A Look at the Lucid Air Touring From a Tesla Perspective

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Recently, I had the opportunity to test drive the Lucid Air Touring while I was on a trip to Toronto. It was an interesting experience, so I’d like to tell you what I thought, coming from a two-year Tesla owner.

For context, I currently own a Tesla Model Y—a 2022 MYLR—and have driven both a Model S Long Range and a Model S Plaid. I use FSD nearly every day and go on road trips all the time. EVs have become a central part of my car ownership experience, and I’ve tried out everything from the original Kona EV to the Audi e-Tron and back.

I hope that my experience and perspective provide an interesting view of Lucid’s pretty amazing vehicle.

The Lucid Air

The Lucid Air is Lucid’s primary and only vehicle – until the Lucid Gravity SUV launches later this year. It’s available in various trim lines that go from lowest to highest – Air Pure, Air Touring, Air Grand Touring, and Air Sapphire.

I got to sit in the three primary models – the Air Pure, the Air Touring, and the Air Grand Touring. I intended to try out the Grand Touring as well – but more on that later. My focus for this will be on the Lucid Air Touring – the one that I had the opportunity to take to the streets with a Lucid employee sitting in the front passenger seat and a few friends sitting in the back.

The Lucid Air is a 4-seat sedan aimed at the upscale and luxury market. And from the price tag, you can tell who it is aimed at - $96,500 CAD (~$70,000 USD) for the Air Pure – without any options. The fully specced out Touring I drove cost $146,999 CAD (~$107,000 USD).

Lucid Air Touring – Options and Pricing

So, let’s get into it, starting with the specs of the car I had the opportunity to drive. The Lucid Air Touring is quite a vehicle, especially spec-wise. Lucid’s Air Touring is a dual-motor EV, with a rated range of approximately 587 km (365mi) and 620 horsepower – pulling 3.4s 0-60 mph (0-100 km/h).

Let’s talk options, as there are quite a few on the Lucid Air. The vehicle I drove was painted in the standard Infinite Black Metallic – a free paint option on any Lucid Air. All paint options only cost $1,000 CAD ($800 USD), which is quite nice.

The vehicle was equipped with an optional glass canopy. Yes – Lucid’s glass canopy is an option that goes for $5,000 CAD ($4,000 USD) and is only available on Touring or higher. The Air Pure is only available with a metallic roof. By default, the vehicles come with a platinum pillar trim which matches the rest of the vehicle. The one I drove had the Stealth package – another $4,500 CAD (~$3500 USD).

There are a few wheel options, and the Stealth package does blackout all the wheel options if it's selected, which is neat. 19” Aero Range wheels are standard, but 20” and 21” packages are available for another $2,500 or $5,000 CAD ($1750 or $3,500 USD). Once again – this vehicle had the 21” rims.

In terms of interior options, there are a few to pick from – by default, you get the Mojave PurLuxe Alternative Leather – if you pony up another $4,000 CAD ($3,000 USD), you can select from three real leather choices – Mojave (Black), Tahoe (Brown), or Santa Cruz (White). If you also choose the glass roof, the headliner, pillar trim, and sun visors on the roof interior are in Alcantara. If not, they’re in cloth.

The full leather packages also include leather or Alcantara on more surfaces within the vehicle, removing the cloth and plastic from anywhere in the interior.

The Lucid Air Touring in the showroom

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Other Features

Lucid also has an extensive list of features, including a Driver Assistance Package – DreamDrive (more on this later), an upgraded sound system, additional seating controls (12-way power seats or 20-way power seats with ventilation and massage), and a comfort package.

The comfort package includes a power frunk, heated wipers, soft-close doors, heated rear seats, four-zone climate control, heated steering wheel, and power rear window shades.

Honestly, in my opinion, many of the features in the “comfort package” should be standard. Paying for a heated steering wheel on a car that starts at $109,000 CAD is ridiculously silly in 2024.

I could imagine seeing this as an option for BMW – who allows customers to part out every piece of their higher-end vehicles (for a premium), but for an EV vendor like Lucid? It feels almost disappointing. Most interesting is that nearly every inventory vehicle that Lucid has in stock in North America has the package included by default.

Upgrade Chart

Here’s a chart showing the available upgrades and their prices for the Touring.

