Is the Lucid Air the best EV money can buy today? Headlight.News contributor Lyndon Conrad Bell thinks so — and makes his case for the sleek four-door 2025 Lucid Air Grand Touring in our review.
People often ask the write, “What’s the best car?” When it comes to EVs, the Lucid Air Grand Touring, he claims.
People often ask me, “What’s the best car?” My response is usually, “For what purpose?” This typically gets me a look of bewilderment from the interlocutor, and a response along the lines of, “Well, for driving!” It is then I have to remember most people do not drive 52 different cars each year, so I have to ask them to be more specific.
Recently, I got that question from a person who was considering the purchase of an EV. Now to her query, I already had a response locked, loaded and ready to discharge. In other words, I didn’t even have to think before responding, “Lucid Air, in the highest level of trim you can comfortably afford.”
Given the Lucid’s stellar combination of range, performance, equipment, build quality and sheer good looks, no other EV comes close.
I recently had the privilege of spending a week with the Grand Touring version of the Lucid Air, which only served to edify my perception of the sleek four-door as the sort of EV every manufacturer should be building.
Powertrains and Fuel Economy
The 2025 Lucid Air Grand Touring is out fitted with an 819-horsepower all-wheel drive system capable of delivering 885 lb-ft of torque.
The Lucid Air Grand Touring with which I spent a mid-October week was fitted with an 819-horsepower all-wheel drive system capable of delivering 885 lb-ft of torque — from a dead stop.
The powertrain uses a pair of permanent magnet electric motors, one driving the front wheels and the other powering the rear. These are fed by a 117 kWh, 22-module, liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery pack. According to the folks at Lucid, it’s good for a maximum range of up to 512 miles, when the curvaceous sedan is fitted with a set of 19-inch tires and wheels.
“My” Lucid Air Grand Touring wore a set of 21s, which are said to reduce the maximum range to 446 miles. This still ranks the sleek four-door among the highest range EVs currently offered. By the way, those 446 miles pencil out to 112 MPGe, which is equivalent to 3.8 miles per kWh, according to the EPA. Hooked up to a DC fast charging system, the Air Grand Touring is said to gain 200 miles of range in 12 minutes.
Granting the Air Grand Touring a top speed of 168 miles per hour, the powertrain is also said to propel the 5,200-pound luxury car from zero to 60 in 3.0-seconds flat. Driving the car gave me no reason to dispute that claim. The AGT is similarly professed to run from zero to 130 mph in just over 10 seconds, which I can also confirm (don’t ask me where, just know it was a safe place to check it out). That’s supercar territory y’all.
Interior Accommodations
The gracious interior architecture is laced with high-quality materials everywhere your eye lands.
If that sleek exterior treatment doesn’t convince you, a few moments inside the Lucid Air will confirm it is indeed a luxury car. The gracious interior architecture is laced with high-quality materials everywhere your eye lands. Equip yours with the optional glass roof and you can add airiness to the list of interior attributes buttressing that first impression.
The design of the passenger compartment serves to emphasize the absolute spaciousness afforded occupants of Lucid Motors’ flagship four-door. You’ll also find plenty of interior storage compartments, including one behind the retractable touchscreen.
A pair of cupholders, along with a slot to place a smartphone, reside in the center console. A set of side shades in the rear doors is accompanied by one for the rear window. Each of these can be deployed and retracted via the touchscreen on the center console.
Because the electric motors are located near the wheels, and the battery pack inhabits the space beneath the floor of the passenger compartment, the Air offers front and rear trunks. Both can also be opened and closed from the retractable touchscreen pad.
The front seats in my Air Grand Touring afforded 20-way adjustability along with heat, ventilation and massage.
Primarily a four-place conveyance, the Lucid Air will accommodate five people in reasonable comfort if the need arises. The front seats in my Air Grand Touring afforded 20-way adjustability along with heat, ventilation and massage.
Comfort, Convenience & Safety Tech
The sophisticated infotainment system incorporates a large upper touchscreen flowing out of the digital gauge cluster. Meanwhile, a lower touchscreen, similar in size to the large version of Apple’s iPad dominates the center console.
This interface operates all of the car’s secondary functions and can be retracted into the dashboard. In addition to the touchscreen, the Air responds to verbal commands with near-perfect accuracy.
Because the Lucid Air’s operating system incorporates machine learning, the car will “remember” the music and climate settings you most often employ. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto both come standard.
A largely buttonless environment, the Air provides but one pair of physical controls on the steering wheel, along with a set of toggles to offer quick access to the primary climate control functions. A roller mounted just above those toggles strip grants volume control over the surround audio system.
The Grand Touring will seat five, but the back seat is designed to carry just two passengers.
The 2025 Lucid models got a new operating system for the infotainment system, which provides greater processing power. Blind-spot monitoring, smart cruise control, lane keeping assist and a 360-degree exterior camera system are included as standard features.
My Air Grand Touring also featured Lucid’s Dream Drive Pro driver assistance package, which was capable of helping me avoid curb rash when parking, as well as parking the car itself (both parallel and perpendicular). Lucid’s infotainment operating system accepts over the air updates, so older models get them as well.
Driving Impressions
Swift, quiet, smooth and fluid, the 2025 Lucid Air Grand Touring delivers an outstanding driving experience. Full disclosure, you won’t best a BMW M5 on a twisty road, but the Lucid is agile enough to provide an entertaining experience on any mountain road you can find. The driving position is first-rate, offering excellent outward visibility all the way around. While that low-slung roofline might lead you to believe there are significant blind spots, the exact opposite is true.
Acceleration — as you might imagine with 885 lb-ft of torque available at throttle tip-in — is nothing short of astounding. As I mentioned above, the Air Grand Touring is capable of three-second runs to 60, which means hardly anything will keep up with you from a standing start. The transmission is a single-speed unit, so there are no shifts, just seamless acceleration.
The Air Grand Touring features a frunk — not standard on every EV — that offer ample cargo space.
I did note a bit of road noise from the tires at speed on the highway, but the overall impression when underway is one of utmost refinement. Ride quality is excellent, the brakes are suitably powerful, and the steering is accurate with good road feel. This is a car enthusiasts will appreciate and sybarites will adore.
In Summary
Were I shopping for an EV, the 2025 Lucid Air is the one I would buy — period, full stop. Further, were my budget such that money was of minimal concern, I’d also plunk down the scratch to drive away in a Grand Touring trimmed Lucid Air.
Configured according to my particular tastes and proclivities, this means I’d be looking at an outlay of $113,450, according to the car configurator at LucidMotors.com. However, one needn’t stretch that far to enjoy the basic goodness baked into the Lucid Air. Pricing for the entry-level 430-hp Lucid Air Pure starts at $70,900. Which, while not an insignificant sum, is a great price for the ne plus ultra of EVs.
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