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Tri-Motor Lucid Air Prototype Goes Full Plaid in 9.245 Seconds Quarter-Mile Pass

It looks as though the arrival of the Lucid Air is going to shake Tesla up even more than the Porsche Taycan did. The European model was just too different (and too expensive) compared to the American one to cause any real customer overlapping, but the Air looks set to chomp right out of Tesla's fanbase.
Lucid Air prototype 1 photo
Photo: Twitter video screenshot
Porsche did emphasize the Taycan's performance, but it was more about its handling and the ability to lap a circuit than quarter mile times and that sort of thing. With the Air, though, Lucid Motors is aiming right where it hurts the most for Tesla and, unlike the German sedan, the newcomer also has the maximum range argument to fall back upon.

A lot of people criticized the Taycan for its underwhelming range, and even though there's some truth to it, it's worth bearing in mind it was developed with the European market in mind first, and anything over 200 miles can be seen as a bonus there. Besides, the first all-electric Porsche is known to register much better results in real-world tests than the official figures.

With 517 miles, the Lucid Air has that more than covered. The performance figures for the top Air Dream version, on the other hand, may seem a little disappointing at first, particularly the 0-60 mph acceleration time of 2.5 seconds. The Model S claims to be roughly 0.3 seconds quicker, though things tend to get a bit murky when dealing with such fine margins.

Even so, the dual-motor Air is supposedly clearing the quarter mile in 9.9 seconds, which is a full half a second quicker than the quickest Model S available now. A teaser just a few days ago suggested the tri-motor Air could do it roughly 0.3 seconds quicker, putting Lucid even further up ahead.

In the meantime, Tesla held its Battery Day and, just as the presentation was about to end, Elon Musk mentioned the upcoming Model S Plaid. The tri-motor Tesla sedan that should launch about the same time as the Lucid Air will supposedly hit 60 mph in under two seconds while also finishing the quarter mile in under nine seconds. Of course, we only have Elon's word as proof for now - sorry, Elon's word, and this clip of the Model S Plaid lapping the Laguna Seca in a record 1:30.3.

Earlier today, Lucid Motors released a clip of its tri-motor Air prototype doing a 9.245 quarter mile run. There's no info on the conditions under which the pass was achieved, but from what we can see in the clip, two things seem worth pointing out: one, the prototype seems to have used regular street tires, which is a good thing; second, the vehicle is completely stripped down with only a roll cage added, which makes the result a little less relevant.

One thing is clear: Lucid definitely ruffled Tesla's feathers, and now the two companies are locked in a pissing contest that we, the public, can only benefit from. Competition is what driver progress, so Lucid Motors might be the best thing to happen to the whole EV movement since, well, Tesla.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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