The all-electric 2025 Lucid Air Pure is a dreamy, attractive automobile that’s no much less luxurious for being the most affordable trim in Lucid’s Air lineup. I felt fancy and discerning driving round, however in an understated method – as if I had been carrying designer sweatpants.
However does fancy equal worth? I spent about 10 days driving the Air Pure on two totally different coasts to search out out. And the tl;dr is: Sure, however provided that these over-the-air updates maintain coming via.
The Air Pure is a technological dreamboat in lots of invisible “under the hood” methods — like its extremely environment friendly electrical motor. And its roomy, air-tight inside coupled with a high-end sound system merely places you in an excellent temper.
It’s the sort of automobile you need to spend time in, significantly if Lucid retains working to iterate on its tech capabilities. The automobile’s many high-tech options justify that not-quite-afforable $69,900 price ticket. Nevertheless, I discovered there was nonetheless room for enchancment, significantly in Lucid’s voice assistant and DreamDrive superior driver help system. The excellent news is that even these options have seen vital progress from earlier iterations.
Nuts and bolts
With an estimated 420 miles of vary and a single rear-mounted motor with 430 horsepower, the Lucid Air Pure is a compelling various to the Tesla Mannequin S, which has a 402-mile vary within the all-wheel drive model and begins at $79,990. Throughout considered one of my check drives, I comfortably traveled from San Francisco to Salinas and again, with additional metropolis driving, all without having to recharge. Lucid offered TechCrunch with the Air Pure on each events.
For fast top-ups, the Air Pure helps quick charging, including 200 miles of vary in simply quarter-hour at stations owned by ChargePoint, EVgo, and Electrify America. Beginning in 2025, Lucid house owners may also acquire entry to Tesla’s community, although this may require an adapter. Whereas Lucid’s upcoming Gravity SUV will characteristic Tesla’s NACS port from day one, the automaker hasn’t but stated whether or not future Air fashions will comply with swimsuit.
Sitting low on 19-inch wheels, the Air Pure is as aerodynamic because it appears to be like with a powerful drag coefficient of 0.197.
Whenever you method the automobile, the electrical motor and infotainment system routinely activate and the flush door handles come out. The back and front bar lights additionally illuminate in a fluid movement that extends outwards like rippling water, which units the tone for the excessive tech, but understated vibe.
The Lucid signature lighting is immediately recognizable, and the entire design comes collectively in a glossy, subtle “California New Money” method.
Expansive and tech-focused
Sitting down in a Lucid Air Pure is a sensory expertise. You are feeling like you may breathe within the driver’s seat with 40 inches of headroom and 45.4 inches of leg room, and I discovered myself working my arms over the array of materials and textiles used on the inside. Even the oval-shaped steering wheel with its ergonomic grip feels good within the palms.
The Air Pure has an ambient degree of noise like a smooth electrical buzzing that’s meant to simulate the sound of an engine, lending to its futuristic, spaceship vibes.
The 34-inch curved glass cockpit floats simply behind the steering wheel with three distinct zones of management. On the left, a touchscreen manages quick-access capabilities just like the cost port and windshield defroster. The middle show reveals essential driving data – pace, gear, vary, and DreamDrive visualizations. On the proper, you’ll discover connectivity and leisure choices, together with Apple CarPlay integration, native navigation, media, and communication.
Beneath this, the 12.5-inch Pilot Panel sits above the middle console. This vertical display screen, which will be tucked away for additional storage, handles local weather controls, parking, and driver settings. It additionally routinely shows a 360-degree digital camera view when navigating tight areas.
Changes just like the rear and sideview mirrors are solely accessible via the so-called Pilot Panel, which some would possibly detest. I didn’t thoughts, because it’s a one-time setup. One other standout is the flexibility to regulate lumbar help and, for an additional $7,500, improve to get a massager and ventilated seats — a luxurious I’d completely splurge on.
I appreciated Lucid’s choice to maintain some bodily controls. Above the Pilot Panel are tactile knobs for adjusting the temperature and quantity. The steering wheel additionally options bodily buttons to launch the superior driver help system, change a music, and activate the voice assistant.
The middle console options two plugs for USB-C and Lightning cables, and a sliding cowl to maintain gadgets safe.
The backseat was additionally beneficiant with 39 inches of headroom and 37.6 inches of legroom, one thing family and friends who had been seated within the again commented on. Backseat passengers even have their very own little touchscreen the place they will management issues like seat heating, air temperature, and summon or banish the sunshade.
Whereas we’re with reference to area, the trunk affords 22.1 cubic ft of storage, and the frunk has 10 cubic-feet of area. All in all, Lucid handed the Costco run check.
The Lucid Assistant – swing and a miss
Lucid initially launched its Pure sequence with Amazon’s Alexa powering voice help, and it wasn’t excellent. Throughout the final couple of months, Lucid has began rolling out a substitute — a white-labeled model that seems to be from SoundHound AI. Lucid wouldn’t verify.
The Lucid Assistant isn’t excellent both. However actually, is there a automobile voice assistant that doesn’t generally make you need to scream? The Lucid Assistant can deal with instructions and reply questions on very particular automobile issues. You can ask it for the climate, get instructions to the closest charging station, and command it to show up the seat heating.
