The verdict
A capable full-size luxury sedan, strong on performance and held back by ownership.
Overall 2.79 (B-) across 10 graded subjects. Its strongest is performance & powertrain at 4.00 (A+), its weakest cost of ownership at 0.00 (F). 8 of 10 subjects grade at C− or better.
Jump to scoresStrengths
- Performance & Powertrain
- Space & Comfort
- Efficiency & Range
What holds it back
- Cost of Ownership
- Reliability & Quality
- Use-Case Fit
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CompareSubject scores by year
Hover or tap a score to see what moved it versus the year before. A corner mark flags a big swing.
| Year | Performance | Efficiency | Safety | Space | Cost | Reliability | Tech | Use-case | Driving | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 77 | 76 | 76 | 87 | 20 | 57 | 85 | 64 | 78 | 75 |
| 2025 | 79 | 77 | 71 | 85 | 21 | 46 | 80 | 59 | 83 | 82 |
| 2024 | 79 | 77 | 73 | 85 | 21 | 49 | 75 | 62 | 82 | 80 |
| 2023 | 90 | 78 | 73 | 85 | 19 | 44 | 71 | 60 | 79 | 82 |
| 2022 | 94 | 85 | 69 | 85 | 19 | 37 | 75 | 60 | 76 | 76 |
Compare two years
Best fit & conditions
Higher scores mean a better fit for that use case. Learn more about use-case fit →
Subject profile
Detailed scoring by subject
1Performance & PowertrainThe Air's best-graded category.4.00A+
Grand Touring was the regular-production Air delivered through most of 2022 and is the representative volume trim. Its dual-motor powertrain produces 819 hp.
The standard Grand Touring's two motors deliver 885 lb-ft to all four wheels.
Lucid quotes 3.0 seconds for the volume Grand Touring on 21-inch wheels, exceptionally quick for a full-size luxury sedan.
Power is immediate, proportional, quiet, and exceptionally strong, while Smooth, Swift, and Sprint modes meaningfully tailor response. Reviewers consistently praised both the effortless delivery and its controllability.
The integrated single-speed reduction gear eliminates shifting and hunting, giving seamless acceleration. Two strong, well-integrated regenerative-braking settings enable effective one-pedal driving.
Every Air variant actually delivered in the U.S. during 2022 used dual-motor AWD, providing immense traction and electronically managed output at both axles. It lacks off-road modes, but AWD availability was effectively universal.
The 2022 range remained EV-only, but by year end offered four meaningfully different dual-motor outputs from 480 to 1,050 hp, with distinct range and performance priorities. That is broad within one powertrain class, though there was no ICE, hybrid, or initially delivered RWD alternative.
2Efficiency & RangeOne of the Air's strongest categories.3.78A
The representative Grand Touring with range-oriented 19-inch wheels is exceptionally efficient for a large, 819-hp luxury EV.
EPA city efficiency is 130 MPGe for the 19-inch-wheel Grand Touring configuration.
Its 132-MPGe highway rating is unusually strong and slightly exceeds its city figure, reflecting the Air's excellent aerodynamics.
The volume Grand Touring achieved an industry-leading 516-mile EPA rating with 19-inch wheels; optional 21s reduce it to 469 miles.
The Grand Touring's 900V+ system accepts up to 300 kW, placing it among the fastest-charging 2022 EVs.
Lucid's 2022 U.S. material did not state a 10–80% figure, instead quoting range added in 22 minutes. A charging-curve source covering the MY2022 Grand Touring calculates 29:01 from 10–80%, so this required field is not presented as a manufacturer quote.
EPA's standardized estimate is only $600 per year, aided by the Air's exceptional electrical efficiency.
As a pure EV it requires no premium gasoline, is very inexpensive to charge under EPA assumptions, and supports unusually fast 19.2-kW AC and 300-kW DC charging. Public CCS availability in 2022 and the electrical work needed to exploit 19.2-kW home charging keep it short of perfect.
3SafetyMid-pack among this car's ten categories.2.65C+
NHTSA did not publish an NCAP overall rating for the 2022 Air, so a segment-neutral 4-star placeholder is used rather than treating an untested car as either a failure or a 5-star vehicle.
IIHS has not tested or awarded the Air, preventing Top Safety Pick credit. The same 2022 Air GT nevertheless earned five stars from Euro NCAP with 90% adult- and 91% child-occupant scores, supporting a neutral-to-positive result rather than an assumed poor one.
