While range anxiety is still the most commonly-quoted factor against electric vehicles, the fact that you’ll have to sit at the charging station for an extended time during your journey (not taking into account if charging infrastructure even exists at all) definitely rustled more than a few jimmies too.
Well, Lucid Motors is claiming to have eased the pain of EV ownership – or at least a couple of annoyances – with its new Lucid Air, particularly its new fast-charging capabilities of up to 482 km (300 miles) in just 20 minutes, at a peak charging rate of over 300 kW or 32.2 km (20 miles) per minute.
For context, that’s approximately the distance between Kuala Lumpur and the Bukit Kayu Hitam Thai border checkpoint in just 20 minutes of charging time. Bonkers stuff.
The Lucid Air achieves that thanks to its “ultra-high” 900V+ electrical architecture, custom lithium-ion battery cells, custom battery and thermal managements system, as well as the efficiency of the powertrain itself – a more efficient motor means more mileage from the same amount of electricity.
Additionally, the Air’s ‘Wunderbox’ on-board charging unit also uses the universal Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors, opening up the possibility to charge at all public charging infrastructure, including the growing list of 350kW DC fast-charging stations (in the United States, at least) which helped Lucid achieve that incredible figure.
For comparison, Tesla’s Superchargers can provide up to 250 kW of energy, which according to Inside EVs, equate to about 24.1 km (15 miles) per minute, five less than Lucid’s claim.
As an extra slap in the face to Tesla, Lucid also claims that its Air has a range of 832 km (517 miles) from a single charge, making it the longest-range EV right now, and beating out the Model S Long Range Plus’ 647 km (402 miles).
The Air beats the Teslas even during home charging, thanks to its 19.2kW AC onboard charger that supports charging speeds of up to 128.7 km (80 miles) per hour. Tesla’s Level 2 home chargers output at a maximum of 11.5 kW, translating to 71 km (44 miles) of range per hour of charging on the Tesla Model 3.
With the Lucid Connected Home Charging Station, which is one of the first AC charging stations with bi-directional charging, the Lucid Air can even be used as a temporary energy reserve to power their homes in the event of blackouts, or power your off-grid vacation homes.
Based on numbers alone, the Lucid Air could actually mount a proper challenge against Tesla’s domination in the EV sphere. But frankly, we’ve said the same thing to too many contenders already, yet none have really made any sizeable impact yet. Perhaps, numbers alone can’t do the trick…