In the case of music instructions, these had been restricted. The Assistant may, say, activate Spotify and even play sure songs, but it surely usually didn’t acknowledge what I requested for. I additionally couldn’t get it to play a kind of music. For instance, in a second of panicked indecision, I requested it to play High 40. All of the sudden Chic’s “40 oz. to Freedom” was enjoying via the audio system. I’m not complaining, but it surely wasn’t what I requested for.
And whereas we’re with reference to music, whereas the Dolby Atmos sound system by some means struck the proper steadiness of bass, treble, and mid, the connectivity to music streaming companies like Spotify was usually spotty. The connection dropped a number of occasions, leaving me to fumble with the pre-programmed Sirius XM choices.
Native GPS and the Lucid app
A number of phrases on Lucid’s native navigation system with customized routing. When in comparison with Waze or Apple Maps, it didn’t at all times appear to account for visitors, with ETA differentials generally as giant as 20 minutes.
My eyes took some getting used to how Lucid’s native system manifested, too. Lucid shows the speedy instructions on the curved cockpit, with a bigger map under on the Panel pilot, and I discovered my eyes leaping between the 2 screens.
The Lucid app was completely superb. It labored because it ought to to open the trunk, unlock the automobile, open the cost ports, flash the lights, and see close by chargers. It’s not as superior as Tesla’s app, however I anticipate it would proceed to enhance.
Mature dealing with
The Lucid Air Pure is low to the bottom (and you actually really feel it when getting out and in), giving it a centered grippy really feel because it takes on turns. The acceleration is agency, though you don’t get the identical zippy increase as you would possibly in a Tesla or the Ford Mustang Mach-E. Nonetheless, the automobile is not any slouch with a 0-60 miles per hour acceleration in 4.5 seconds. The suspension can also be nice – I barely felt any bumps within the highway.
The Air Pure has three drive modes accessible through the Pilot Panel: Easy, Swift, and Dash. Easy is relaxed for on a regular basis driving. Swift provides it a bit extra oomph for whenever you’re eager to have just a little enjoyable or are in a rush on the freeway, and Dash is designed for “advanced drivers” with “maximum power and torque for short bursts of intense performance.” I didn’t discover an excessive amount of of a distinction between the modes.
For individuals who additionally need extra management over regenerative braking, you may regulate these in your driver settings, together with turning on creep mode, which lets you transfer with out making use of the accelerator.
So many cameras and sensors
The mannequin 12 months 2025 Lucid Air Pure comes normal with 24 sensors, together with six cameras, infrared, ultrasonic, and radar which are used to energy Lucid’s model of ADAS known as DreamDrive Premium. This consists of options like 3D encompass view monitoring and blind spot show, lane departure warnings, automated parking, adaptive cruise management, and a driver monitoring system for distracted and drowsy driving.
For an extra one-time price of $2,500, Lucid consumers can improve to the DreamDrive Professional, which ups the variety of sensors to 32 — together with solid-state lidar, radar, ultrasonic sensors, and a whopping 13 cameras — and has a freeway help characteristic that mixes lane centering and adaptive cruise management.
The profit in buying this characteristic and its accompanying {hardware} isn’t what it might probably do now, however the promise of what it might probably do sooner or later. That is all to say that whereas Lucid’s DreamDrive nonetheless has a methods to go, should you purchase the Professional ADAS, you’ll have all the required {hardware} for Lucid so as to add extra automated driving capabilities through over-the-air updates sooner or later.
I discovered the visuals just like the 3D encompass view monitoring, entrance and rearview visuals, and blind spot detection useful, if not just a little overwhelming, when maneuvering tight areas or switching lanes.
I discovered the Freeway Help probably the most helpful, significantly in stop-and-go visitors on California’s highways. The characteristic mainly steers for you, so long as you keep throughout the similar lane and at a pre-set pace and comply with distance. You may provoke lane-change help on the freeway by long-pressing the flip sign.
Deactivating Freeway Help was additionally easy and clean. Simply press the brake pedal, and also you’re good – no bizarre jerking or clunky transitions, which has been a problem in older software program variations.
Lucid automobiles geared up with the usual DreamDrive or the Professional present drowsy and distracted driver warnings, which solely labored generally for me. The Air Pure displays the motive force through an infrared sensor mounted on the high of the steering column that will get the form of your face and may inform should you aren’t going through entrance. Nevertheless it doesn’t watch your eyes, like different driver monitoring techniques. Which I suppose is sweet for privateness and surveillance causes, however unhealthy for truly monitoring if somebody has fallen asleep on the wheel.
I examined destiny a couple of occasions whereas the automobile was within the freeway help mode, even closing my eyes for 30 full seconds. I additionally pretended to nod my head like I used to be falling asleep, seemed down at my telephone, and straight up stared out the window. Finally, the automobile did hit me with an aggressive, repetitive alert saying it had detected unsafe driving, advised me to take a break, and provided ideas for close by espresso retailers. However these warnings got here a few minutes after my experiments.
Lastly, the Auto Park characteristic, which is able to scan the world for close by locations to park. Generally it labored, and generally it fully did not see out there parking areas. I may by no means get it to parallel park for me, but it surely did handle to park in rather a lot by backing up into the area. The characteristic guarantees to Auto Unpark for you, as nicely, however after checking to the left and to the proper, my Lucid couldn’t fairly get the grasp of it.
An virtually excellent EV
I actually did love the Lucid, and if TechCrunch would solely pay me double my wage, I may see me and this automobile being very joyful collectively. Notably if Lucid continues to iterate on the tech and make enhancements, because it has already executed during the last three years.