The volume 2022 Grand Touring included DreamDrive Pro, covering all five rubric essentials plus front cross-traffic protection, driver monitoring, traffic-sign recognition, parking protection, and a surround-view camera.
Although IIHS has no test, Euro NCAP found the Air's AEB performed well against vehicles and pedestrians, including nighttime pedestrian scenarios; cyclist response was adequate rather than class-leading.
DreamDrive Pro gives the Grand Touring unusually broad coverage: blind-spot warning plus a camera display, front and rear cross-traffic protection, and rear pedestrian collision protection. It lacks the safe-exit alert and trailer-aware functionality of the very best systems.
Lane-departure protection is useful, and Lucid added active lane centering to every Air through UX 2.0 in October 2022, but multiple 2022 tests found abrupt operation, ping-ponging, or inconsistent centering.
Full-range adaptive cruise and the late-2022 Highway Assist update make long trips easy, with reviewers consistently praising smooth speed and gap control. The inconsistent lane-centering half of Highway Assist keeps the combined system below the leaders.
The 2022 Air offered no hands-free highway driving function; DreamDrive Pro was marketed as future-ready hardware, but its available Highway Assist required active driver supervision and hands on the wheel.
The Grand Touring's standard intelligent LED micro-lens-array lamps included automatic high beams and automatic leveling after the 2022 UX update, but IIHS has not measured their illumination or glare, so a Good rating cannot be assumed.
Large side glass and DreamDrive Pro's surround and blind-spot cameras help, but thick front pillars, a short rear window, and the low roof/glass-canopy tint line create meaningful natural-sightline compromises.
The exceptionally roomy rear seat, wide-opening doors, and easy-to-identify anchors make two child seats simple to accommodate, though lower anchors sit in a firm seat bight and the center position has no lower anchors.
4Space & ComfortOne of the Air's strongest categories.3.79A
The 2022 Grand Touring is a five-passenger sedan.
Headroom is generous for a low luxury sedan, though the standard glass canopy can radiate substantial heat.
Exceptional front legroom exceeds the sedan normalization ceiling.
Rear headroom is unusually generous beneath the Air's low roofline.
The published SAE-style figure is merely average, although reviewers consistently describe abundant usable knee room; the large battery raises the rear floor and limits under-seat toe space.
The conventional rear trunk alone clears the sedan scoring ceiling, while the two-tier frunk adds exceptional separate storage.
A deep console, door bins, storage beneath the retractable Pilot Panel, false-floor trunk and huge two-level frunk make this a storage standout despite the trunk's awkward access.
Supple, highly adjustable heated/ventilated/massaging front chairs and a spacious rear bench suit long trips, though one review found the fronts firm and flat and Consumer Reports wanted more rear thigh support.
Adaptive dampers deliver a rare blend of supple cruising and disciplined body control, but steel springs and sharp large-wheel impacts keep it below the plushest air-sprung flagships.
The silent EV drivetrain and luxury construction make it calm, but road noise plus early-build squeaks prevent library-quiet status.
Grand Touring brings heated, ventilated and massaging front seats plus heated rear seats and dedicated rear climate controls; remote preconditioning is supported, though the glass canopy's heat load is a notable flaw.
5Cost of OwnershipThe Air's lowest-graded category.0.00F
The 2022 Air Pure was the entry trim after Lucid's June 2022 price increase, though Grand Touring was the principal series-production trim actually delivered during most of the launch year.
Grand Touring is the representative 2022 volume trim: Lucid called it the first series model after the limited 520-car Dream Edition, while Pure and Touring arrived later in the rollout.
Routine EV service is limited, but the Air's expensive tires, low-volume parts and post-warranty repair exposure make a luxury-EV allowance appropriate. No trim-specific Edmunds/KBB five-year table is publicly exposed for the 2022 Grand Touring.
The Air is projected to depreciate more rapidly than its luxury-EV class, reflecting launch-year pricing and startup-brand risk.
Coverage matches the common luxury-car warranty term and exceeds the mainstream 3-year baseline.
The long EV powertrain and battery term is competitive, with an explicit battery-capacity floor.
There was no included scheduled maintenance, but launch-year owners received three years of uncapped personal-use Electrify America fast charging plus 4-year/50,000-mile roadside assistance, a valuable EV ownership package.
$155,500 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (37.3% retained, or about $58,002) leaves about $97,499 in depreciation. Add the projected $7,500 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $104,999 in total.