Comfort Package includes Power Frunk, Heated Wipers, Soft-Close Doors, Heated Rear Seats, Four-Zone Climate Control, Heated Steering Wheel, Power Rear Windows/Side Window Sunshades

If you add up all those features, it costs an additional $35,800 CAD in options – or $26,950 USD for a fully loaded Touring. Those same costs apply to the Grand Touring as well. It's slightly less for the Pure – there are fewer options, including not being able to equip it with a glass roof. The Sapphire, on the other hand, comes fully equipped at $327,300 CAD, or $249,000 USD.

Battery and Motors

Lucid’s biggest bragging points are its battery and motor technologies. The Lucid Air Grand Touring has a 718km EPA range-estimated battery, leaving behind its closest contender – the Tesla Model S Long Range, at 647km. However, the Grand Touring costs 1.5 times more than the Model S.

Besides the absolutely fantastic range figures – Lucid also brings an astonishing 5 mi per kWh, while the Model S only reaches 3.2 mi per kWh. The Model 3 narrows the gap at 3.9mi per kWh, but Lucid is still head and shoulders above in terms of efficiency. Of course, that efficiency comes at a cost – as even the Air Pure is far more expensive than a Model 3 Performance.

Here's a table comparing some key specs between the Lucid Air trims, the Model 3 and the Model S.

Lucid has some pretty extreme competition for the price and specs – but those aren’t all that matter. The interior, materials, fit, and finish are truly up to par for what you pay for.

Exterior

Let’s take a look at the outside of the vehicle. Overall, it's stylish, with nice, clean lines. If you opt for the default Stellar White Metallic, the vehicle looks good – even if you choose to have a metallic roof.

If you opt for the Glass Roof, it looks much better. However, you’ll want the Stealth Package on any color other than the Stellar White Metallic or Cosmos Silver Metallic. The platinum trims just stand out too much and take away from the car. All three wheel sets, including the base Aero wheels, are fairly stylish – especially so in the Stealth package.

Interior

On the interior, especially in the driver’s seat, the Lucid Air Touring with the extended real leather package is quite something to behold. Lucid has put a lot of care into designing the interior of the vehicle, with some subtle but clean ambient lighting highlighting the curves of the dash and interior of the vehicle.

The screens are mostly comfortably spaced (more on this in the UI section), but if you’re tall, you’ll find it a struggle to see around inside the vehicle. The A-pillar is extremely low and prevents taller people from seeing to the front left of the vehicle. This can be annoying when doing a left turn – you’ll find yourself leaning forward to see around the pillar.

However, the driver seat is fantastically comfy and holds you well in place when you put the vehicle into a higher speed mode and put your foot down to really take advantage of that acceleration. A well-placed reverse mirror and pop-up repeater cameras assist in making lane changes.

Backing up to the passenger side, the seats are super comfortable. If I had to choose a vehicle to be chauffeured around in – the Lucid Air with the extended real leather would be up there. It's fantastically built and very comfortable. The only thing missing is rear-ventilated seats and a better display. The rear display is only for accessing the rear climate controls since the vehicle is equipped with a quad-zone climate system. The rear screen currently has no other functionality – a big miss from the newer Model 3 Model S and Model X in my eyes, especially for those hoping to move their small families around in comfort.

Lucid has taken the rear passenger seats to the next level – they’re super comfortable and super spacious. In fact, my passengers found it to be more spacious than the Rivian R1T Quad Max we test-drove just an hour prior – and more comfortable. Behind those seats, in the trunk, you can find a fairly deep amount of space. Unlike Tesla’s long hoods that provide plenty of vertical space, the Lucid Air’s trunk is more similar to one you may find on a regular sedan but extremely deep. Plenty of space for several suitcases.

The frunk is massive. In fact, it's bigger than any Tesla frunk – a big win in my eyes, especially with the automatic frunk in the comfort package. I’d love to use the frunk on my Model Y more often – but having to manually open and close it means it's mostly relegated to storing safety equipment, a spare first-aid kit, and a portable air compressor. The Lucid Air’s frunk is fantastically large – you could easily fit three full gym bags up front, with space for a bit more stuff as well.

