Independent testing confirms the Lucid Air has a range of 517 miles

Enlarge / The Air looks superficially the same as when we saw it in 2017, but almost every body panel has changed. (credit: Lucid Motors)

Like it or not, range has become the primary criteria by which electric vehicles are judged. Even though most Americans travel fewer than 73 miles a day and almost every EV owner wakes up to a freshly charged battery each morning, there remains a deep-seated psychological dread at the possibility of having to drop everything and drive from New York to California with as little time spent stationary as possible. Limited range is frequently used as justification for the idea that the EV is a mere fad and will never actually catch on.

Well, road trippers, you'll soon need to find a new excuse not to go electric. Independent testing of the Lucid Air, which goes into production toward the end of the year, has determined that the car can travel 517 miles (832km) on a single charge.

When I spoke with Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson earlier this year, he told me that the company was targeting at least 400 miles (643km) from a single charge, which would make the Air competitive with the longest-range EV currently on the market. But when FEV North America, a Michigan-based engineering company, put an Air through the EPA's multitest cycle procedure, the results were far in excess of this internal goal.

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