6Reliability & QualityOne of the Air's weakest categories.0.41F
Consumer Reports has insufficient survey data to rate the 2022 Air, and J.D. Power publishes no model quality score. That uncertainty is compounded by two reputable long-term cars reporting numerous software and hardware faults, including failures to start and a loss-of-power event.
The Air was Lucid's first production vehicle and 2022 was its launch model year, leaving no prior Lucid product or multi-year dependability record. Consumer Reports could not rank Lucid in its 2024 brand reliability study because it lacked sufficient data.
Fourteen recalls is exceptionally heavy for a low-volume launch-year sedan, and the campaigns include safety-significant loss-of-drive-power and loss-of-defrost risks rather than only minor labeling defects. The volume Grand Touring is within the model-year population covered by these Air-wide campaigns.
The 2022 Grand Touring's Lucid-designed battery and dual-motor system was entirely new and had no high-mileage history at launch. Later long-term testing shows strong efficiency but includes one unexplained sudden loss-of-power event, while the NHTSA power-loss recall prevents an average durability assessment.
The Grand Touring cabin uses attractive leather and trim and presents as luxurious, but reviewers found key touchpoints such as the window switches, steering-wheel buttons, and center-stack controls conspicuously cheap for a roughly $140,000 car. Material richness is therefore below the full-size luxury benchmark despite the appealing design.
Multiple instrumented-review cars displayed launch-year assembly defects: wide panel gaps, a door that needed slamming, loose A-pillar trim, creaks and rattles, failed trim adhesive, and broken door hardware. The repeated and independently documented faults put 2022 well below luxury-class expectations even though newer Airs subsequently improved.
Lucid's factory-owned service centers, satellite facilities, mobile technicians, and approved body shops provide useful support in major metro areas, but the network remains sparse nationally compared with established luxury brands. A nine-day visit for one warranty repair in Edmunds' long-term test was merely average for a premium car.
The low-volume, first-year Air has little aftermarket support and depends heavily on Lucid's own repair ecosystem, making components and qualified repair access less abundant than for established luxury sedans. Edmunds' later repair experience illustrates the cost exposure with an approximately $22,000 collision bill.
7Technology & InfotainmentGrades above the middle of the scale.3.07B
Lucid markets the continuous curved 34-inch Glass Cockpit as the primary driver/center interface; its right-hand section is the center infotainment touchscreen.
The gorgeous, thoughtfully integrated interface was plainly unfinished in 2022, with intermittent lag, buried functions and startup/connectivity bugs.
Neither Apple CarPlay nor Android Auto was enabled on the scored 2022 configuration at review time, even though Lucid promised later OTA support.
Alexa Built-in provides broad natural-language control and native navigation is EV-aware, but slow map loading and immature software reduce confidence.
The standard 21-speaker Surreal Sound system is genuinely flagship-grade and benefits from immersive processing and active noise cancellation.
A crisp, full-digital driver display is integrated into the panoramic curved Glass Cockpit, with adjacent touch zones and polished graphics.
Whole-vehicle OTA capability was foundational and actively used to add features and fix early issues, not merely update maps.
The Lucid app supports mobile-key access, locking, location, charge status and remote climate, but the early ownership ecosystem was less mature than Tesla's.
USB connections and wireless charging cover normal device needs, but the finicky charging pad and lack of a cabin household outlet hold it to the middle-high band.
Proximity key, app-based mobile key, powered front and rear cargo openings and soft-close doors deliver comprehensive luxury access convenience.
DreamDrive Pro's extensive sensor suite supplies surround-view cameras, parking sensors and automated parking capability, appropriate for the car's large footprint.
A large, informative head-up display is standard on the Grand Touring rather than restricted to a rare option package.
8Use-Case FitOne of the Air's weakest categories.2.02C
A broad rear bench, standard child-seat anchors, generous cabin room and 32.1 cu ft of split cargo capacity work well for families, but the low sedan body and separate trunk are less effortless than an SUV.
DreamDrive Pro brought a very broad standard ADAS suite, and the 2022 Air later earned five Euro NCAP stars, but it had no NHTSA or IIHS crash rating for the US launch and suffered early safety recalls.
Excellent front seats, a spacious heated rear bench with dedicated climate control, quiet EV operation and unusual luggage capacity make it a superb four-person tourer; glass-roof heat and rear thigh/toe support are the caveats.
