Tesla could finally have a legitimate challenger in the luxury electric car industry in the form of the Lucid Air, an all-electric supercar by Lucid Motors.
In a video uploaded by the startup, the Lucid Air was shown reaching speeds of 235 miles per hour, which is much faster than the top speed of the Tesla Model S.
Lucid Air Hits 235 Miles Per Hour
The video, which was taken at the Transportation Research Facility in Ohio, showed off the mind-blowing speed that the Lucid Air is capable of achieving.
In a blog post, Lucid Motors revealed that in the first test of the Lucid Air prototype in April, the electric vehicle's software limited its top speed to 217 miles per hour, which it was able to reach. In the second test featured in the video, the team behind the Lucid Air removed its speed limiter, allowing the electric vehicle to accelerate to a speed of 235.44 miles per hour.
Lucid Air: A Worthy Tesla Model S Challenger?
The top speed of 235 miles per hour achieved by the Lucid Air is far faster than the Tesla Model S top speed of 155 miles per hour, already making the Lucid Motors prototype look much more powerful than Tesla's offering.
However, that might not be a fair comparison, considering that the Lucid Air speed limiter was deactivated to allow the electric vehicle to go as fast as it could. The actual production version of the Lucid Air will be rolled out with the speed limiter, and it will also be heavier, which will bring down its top speed to more manageable levels. The Lucid Air's prototype also packs a 1,000-horsepower engine, compared to the 400-horsepower engine that will be included in the electric vehicle's first production model.
The major takeaway from the testing video is that Lucid Motors is not backing down from challenging Tesla, especially as the Lucid Air was built by the same people behind the Tesla Model S. Peter Rawlinson, Tesla Model S chief engineer, is now the CTO of Lucid Motors, and he is backed by other former engineers for the Tesla Model S such as Eric Bach, previously Tesla's director of engineering.
Lucid Motors has now come the closest in becoming a legitimate threat to Tesla, unlike Faraday Future, which is currently struggling with a host of issues. The Lucid Air will roll out with a $52,500 price tag by next year, with a range that starts from 240 miles and going as far as 400 miles.
