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America Prepares to Welcome a New EV King of Performance, What About Range?

Dubbing it the “pinnacle of electric performance,” one zero-emissions-focused American automaker wants to take the current EV crown away from the 1,020-horsepower Tesla Model S Plaid.
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Photo: Lucid Motors
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Envisioned as the pinnacle of sustainability transportation with an accent on straight-line acceleration without neglecting daily duties, the latter has bonkers numbers on its side. The peak power of 1,020 ponies is already more than what the 1,001-ps (987 hp) Bugatti Veyron hypercar used to offer just a little more than a decade and a half ago.

The 1.99s sprint time to 60 mph (97 kph) sounds like an incommensurable psychological barrier, but the Austin, Texas-based company (formerly located in Fremont, California) can do even better. As such, its official 200-mph (322 kph) top speed is less than what it can actually achieve, as record-breaking attempts have proven that 216 mph (almost 348 kph) is the real threshold.

And then there’s comfort and range. The former is always a subject of debate, while the latter has been estimated by the EPA to be around the 396 miles (over 637 km) mark, just shy of the glorious 400-mile (644 km) step. Plus, following its introduction, it has been proven, time and again, that we are dealing with the new production car king of the quarter-mile dragstrip, where even ICE supercars cannot attempt to dethrone it anymore.

But not long ago, on August 19th, 2022, at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, during the fabled Monterey Car Week, Newark, California-based Lucid introduced its new flagship sub-brand, called Sapphire. It may sound like something utterly posh, but it is the jewel that will seek to dethrone Tesla’s Plaid greatness. Only that, lost among so many great introductions, perhaps Lucid’s new Air Sapphire, the first of its kind, warrants a second, more profound look at the EV goodies.

Lucid Air Sapphire
Photo: Lucid
The company announced – alongside the $249k lesson in EV performance that just kicked off the reservation game on August 23 – an entirely new ultra-high-performance brand. And they also dubbed the Lucid Air Sapphire the “world’s first fully electric luxury super-sports sedan.” Did they forget about Tesla, or is this just a marketing gimmick because the latter did not use the same words, first?

Who knows, so let us just stick to the hard, known facts. This is the first Sapphire, “and certainly not the last,” so it will act as both flagship for the Air range and proof-of-concept for Lucid’s dreams of ultra-luxury EV conquest. And, of course, they speak of “magic numbers.” The first one is three – as in Lucid’s first-ever tri-motor powertrain (with torque vectoring for the new twin rear-drive unit).

The next one would be even simpler: 1,200. That is the starting base for the total amount of horsepower, making it the most powerful production sedan in the world, just like Tesla’s Model S Plaid before it. Now, until we get to see real quarter-mile footage, do take this with a pinch of salt. So, the company then talks of breathtaking acceleration performance: 60 mph (97 kph) in less than two seconds, 100 mph (162 kph) in no more than four seconds, plus the usual top speed of at least 200 mph.

But then there is also the crucial standing quarter mile, which should be over “in less than nine seconds.” By how much, nobody knows, so far (save for Lucid’s engineers, test pilots, and head honcho, perhaps). Of note, there is another very important figure that is completely missing from the potential Tesla-Lucid comparison: a range estimate. Alas, Car and Driver just crowned the Lucid Air as their new EV 1000 “King of the Ring” in their 1,000-mile (1,609 km) test loop… dethroning the Tesla Model S in the process. So, there’s probably big hope for the Air Sapphire, as well.

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About the author: Aurel Niculescu
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Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution.
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