Progressive instant response, predictable one-pedal driving, excellent seats and a compliant Smooth mode minimize fatigue, though the wide body and immature touch interface add friction.
The exceptionally efficient 2022 Grand Touring uses little electricity for its size, but expensive tires, insurance and luxury-car repairs keep total commuting cost from the exceptional-cheap band.
Surround cameras and sensors help, but a 195.9-inch length, 86.4-inch mirror width and 39.0-foot turning circle make tight urban spaces demanding.
This low luxury sedan has no bed and no published US tow rating; its large trunk/frunk can carry tools but does not make it a meaningful work vehicle.
An all-new six-figure EV with delicate luxury finishes and no fleet track record is poorly suited to abuse, despite the mechanically simple electric drivetrain.
There is no bed, factory hitch/upfit ecosystem, washable cabin or readily usable household outlet; bidirectional capability was not a normal 2022 jobsite-power feature.
This is the Air's defining mission: exceptional seats and ride, 516 miles EPA range on 19-inch wheels, more than 400 miles in a 75-mph test and extremely rapid charging make it one of the era's best mile-eaters.
Standard AWD can handle maintained gravel, and separate front/rear cargo helps with gear, but 5.4 inches of clearance, no factory tow rating and the low body make it overwhelmingly pavement-oriented.
A 22.1-cu-ft false-floor trunk, class-leading 10-cu-ft frunk and split-folding rear backrest handle normal luggage very well, but the sedan opening is awkward and hitch/roof flexibility is limited.
9Driving ExperienceGrades above the middle of the scale.3.19B
Excellent balance, adaptive-damper body control and selectable modes make this 5,200-lb sedan borderline athletic, though all-season tires and substantial width keep it below a Taycan.
The rack is accurate, light and communicative by luxury-EV standards, with useful added heft in Swift/Sprint, though Smooth mode filters most road feel.
Strong, predictable regen enables genuine one-pedal use, but the volume 19-inch Grand Touring's squishy initial pedal and very long 193-foot 70-0 stop are serious shortcomings.
The dual-motor single-speed drivetrain delivers immediate, seamless and progressive response with no shifts or combustion transitions; three modes meaningfully tailor output.
The electric drivetrain is essentially vibration-free and responds with a subdued whoosh rather than intrusive motor whine, even under full acceleration.
The long wheelbase and lack of rear steering leave the Air near the poor end of the sedan normalization range.
Excellent seat adjustment, a low cowl and judicious physical controls create a comfortable cockpit, but some frequent functions remain buried in screens and glass-roof heat can distract.
Three-second acceleration, immediate response and a surprisingly communicative, balanced chassis make the Grand Touring genuinely entertaining without sacrificing its grand-tourer character.
10Value & Market PositionGrades above the middle of the scale.3.13B
The 2022 Grand Touring was effectively fully equipped, combining 819-hp AWD, exceptional range, a glass canopy, four-zone climate control, 21-speaker audio, 20-way heated/ventilated/massaging seats and DreamDrive Pro hardware without a conventional options burden.
A roughly $155,500 delivered price was steep, but the Grand Touring paired supercar acceleration and 819 hp with up to 516 EPA miles, technology and cabin space that no direct 2022 rival combined. It was compelling capability-per-dollar rather than an outright bargain.
The announced range spanned Pure, Touring, Grand Touring, Grand Touring Performance and two Dream Edition variants, with RWD/AWD and major power/range differences. Availability was uneven in the launch year, however, with production centered on Dream Edition and Grand Touring.
Demand supported a sold-out launch edition and rising production, but 4,369 total company deliveries in 2022 left the Air a low-volume niche entrant rather than a broadly accepted luxury-sedan seller.
Lucid immediately established a high-tech, aspirational image through record range, design and performance, but as a first-time automaker it lacked the loyalty, service footprint and proven resale strength of established luxury marques.
The launch-year Air had reservation-backed demand, a sold-out Dream Edition and midyear price increases of $10,000-$15,000, so conventional discounts or subsidized deals were essentially absent. The then-available federal EV credit helped eligible buyers but was not a Lucid discount.
This was the Air's all-new launch model year and the first year of the generation beginning in 2022, with a clean-sheet 900V-plus EV platform and no redesign risk.
The launch Air received exceptional acclaim, winning MotorTrend's overall 2022 Car of the Year and setting contemporary range and charging benchmarks. Reviews noted software quirks and road noise, but the major-award recognition was segment-leading.
