Intake 2024 Lucid Air Sapphire

We slide behind the wheel of a tri-motor monster

- Jethro Bovingdon

Barely a week goes by when our test team doesn’t record a sub-3.5second run to 60 mph yet the Lucid Air Sapphire bends brains as I look it over in the pits at the Big Willow racetrack. “North of 1,200 horsepower,” we’re told. OK. “Zero to 100 mph in under 4.0 seconds.” All right, then.

You’ll need $249,000 to experience Lucid’s new tri-motor monster, but it’s still “very much a road car,” director of chassis and vehicle dynamics David Lickfold says. “But it’s much more focused. It shows the latent potential.”

That means more tire, a lower ride height, more damping, a wider stance, and bigger carbon-ceramic rotors gripped by 10-piston calipers, plus aero revisions to reduce lift and create positive downforce. There are now two motors on the rear axle, each with its own inverter and integrated transmission, opening the tuning options like a treasure trove.