Tested: 2024 Lucid Air Sapphire Is a Stone Groove
An astounding 1234 horsepower and road manners to match.
BY ELANA SCHERR PUBLISHED: FEB 28, 2024
From the March/April issue of Car and Driver.
Medieval alchemy practitioners theorized that the right combination of earth, air, fire, and water would create a fifth element: the philosopher's stone. They believed that the stone, described as brilliant blue, could turn lead into gold and allow the holder to defy earthly limitations. We aren't saying that Lucid has discovered the secrets to the quintessence, but the 2024 Air Sapphire has alchemy right in the name and comes only in a brilliant metallic blue paint. Even more convincing, this 5345-pound four-door accelerates like a chemical reaction and pivots with the precision of planetary orbit. It sure feels like a transmutation of base metals into precious ones.
Lucid's Air sedans feel more magical, quicker, and more nimble than their big luxury-car dimensions should allow. Even the entry-level rear-wheel-drive Air Pure can trip a quarter-mile timer in 12.7 seconds and circle our skidpad with 0.94 g. All the Air trims are solid, well-equipped cruisers with impressive range and powerful electric drivetrains. But the Sapphire outdoes them all with barely believable performance numbers and design cues that imbue it with elegant menace. To make the Sapphire stand out from the already-impressive 819-hp Air Grand Touring, the alchemists, er, engineers at Lucid added a second electric motor in the rear for a triumvirate making a frankly ridiculous 1234 horsepower and 1430 pound-feet of torque."
Continues below.
An astounding 1234 horsepower and road manners to match.
BY ELANA SCHERR PUBLISHED: FEB 28, 2024
From the March/April issue of Car and Driver.
Medieval alchemy practitioners theorized that the right combination of earth, air, fire, and water would create a fifth element: the philosopher's stone. They believed that the stone, described as brilliant blue, could turn lead into gold and allow the holder to defy earthly limitations. We aren't saying that Lucid has discovered the secrets to the quintessence, but the 2024 Air Sapphire has alchemy right in the name and comes only in a brilliant metallic blue paint. Even more convincing, this 5345-pound four-door accelerates like a chemical reaction and pivots with the precision of planetary orbit. It sure feels like a transmutation of base metals into precious ones.
Lucid's Air sedans feel more magical, quicker, and more nimble than their big luxury-car dimensions should allow. Even the entry-level rear-wheel-drive Air Pure can trip a quarter-mile timer in 12.7 seconds and circle our skidpad with 0.94 g. All the Air trims are solid, well-equipped cruisers with impressive range and powerful electric drivetrains. But the Sapphire outdoes them all with barely believable performance numbers and design cues that imbue it with elegant menace. To make the Sapphire stand out from the already-impressive 819-hp Air Grand Touring, the alchemists, er, engineers at Lucid added a second electric motor in the rear for a triumvirate making a frankly ridiculous 1234 horsepower and 1430 pound-feet of torque."
Continues below.
