The Lucid Air does not look like a performance car. It’s a clean-sheet luxury EV with the cabin space of an S-Class, two enormous luggage compartments and an interior that fuses minimalist tech and uncluttered cool in that chic, intuitive way California has made its own.
But the Lucid Air is a performance car. The numbers for the recently unveiled Dream Edition Air, the compmay’s first car, are thus: a range of more than 800km (730km at motorway speeds, Lucid says) from a 113kWh battery, 783kW, 0-97km/h in 2.5sec and efficiency of 6.4km/kWh (the Porsche Taycan Turbo S is around 4.2km/kWh).
Electric car makers claiming ludicrous numbers are not uncommon. But there’s reason to believe in Lucid. Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, worked at Lotus and Jaguar before moving to Tesla to engineer the breakthrough Model S. At Lucid he’s secured the funding to build a factory from scratch, in Arizona (HQ is in Silicon Valley, naturally), and to ready the car for production – the first will be built next year.
But how did Lucid create a car with such wild numbers?
A COOLER PERFORMANCE EV IS KEY
A giant battery is dumb range. The Air’s battery pack is big, but not big enough to account for its range advantage alone. The Lucid’s range – and its power – are the result of an engineering program that’s prioritised efficiency above all, and developed everything inhouse. An example? The high-voltage architecture, a result of Lucid’s learnings from its Formula E battery project. The Taycan uses an 800volt system. The Air’s is 924V.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2020-Ausgabe von Wheels Australia Magazine.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2020-Ausgabe von Wheels Australia Magazine.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
JAGUAR XE
JAGUAR WAVES GOODBYE TO LOWER-END PRODUCTS”
LOTS TO LIKE, NIGGLES TO FIX
MAZDA'S BOLDEST SUV YET WAVES GOODBYE, BUT IS IT A HIT OR A MISS?
THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE MORNING
ELLEN'S UP WITH THE LARKS BUT GETS AN UNWELCOME EARLY MORNING ALARM
LAND OF CONFUSION
OR HOW THE GENESIS GV80 STILL MANAGES TO KNOT THE BROWS OF THE UNINITIATED
CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
NAME YOUR TOP 10 HOT HATCHES AND WE’LL BET NONE OF THEM HAVE BATTERIES. THE ABARTH SO0E AND MINI COOPER SE AIM TO POWER INTO THAT OPPORTUNITY
Polar expresS
A DROP-TOP FERRARI ON THE COLDEST DAY OF THE YEAR? ANDY ENRIGHT RUGS UP FOR A FRESH BLAST THROUGH SOUTH GIPPSLAND'S FINEST ROADS
DYNASTY REUNION
AHEAD OF THE ARRIVAL OF THE GS0 BMW Mo, WE FIND OUT WHICH GENERATION OF MUNICH'S SUPER-SEDAN IS THE GREATEST EVER
FORD CAPRI
THE EV YOU ALWAYS PROMISED YOURSELF?
VOLKSWAGEN TOUAREG R
TOP-TIER TOUAREG DELIVERS WHAT YOU EXPECT FROM THAT R BADGE
MG 4 X-POWER
MG TAKES A MULLIGAN ON THE X-POWER