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Lucid Air Beta Prototypes Come Out to Play in the Snow

For some time now, a company called Lucid has been teasing us with a vehicle that should be a Tesla killer. Called Air, the electric sedan has been first shown four years ago, but it surely takes its sweet time arriving on the open market.
Lucid Air 24 photos
Photo: Lucid
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Lucid plans to start production of the Air sometime this year. The company has long left the drawing board and hit the test tracks with working prototypes of the Air, trying to figure whatever it’s left to figure before the lines begin to roll.

A few months ago, northern Minnesota was the place where two Air prototypes, called Beta 4 and Beta 5, were taken for a test session. A short video showing how the two performed during the testing was published this week by Lucid.

The cars are seen driving on a circle track, an ice field, a snowfield, and a handling track as engineers are trying to fine tune antilock braking, traction control, and stability control.

When ready, the Air should deliver one of the greatest ranges currently available for electric cars, namely 400 miles (644 km), thanks to the large battery pack. The motors used for the car are punchy as well, and we are promised 2.5 seconds acceleration time to 60 mph, and a top speed of 200 mph (322 kph).

At the end of 2018, Lucid got a $1 billion investment from the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, part of the money that was supposed to be funding Elon Musk’s crazy taking Tesla private affair.

To support its future customers, Lucid announced also in 2018 a partnership with Electrify America that would provide access of Air drivers to over 2,000 DC ultra-fast chargers across the U.S.

The Lucid Air has a price tag of around $60,000, and reservations can already be made by those willing to pay a $1,000 refundable deposit.

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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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