Tesla has long sat atop the electric vehicle market, but now it’s getting a run for its money from the competition. For example, the 2022 Lucid Air recently won a coveted prize from an automotive website, showing that Tesla’s no longer the only game in town when it comes to luxury EVs. Read on to learn more about the 2022 Lucid Air and what led the website Cars to award it a top honor. 

A look at the 2022 Lucid Air

Before we get to the award itself, let’s look at the 2022 Lucid Air. The car is definitely a luxury vehicle, with an MSRP of $170,500 for the Dream Edition, per Car and Driver (The base model starts at $78,900).

The top-tier version of the Lucid Air, the Dream Edition Performance model, smashes much of the competition with an extremely impressive range of 520 miles and horsepower of up to 1,111. Even the base model has a range of 406 miles, which still outshines much of the competition. 

The 2022 Lucid Air also doesn’t lack for speed. According to the manufacturer, the fastest of the models can go a quarter-mile in just 9.9 seconds and can go from 0 to 60 mph in only 2.6 seconds. Another area where the car shines is in its front trunk, or “frunk,” which offers 10 cu. ft. of storage space, the most of any electric vehicle. 

The infotainment center on the car is also top-of-the-line. It features both a large upper touchscreen connected to the digital gauge cluster as well as a tablet-like lower touchscreen that can be retracted into the dashboard when desired. 

The new Lucid is named the top luxury EV

As the website Cars reminds us, consumers can now choose from at least 30 EVs on the market. That makes the fact that Lucid Air recently won a top EV award from the website even more impressive.

Thanks to the impressive features mentioned above on the 2022 Lucid Air, the website recently named it its “top pick” for electric vehicles for 2022.  In explaining their selection of the car as the winner in their luxury EV category, Cars wrote, “The first offering from upstart Lucid, the 2022 Air, is simply a next-level EV and a game-changer for the market.”

The website went on to comment that “the currently sold-out Air Dream Edition offers a stunning amount of cargo space, a multimedia system that’s more responsive and easier to use than Tesla’s, styling that’s incredibly slippery and still dead sexy, and an interior that rivals luxury-brand benchmarks for opulence and finish.” It also praised the car’s ability to combine stunning acceleration capability with remarkably quiet operation, comparing its handling to some of the “world’s best sports sedans.”

The disadvantages of the Lucid Air

Although the 2022 Lucid Air does get a remarkable amount of praise from the Cars website, like any car, it does have a few drawbacks as well. Car and Driver pointed out some of the more important ones, including road noise produced by the low-profile performance tires used in the magazine’s test drive of the vehicle. 

Car and Driver also notes that some of the car’s controls are somewhat cumbersome and that there’s a lack of foot space underneath some of the front seats. 

All in all, however, these are pretty minor concerns. Like Cars, Car and Driver rates the 2022 Lucid Air quite highly, giving it an overall score of 8.5/10. With these sorts of reviews, the 2022 Lucid Air will definitely be a car for rivals such as the Tesla Model S and Porsche Taycan to keep their eyes on.