2021 Lucid Air’s Claimed 517 Miles of Range Comes From a Much Smaller Battery Than Expected

Timothy

We’ll finally see the 2021 Lucid Air luxury electric sedan debut on September 9 after years of wondering if it will ever happen, but now we’ve got another spicy detail, courtesy of Carscoops. The Air’s battery pack is significantly smaller than people expected. 

According to Lucid, the company had a third party perform range tests that conform to the EPA’s current standard and found that the car produces an estimated 517 miles of range on a full charge—more than even the longest-range Tesla. The company also claims that the car puts out up to 1,000 horsepower. Electric vehicle pundits cited by Carscoops figured that the Lucid would need at least a 130 kWh battery pack to achieve that sort of range and power, but no! Lucid says that the Air has just a 113 kWh extended-range battery pack. 

Like Tesla and many other EV makers, the Air’s batteries sit beneath the passenger compartment. Lucid says claims that the Air’s battery was designed specifically to be compact and energy dense for the sake of increasing room in the passenger compartment and storage areas. 

While you may think that blowing your internal combustion engine’s range out of the water is a silly pursuit for EVs, this is proof that it’s leading to some truly interesting innovations. We all complain that EVs are heavy, yet designing these smaller batteries opens up the possibility of lighter, more powerful (read: more fun) cars in the future. 

“By pursuing this ‘smart range’ approach, Lucid shall not only be able to offer the Air with this unprecedented absolute range, but also offer future models that achieve competitive range from proportionately smaller battery packs, thereby saving cost, weight, and space,” Lucid Motors CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson explained in today’s announcement

According to Lucid, the Air will sport the largest frunk ever offered in an electric vehicle with a capacity of around 74 gallons. That puts it at 89 percent larger than the frunks of electric vehicles in its class and 40 percent larger than the largest electric SUV frunk. Additionally, Lucid says the Air will have a the most luggage space out of all the electric and internal combustion vehicles in its class, clocking in at 195 gallons. 

We’ll see if all of these claims hold up after the Air’s online reveal on September 9, but it certainly sounds promising. 

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