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Motor Authority's Steven Ewing has been testing out the Lucid Air Touring and it's safe to say that he's very impressed with what he found. Sitting between the entry-level Air Pure and pricier Air Grand Touring, Ewing finds that the Touring provides all the thrills that buyers want in an EV plus excellent handling to boot.
Three seconds? Four seconds? Who cares; it's still fun, isn't it?
0-60 is Over
Ewing makes the interesting and value point that 0-60 mph times, once a key metric in vehicle performance, no longer hold the same cachet they once did thanks to instant-on electric torque producing sub-three second dashes from four-door sedans. Thanks to the torque delivery characteristics of electric motors, he argues that nearly every EV on the market feels quick when you drop your right foot.
This brings us to the Lucid Air Touring, which comes in at $109,050 with 620 horsepower and 885 lb.-ft. of torque against the more expensive Grand Touring's 819 hp. Still, the Touring is no slouch and Ewing says that it's still faster than just about anything else on the road.
You still get the dual motor, all-wheel drive powertrain found in the higher models, but the battery is smaller at 92 kWh as opposed to the 112 kWh pack found in the Grand Touring and Dream Editions. The Touring is rated at 425 miles of range on the efficient 19-inch wheels or 384 on the 20-inchers. Again, 425 miles is further than any other EV on sale today can travel on a single charge.
Handling Brilliance
Power is nothing without control, but thankfully the Lucid has that nailed too. Adaptive dampers front and back plus perfectly weighted steering mean that the Air Touring can provide "bank vault serenity" akin to the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (the Air's true rival, not the Model S according to management) but can really dance when the road gets twisty.
"I originally chuckled to myself when Lucid's executives put up images of the E39 BMW M5 and 991-generation Porsche 911 GT3 as benchmarks for the Air's handling. However, while I won’t say the 4,987-pound Air replicates the experiences of those sweethearts. I’ll just say that, man, the folks at Lucid really know what they're doing."
Ewing praised the Air Touring's interior for its design and materials, though he was infuriated by having to use a screen to adjust the mirrors and steering column. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay were conspicuously absent from his test car, but all in all he found it to be an excellent package. Read the full review here.
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Images by Lucid Motors licensed by CC BY 4.0.
James Walker is an Automotive Journalist at Torque News focusing on Lucid Motors. If it's got wheels he's interested, and he's looking forward to seeing what kind of cars the EV revolution brings us. Whether it's fast, slow, new, or old, James wants to have a look around it and share it in print and on video, ideally with some twisty roads involved. You can connect with James on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
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