After Two Hated Teslas, I Finally Found My Wife's Perfect Car, The Lucid Air Touring Has Every Feature She's Been Begging For

Let’s get one thing straight, Tesla didn’t so much lose the plot as it started writing a different book entirely. A book where the car doesn’t need you, doesn’t want to talk to you, and certainly doesn’t care if your passenger is freezing. Over the last decade, Elon’s engineers have built us a future where your steering wheel is optional and your volume control lives behind three menus. But not everyone wants their car to feel like a Roomba with a driver's license. Some people, drivers, not just commuters, still want warmth, presence, and buttons.

The Growing Discontent Among Tesla Owners

This isn’t just dissatisfaction; it’s a low-simmering mutiny. In recent months, the slow exodus from Tesla has started to pick up pace. Particularly among Model Y and 3 owners, the backbone of Tesla’s volume, there’s a hunger for something that doesn’t feel like an exercise in digital minimalism. 

Lucid Air's Superior Interior Craftsmanship Attracts Former Tesla Drivers

• Many former Tesla owners are drawn to the Lucid Air for its superior interior materials and craftsmanship. The Lucid Air offers a more refined and comfortable driving experience, with attention to detail in design and the use of high-quality materials. ​
• The Lucid Air boasts impressive technological features and performance metrics. With a range of up to 520 miles on a single charge and rapid charging capabilities, it appeals to those seeking cutting-edge EV technology. ​
• Lucid Air's interface includes physical buttons for essential functions, providing a balance between digital and tactile controls. This design choice enhances user accessibility and offers a more intuitive experience for drivers transitioning from other vehicles.

One Reddit user, Any-Contract9065, who, like many, took to the Lucid subreddit to express why they’re interested in a Lucid Air.

"Hey y’all!

Test drove the AT yesterday with my wife, and we decided to pull the trigger on leasing one.

The drive was amazing. I was also considering a Polestar 3, but the AT feels like a much better car.

I’ll be coming in from a Tesla Model Y, which my wife hated. She also hated the Model 3 before it. She disliked the glass roof, for which I got covers. She also hated the total lack of buttons, primarily volume and temp control for her side, oh and digital controls for the vents.

Lucid ticked all her asks..."

That post is not just a user review, it’s an inside look at the consumers mindset. What Tesla forgot is that a car isn’t a tech demo; it’s a second home. A moving sanctuary. The Model Y may be efficient, but it doesn’t feel like anything.

Meanwhile, the Lucid Air Touring, with its aluminum roof option, real physical controls, and what one user called “Bentley-level ride quality,” feels like the car a grown-up drives. It’s stately, smooth, silent, and unmistakably luxurious, without trying to reinvent the entire driving experience around an iPhone aesthetic.

Challenges in Purchasing a Lucid Air: Availability and Accessibility Issues

But here’s the catch: Lucid isn’t easy to buy. Their retail presence, lovingly dubbed “studios,” exists mostly in dense metro areas. For anyone in flyover country, or even a major city not on Lucid’s short list, you’re either booking a flight or gambling on an enclosed trailer delivering your dream spec across state lines. Every car enthusiast has done that long-distance, one-way ticket, bring-it-home road trip at least once, but your average luxury EV buyer just wants the thing parked in their driveway without turning the purchase into a logistics dissertation.

Lucid Motors Production Numbers

• In 2024, Lucid Motors produced 9,029 vehicles and delivered 10,241, indicating early-stage production hurdles. These challenges are typical for new automotive manufacturers scaling up operations. ​
• Lucid faced supply chain issues that impacted its production capacity. These constraints affected the timely delivery of components essential for manufacturing the Lucid Air. ​
• Lucid set conservative production targets to ensure quality control and manage resources effectively. This cautious approach reflects a focus on delivering a high-quality product while gradually increasing production capacity.

The Lucid forums are flooded with workarounds.

“Plug in different ZIP codes,”

They say.

“Check the inventory daily.”

It’s an absurd bottleneck for a company building one of the most refined electric sedans on the planet. They've nailed the engineering. The sales pipeline? Still under construction.

The Emotional Appeal of Lucid Air

And yet, people are willing to put up with the hassle. Why? Because when they get behind the wheel of a Lucid Air, they feel something. It's not just fast, it’s composed. It’s not just tech-laden, it’s human-centered. The Air Touring is the car you’d drive across the country just to drive it back. It’s the answer to the question no one at Tesla HQ seemed to ask: What happens when people want EVs that feel like cars?

Lucid's challenge now isn’t convincing buyers that the car is good, it’s obvious to anyone who drives one that it’s a superior machine. Their challenge is scale. Tesla’s army of Superchargers and retail stores didn’t happen overnight, but they happened aggressively.

Lucid is moving cautiously, almost timidly. If they want to turn this Tesla exodus into a market shift, they’ll need to match their product's excellence with infrastructure that respects the buyer’s time.

Because make no mistake, something is changing. This isn’t just one couple finally finding a car that doesn’t make them miserable on the way to dinner. This is a bellwether. The next wave of EV buyers won’t tolerate a car that feels like a software update. They want luxury, tactility, and emotion. And right now, Lucid is the only American brand offering it.

Image Sources: Lucid Media Center, r/Lucid Subreddit

Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.