Lucid’s Air Grand Touring performance is big on speed, range and price

Lucid offers a new high-performance version of its all-electric luxury sedan. The new Lucid Air Grand Touring Performance announced today (via CNBC) can be selected as a variant via the company’s online configurator, which exceeds the standard 819 horsepower of the Grand Touring with 1,050.

This new model isn’t actually the most powerful of Lucid’s Air vehicles – that crown goes to the company’s 1,111 horsepower “Dream Edition” performance model, which is now sold out after a limited run. This Dream Edition performance model was touted as the only production electric vehicle to achieve a quarter-mile time under 10 seconds in 2020, beating Tesla’s fastest Model S available at the era.

The new version, however, is not a performance downgrade of the Dream Edition. You still get 0-60 mph in 2.6 seconds, compared to the discontinued model’s slightly quicker 2.5 seconds. It’s also a noticeable improvement over the standard Grand Touring’s 3-second 0-60 mph time. And while the performance model can’t beat the Tesla Model S Plaid’s 1.99-second time, it can go about 100 miles farther on a single charge with its 446-mile range.

That range is a little less than the 516-mile range offered with the standard Grand Touring model, but Lucid includes unique 21-inch “Aero Sport” rims for the Air Grand Touring Performance, and it mounts performance tires from been shifted on them from the factory. All the extra sportiness of the performance model will set you back $179,000 – a $40,000 premium over the standard Grand Touring model that makes it Lucid’s most expensive offering.

Image: Lucid

Lucid has been slower with the rollout of production EVs than it had anticipated; it had to cut up to 8,000 vehicles from its 2022 production forecast due to supply chain issues. As of February, the Newark, Calif.-based company had only delivered about 300 vehicles out of more than 25,000 customer and employee reservations.

Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said the new Air Grand Touring Performance responds to “the strong demand we continue to see for higher performance versions of the Lucid Air.” And since Lucid builds its own motors and batteries, Rawlinson says the company can bring it to market at “remarkable speed.”