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The Lucid Air Just Hit A Huge EV Milestone

The EV startup announced some tweaks to its 2025 lineup. Most notably, the Air is now the country's most efficient EV by a wide margin.

Lucid Air Pure Efficiency

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Tim Levin

By: Tim Levin

Jul 16, 2024 at 9:00am ET

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Lucid announced tweaks to its Air sedan lineup for the 2025 model year on Tuesday. The biggest development? The startup’s entry-level model now achieves a landmark 5 miles of driving range per kilowatt-hour (kWh), making it the most efficient electric car you can buy, according to Lucid's calculations.

The 2025 Air Pure manages to eke out 420 miles of Environmental Protection Agency-estimated range from an 84-kWh battery pack. Note that EPA ratings are for plug-to-road efficiency, including charging losses, so EPA efficiency figures won't match the 5.0 mi/kWh Lucid claims. The good news, though, is that the added efficiency doesn't come with added cost. The 2025 model costs $69,900, just like before.

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The California-based EV startup began selling the Air sedan in 2021. It's earned a reputation for exceptional technology but hasn't turned a profit yet. The company is betting its upcoming Gravity SUV and future models will bring it mass-market volumes and financial stability.

“Lucid Air is the very embodiment of our relentless approach to optimization, enabling Air Pure to use less electrical energy than any other vehicle for any journey taken, A to B,” said Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO of Lucid, in a statement.

According to the EPA, which doesn't list the 2025 Air Pure on its website yet, the most efficient EV in the U.S. is the 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6, rated at 4.2 mi/kWh. The Tesla Model 3 and 2024 Air Pure are up near the top too, while big pickup trucks like the Ford F-150 Lightning require considerably more energy to propel themselves than those energy-sipping models. Lucid said it got to 5 mi/kWh by adding a heat pump, which can cool and heat the Pure’s cabin with less energy, and through other tweaks.

On its face, EV efficiency may sound dull compared to more tangible, exciting specs like range and neck-snapping zero-to-60-mph times. But maximizing efficiency is a key way to make EVs work better for people, and it’s a central philosophy for Rawlinson and Lucid.

Gallery: 2024 Lucid Air Pure

2024 Lucid Air Pure

Better efficiency means the company can shrink its battery packs, thus reducing input costs for each vehicle. Indeed, the 2024 Air Pure has an 88-kWh pack and gets ever so slightly less EPA range than the 2025 model. For drivers, less energy consumption contributes to speedier charging stops, because every kWh dispensed results in more mileage.

Lucid announced a few other updates to 2025 Airs, which are available to order as of Tuesday. A heat pump, which previously was only found in top-end models, is now standard across the board. The infotainment system has triple the processing power and twice the memory of the previous generation, which Lucid said results in a “significantly enhanced and faster in-car infotainment experience.”

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All Airs now come with DreamDrive Premium, which adds a 360-degree camera view and blind-spot camera views to the car’s driver-assistance suite. The Air Touring and Grand Touring each get a $1,000 price hike, bringing them to $78,900 and $110,900, respectively. The 2025 Grand Touring has an estimated 512 miles of range, slightly less than before but still by far the most of any electric car in the U.S.

The next couple of years will be pivotal for Lucid. Even if it has some of the best technology in the EV market—and this efficiency milestone solidifies that—it has yet to make a profitable business out of that.

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The startup is burning through cash quickly—it reported a net loss of $2.8 billion in 2023—and is largely looking past the Air for future growth. It hopes that the Gravity SUV (which starts production later this year) and its upcoming more affordable vehicle will deliver the kinds of volumes needed for financial sustainability.

Contact the author: tim.levin@insideevs.com

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