale to achieve 5 miles/kWh, it is not the longest-range Lucid Air on sale. That is still the $110,900 Grand Touring, which might go 512 miles (824 km) on a single cost. The 2025 Lucid Air Touring, which slots between them, has a spread of 406 miles (654 km) and begins at $78,900.
Whereas nonetheless a relative minnow in comparison with Rivian, Lucid has been on one thing of an upward trajectory of late. Value cuts have undoubtedly helped it have a report Q2, delivering 2,394 automobiles for its greatest three months to date.
Who did this math?
Along with claiming 5 miles/kWh for the Air Pure, Lucid additionally notes in its press launch that it has achieved “a report 146 MPGe score” for the automotive.
Lucid’s mannequin yr 2025 information is not within the EPA’s on-line gas economic system database but, so Ars cannot verify the marginally extra detailed info there (which ought to get away the MPGe determine into metropolis, freeway, and mixed figures), however 146 MPGe is just equal to 4.3 miles/kWh; 5 miles/kWh is 169 MPGe.
We requested Lucid in regards to the distinction, and the corporate instructed Ars that with EVs, losses within the charging course of from resistance within the cables and from heating the battery make a distinction.
“The rationale we don’t love MPGe is that batteries are the actual expense for EVs—not electrical energy. If you happen to might be extra vitality environment friendly when truly driving, you may scale back the capability of the battery pack within the autos you construct—lowering price, lowering weight, and lowering the pure assets you want per automobile. Alternatively, it’s good to attenuate vitality misplaced throughout charging, however for those who get solely 2.5 mi/kWh on the highway, you continue to are caught with the large costly battery pack,” Lucid instructed Ars.
(This doesn’t change the truth that MPGe is derived by multiplying miles/kWh by 33.7, the quantity of vitality in a gallon of gasoline.)
Regardless of the incongruent math, the 2025 Air Pure nonetheless beats the 2024 mannequin, which makes do with a mixed 140 MPGe and 410 miles of vary, in keeping with the EPA.
