This review first appeared in the July 2026 edition of the Cruisin' News,
"Oregon, Nevada and California's classic
auto news & marketplace."
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Sacramento, California -- I believe that I have just sampled the future of automotive
transportation.
It's called a 2026 Lucid Air
Touring sedan, and for someone who obtained his first driver's license when
Richard Nixon was president, it took some adjustments on my part.
After all, there are certain
things you expect after decades of driving.
You expect to turn off the engine,
via an ignition switch (or more recently, a button). With the Lucid Air, you
just walk away from the vehicle. Hard to
do, as you keep looking around to see who is watching.
And you expect the key fob to have
specific buttons related to specific functions.
Not so with the Lucid Air sedan.
The fob just sort of acts as an all-powerful command center, sending out
invisible signals to the machine.
And the car just starts up when
you climb in; hit the brake pedal, snap the gearshift located on the steering
column, and off you go.
Actually, it doesn't take too long
to get the hang of all this. And once
you do, you can get acquainted with this all-electric vehicle -- priced at
$107,050 in my case. (Starting price: on the basic model is $79,900.)
First off, it looks
fantastic. Space age vibe to be
sure. Sleek and modern and smooth to the
max. It looks capable of flying.
And in one respect, it does.
The horsepower rating is a healthy
620, good enough to make the zero-to-60 mph trip in 3.4 seconds.
Response is instant and
exciting. On the fly, the vehicle is a
smooth operator, even when it is dispatching pokes with ease. Handling is
excellent, and the turn radius is a bonus on a sedan with remarkable agility.
The payoff is a range of up to 431
miles, with miles per gallon equivalent ratings of 126 mpg in the city and 121
mpg on the highway.
Inside, the vehicle presents a
high-tech marvel. Seemingly everything
is controlled with electricity, including the glove compartment. Images float across a 34-inch glass cockpit
display screen, enabling you to park precisely and have plenty of advance
warning of possible danger.
The glass canopy roof made me feel like I was sitting in the
cockpit of a fighter jet, but the heat of Sacramento does penetrate that
environment fairly quickly. A boost of
the AC helps cool things down.
The Lucid Air gets multiple
five-star ratings in federal government crash tests, including a max five stars
on the overall score.
I've said before that remarkable
things are in the pipeline for cars of the future. And California is at the heart of it in
Lucid's case. Lucid Group USA Inc., is headquartered in the Silicon Valley
community of Newark.
The automaker has its critics,
including some high-profile ones who don't like its cost structure. OK, fine.
But in the Lucid Air, the company
has given us a vision of the future of motor vehicles. And on many levels, the
future looks bright.