The Lucid Air Touring's interior in extended real leather

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Drive and Handling

The Lucid Air has three drive modes – Smooth, Swift, and Track (and one called Sapphire – on the same-named model). Smooth is effectively Eco mode and is nice, soft, and accelerates easily. It also limits horsepower to around 430 hp (the same as the Air Pure) if you’re on the Touring or Grand Touring.

Track mode disables much of the traction control and drive assists and also unlocks 100% of the vehicle’s power. Track mode has some sub-modes for racetracks, including Dragstrip, Hot Lap, and Endurance. Interestingly, Swift doesn’t unlock all of the horsepower, but reduces the amount of traction control and driver assists similar to Track. If you want all the horsepower, you’ll need to up it to Track mode.

Overall, while on Smooth, the Lucid Air handles extremely comfortably. In addition, while the vehicle doesn’t have air suspension, its adaptive suspension handles exceptionally well – the pothole-ridden roads we drove over were pretty much unnoticed by the passengers and myself. Lucid has done an absolutely spectacular job of fine-tuning the driving experience for comfort.

In Swift, the car handles a bit more robustly, and you can feel it start to come to life. Sadly, I didn’t have the opportunity to test track mode on Toronto’s congested streets. However – fret not – I have made plans with a friend to take a Lucid Air Grand Touring to the track in the future. Sadly, there are no Sapphires in my future – but if a reader has one and you’re in the Toronto or Ottawa area, let us know.

Overall, I enjoyed driving the car for the luxurious experience. However, it didn’t feel particularly sporty or snappy and felt more like driving a high-end ICE vehicle with an EV’s instantaneous response times. Overall, a good feeling in terms of ride quality and handling for a day-to-day driving experience.

Honestly, if Tesla could replicate Lucid’s absolutely spectacularly comfortable driving experience, that would be amazing, especially in the Model S and X. There’s definitely room for Tesla to improve – even past the “comfort” suspension they added in the 2023 Model Y. And that’s pretty evident – third-party suspension upgrades like those from Unplugged Performance are far superior to Tesla’s, especially in the comfort factor.

User Interface

Lucid’s overall user interface felt smooth, quick, and slick to operate. There were no delays or lag when switching back and forth between modes (like the Q4 e-Tron…). The upper displays show key vehicle information on the right and center and navigation or audio information on the right side. The center display also shows the repeater cameras when signals are active.

The larger display at the bottom is used primarily for options, drive mode swaps, and the 360º parking view. However, it feels like it's not being fully utilized—it’s there and very available, but it's next to useless. If I could display a full-screen nav or more media controls there, that’d be a huge improvement.

I may be spoiled by having everything on a single display on my Tesla and being comfortable with it – I personally don’t love the instrument cluster on the Model S and X. It’s great for your next turn and speedometer, but some features like the smaller visualizations and Autopark feel much less intuitive since you can’t tap or drag the screen.

DreamDrive and DreamDrive Pro

The Grand Touring I drove was equipped with DreamDrive Pro, Lucid’s version of FSD, but due to the lack of time and location, I didn’t have the opportunity to test it out. I’m hoping to do that sometime soon, but the Lucid Air comes with DreamDrive standard and DreamDrive Pro as an optional upgrade.

The standard version includes a long list of features, many of which are standard on a Tesla:

• 3D Surround View

• Blind-spot Monitoring

• Driver Monitoring system to warn against distractions

• Front / Rear Cross-traffic Protection

• Automatic Emergency Braking

• Forward Collision Monitoring

• Lane Departure Protection

• Adaptive Cruise Control

• Traffic Drive-off Alert (think the Green Light Chime on a Tesla)

• Traffic Sign Recognition

• Auto Park in and out (parallel and perpendicular)

• Park Distance Warning

• Rear View Camera

That sounds like a lot of stuff, but it's mostly standard features that are available on a Tesla.

Pro also promises future-capable ADAS for driving and parking, along with Highway Assist—including active lane centering with adaptive cruise control—essentially Autopilot.

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, the Lucid Air Touring is a compelling vehicle for its target market—older, well-off buyers who desire a more relaxed, luxurious, and comfortable EV. While I am absolutely in love with its adaptive suspension and luxurious interior, I really prefer the active dynamic of driving my Telsa.

If I did have a bunch of extra money, I think the Lucid Air would be a fantastic second vehicle for road trips – future models will have NACS ports and current models should be getting adapter capabilities. My friends and family would absolutely appreciate sitting in the comfortable cabin, and I’m sure the DreamDrive Pro would do a fairly good job of getting me around on highways during a trip.

