Lucid Air review

For those of us in Britain, this is currently a moot point, with Lucid getting the long-delayed Air out to its US customers first. But Europe will follow, and if the prices can convert literally from their Stateside equivalents – without the invisible transatlantic tax that seems to make cars on our shores much pricier – then Tesla ought to be shuddering with fear. A 480bhp, rear-drive Air is going to feel far from slow, and if it can sneak under £60,000, it’s going to seem awfully tempting.

If you're buying in the US of A however, then $77,400 gets you into a RWD Pure; upgrading to AWD costs $5,000. The Touring is $95,000, the Grand Touring is $125,600, and the Grand Touring Performance is $149,600. Meanwhile the Sapphire costs a cool quarter-mil, or more than double what you'd pay for a Model S Plaid.

What’s novel is that higher-spec Airs get the big 21in alloy wheels as standard, with the 19s and 20s that draw out those headline-grabbing range figures lying on the options list. It seems the Air comes with style and speed top of its priorities, and you’ve got to speak up if you’d rather the range figure swelled another ten per cent.

While the Grand Touring and Sapphire come pretty well stocked with equipment, the lower-rung cars have DreamDrive Pro – Lucid’s suite of self-driving and active safety tech – as an option. In Europe this may be standard, as some of its features are now pretty vital to scoring well with NCAP.

The receding roof is also optional on the Touring and not available at all on the base Pure. But if Lucid’s range structure is anything like Tesla’s, expect all of that to shuffle around as the car’s production ramps up and more reliable patterns begin to emerge among buyers.