2025 Lucid Air Pure First Test: Going Smaller to Go Farther

The Lucid Air is a car of extremes. Just a little over a year ago, a Lucid Air Sapphire prototype melted its tires and our minds after putting down the quickest quarter-mile time we’d ever recorded (it was recently surpassed by an electric Porsche). And if covering 1,320 feet in 9.2 seconds wasn’t impressive enough, the automaker and its 2025 Lucid Air Pure now lays claim to the title of the most efficient vehicle you can buy today.

The Air Pure, which was unveiled in 2023 as the cheapest variant in the lineup, was updated for 2025 with a smaller 84-kWh battery pack, down from 88 kWh. But despite this shrunken battery capacity, the 2025 Air Pure has managed to improve its EPA range from 419 to 420 miles, eking out 5.0 miles for every kilowatt-hour consumed. However, there are a couple caveats: This impressive efficiency only applies to Air Pures riding on 19-inch wheels, and it ignores the charging losses that consume additional electricity when you plug in. Account for all the energy needed to charge the battery as well as move the car and the efficiency drops to 4.3 miles/kWh. Buy a 2025 Lucid Air Pure with 20-inch wheels achieves and the efficiency falls further to 3.8 miles/kWh with an EPA range rating of 372 miles, down from 395 miles from the equivalent 2024 model.

When it comes to MotorTrend Road-Trip Range, our evaluation of how far a vehicle can travel at a constant 70 mph using 95 percent of its battery capacity, our 2025 Lucid Air Pure test car with 20-inch wheels recorded 313 miles versus 330 miles for comparable 2024 Air Pure. Both those figures represent a 16 percent drop from their EPA combined range ratings. That said, the Lucid is still among the most efficient vehicles we’ve tested. A 2024 BMW i5 eDrive40, for example, recorded an MT Road-Trip Range of 268 miles with a similarly sized 84.4-kWh battery pack. The Lucid will replenish its battery faster, too. When plugged into a DC fast charger, we added 148 miles of range after 15 minutes, versus 135 miles for the BMW. 

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With a single motor churning out a healthy 430 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque, the 2025 Lucid Air Pure ran from 0 to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds before crossing the quarter mile in 12.8 seconds. It ain’t the quickest Air in the lineup, but it’s still fairly fleet—and you’ll outrun the similarly priced BMW i5 eDrive40 by 0.6 second to 60 mph and 0.8 second in the quarter mile. 

And it’d be easy to assume that a large, 4,592-pound sedan would be a handful on our figure-eight course. But it put down a 24.5-second lap time and did so with strong brakes, precise steering, neutral handling, and a surprising willingness to hang its tail out. “It was clearly set up by someone who knows vehicle dynamics,” road test editor Chris Walton said. “This just feels like a well-sorted sport sedan that happens to be electric.” Are you a Miata guy becoming a family guy and looking to go electric? The Lucid Air Pure needs to be on your short list. 

As a family car, the Lucid excels with tons of passenger legroom and cargo space. Ride quality is exceptional, managing to be cushy and comfy without being sloppy. We’d prefer less wind noise, more akin to the whisper-quiet cabin of a Mercedes-Benz EQ, although we’re happy to report the whistling noises we detected in previous Air test vehicles seem to have disappeared. Overall build quality appears to have improved, as well. The body panels are better aligned with smaller gaps, and the steering wheel control knobs operate with precision and heft—a promising improvement from the ones that fell apart on our previous long-term Air Grand Touring Performance.

That said, there’s still room to improve other areas. For starters, our test car’s DreamDrive Pro driver assistance system works well enough on straight stretches of highway but struggles even with slight, well-marked curves. The key fob and proximity sensor still occasionally failed to detect our approach to the vehicle. This is something that should operate to perfection, as it’s the first (and arguably most important) interaction any driver will have with the vehicle.

Late last year, now former Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson told us one of his main goals was to increase range with smaller battery packs and eventually hit 6 miles per kilowatt-hour. It’s a challenging benchmark, but we wouldn’t be surprised if Lucid gets there first. For now, the 2025 Lucid Air Pure—with 19-inch wheels—is the car to get if you want bragging rights to the most efficient car on the market today. That it’s also comfy and fun to drive is icing on the cake.

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