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Tesla Increases Price of Model S; Starts Offering Free Lifetime Supercharging

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For the first time in quite a while, Tesla has increased the price of one of its vehicle offerings. The Model S Long Range and the Model S Plaid have both received a hefty price increase. However, not all is bad - as Tesla also added a new benefit for buyers.

Price Increase

The price increase for the Model S is $5,000 - currently only in the United States. This price increase will likely impact other markets, including Canada, in the coming days.

The Model S Long Range now starts at $79,990, while the Model S Plaid now starts at $94,990. The Model S and Model X now have the same starting price. Interestingly, that’s also the same pricing point for the Cybertruck AWD and Cyberbeast Trimotor non-Foundation Series. 

The vehicle configuration does not appear to have changed, so the new pricing is simply an increase rather than the addition or removal of features. Tesla previously cut the price of the Model S and Model X by 15% in 2023, so this could simply be an adjustment to ensure that the vehicle pricing stays in line with inflation and other factors.

Free Lifetime Supercharging

For those on the fence about ordering a Model S, Tesla has brought back Free Lifetime Supercharging when you order a new Model S on or after December 13, 2024. As always, Free Lifetime Supercharging is restricted to the buyer’s Tesla account and to that specific vehicle. It cannot be transferred to another vehicle or another owner after ownership transfer. It’s worth noting, that it also doesn’t exclude the owner from receiving Supercharger idle fees or congestion fees. There is currently no end date for this promotion.

There are currently no changes to the Model X, neither a price increase nor the addition of Lifetime Superchargering. However, when Tesla makes changes to one of their premium vehicles, it usually affects the other one as well. So be on the lookout for potential changes to the Model X offering in the coming days.

We’ve seen Tesla value Lifetime Supercharging at $5,000, so this falls in line with the price increase we’re seeing. It’s possible that Tesla will begin to bring back Lifetime Supercharging as a perk for buying into their more premium Model S and Model X cars, or this could be another temporary promotion to get buyers who are on the fence to go ahead and make their purchase while this promotion lasts.

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Tesla’s Optimus Robot Learns to Walk Without Vision [VIDEO]

Optimus Falls - but catches itself!

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Tesla recently showed off a demo of Optimus, its humanoid robot, walking around in moderately challenging terrain—not on a flat surface but on dirt and slopes. These things can be difficult for a humanoid robot, especially during the training cycle.

Daily walks help clear your mind pic.twitter.com/dUsW58trS6

— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) December 9, 2024

A Look Behind the Curtain

Most interestingly, Milan Kovac, VP of Engineering for Optimus, clarified what it takes to get Optimus to this stage. Let’s break down what he said.

Optimus is Blind

Optimus is getting seriously good at walking now - it can keep its balance over uneven ground - even while walking blind. Tesla is currently using just the sensors, all powered by a neural net running on the embedded computer. 

Essentially, Tesla is building Optimus from the ground up, relying on as much additional data as possible while it trains vision. This is similar to how they train FSD on vehicles, using LiDAR rigs to validate the vision system’s accuracy. While Optimus doesn’t have LiDAR, it relies on all those other sensors on board, many of which will likely become simplified as vision takes over as the primary sensor.

Today, Optimus is walking blind, but it’s able to react almost instantly to changes in the terrain underneath it, even if it falls or slips. 

What’s Next?

Next up, Tesla AI will be adding vision to Optimus - helping complete the neural net. Remember, Optimus runs on the same overall AI stack as FSD - in fact, Optimus uses an FSD computer and an offshoot of the FSD stack for vision-based tasks.

Milan mentions they’re planning on adding vision to help the robot plan ahead and improve its walking gait. While the zombie shuffle is iconic and a little bit amusing, getting humanoid robots to walk like humans is actually difficult.

There’s plenty more, too - including better responsiveness to velocity and direction commands and learning to fall and stand back up. Falling while protecting yourself to minimize damage is something natural to humans - but not exactly natural to something like a robot. Training it to do so is essential in keeping the robot, the environment around it, and the people it is interacting with safe.

We’re excited to see what’s coming with Optimus next because it is already getting started in some fashion in Tesla’s factories.

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