As the Lucid Air enters its fourth year of production, the California startup continues to eke even more range out of what was already a pretty long-lasting electric sedan. Lucid has managed to increase the Air Pure’s energy efficiency to 5.0 miles per kilowatt hour, yielding a 146 combined MPGe rating from the EPA and an estimated range of 420 miles from its 84-kWh battery. Lucid claims this makes the new Air Pure the most efficient and sustainable vehicle ever made.
That’s a bold (read: debatable) claim from Lucid, considering we saw the Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX achieve an average of 8.3 miles per kWh in testing prior to the release of the new Lucid Air Pure. The difference, of course, is that the Vision EQXX is a prototype specifically made to challenge the limits of energy density, while the Lucid Air Pure is a production sedan that starts around $70,000 in the U.S.
The difference in energy efficiency between the M-B and Lucid is still easily over 3 miles per kWh, but the Lucid Air Pure is not that far off for a mass-produced model that’s available to order starting today. For reference, Mercedes says it got up to 8.4 miles per kWh of efficiency from the Vision EQXX’s battery pack, which measures nearly 100 kWh. The one-off Merc drove about 747 miles on a single charge during testing. The Air Pure has a smaller battery, however, coming in at 84 kilowatt hours. That’s also smaller than last year’s Air Pure battery pack by four kilowatt hours, and a smaller battery is a good thing.
Among other enhancements, Lucid says it increased efficiency by making the EV’s heat pump standard across Air models instead of putting it only on upper trims. Although the new Lucid Air Pure is priced at the bottom of the lineup and positioned as the entry-level version of the luxury EV, its price is not what most would consider cheap. The base model Lucid Air Pure starts at $69,900, while the Lucid Air Touring raises the price to $78,900, and the top-of-the-line Lucid Air Grand Touring starts at $110,900.
It comes as a welcome surprise, then, that the 2025 Lucid Air Pure beats the upscale Air Touring with 14 miles of extra range for a total of 420 versus 406 miles, respectively. The Air Grand Touring will go up to 512 miles per full charge, firmly staying at the top of the lineup in terms of range, but, also, cost. For, now, the Air Pure is the king of efficiency among the new Lucids and a model citizen for EV rivals, which should all be aiming to reduce the size and weight of their EV batteries.
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