Lucid Air Sapphire Is Still Luxury but also Flat-out Performance

• The Lucid Air Sapphire is the ultra-performance version of this all-electric luxury sedan.
• Performance numbers are world-beating: 0-60 mph in 1.89, top speed of 205 mph.
• It’s coming this fall for a whopping $249,000.

There was always a plan to make a pinnacle performer in the Lucid Air lineup, and here it is: the Sapphire.

“It’s flat-out performance,” said design director Derek Jenkins.

The numbers don’t lie (unless, of course, they’re lying about the numbers, which it sure doesn’t seem like after having driven the thing): Zero to 60 mph in 1.89 seconds, the quarter mile in 8.95 seconds at 158 mph, a top speed of 205 mph, driving modes that let you launch down a drag strip or lap a road course without overheating anything, and a suspension that holds on respectably well even with three people in it and a fairly bumpy stretch of whoop-dee-doo road in the Hollywood Hills that hadn’t been repaved since the Yorty administration.

And it’s all-electric, outgunning all the Mercedes and Tesla electrics that are its closest competitors.

The Tesla Model S Plaid requires you to pre-condition its battery for a half-hour and apply layer upon layer of track-stickiness to finally, allegedly, achieve 0-60 in 1.99 seconds.

The Lucid Air Sapphire requires a brief pre-conditioning period to get batteries and motors to 77 degrees F, followed by selection of the “Drag Strip” mode, and then all you do is mash the throttle and beat your hated, smack-talking Tesla-driving neighbor for bragging rights in your suburban paradise.

Range Officially Listed at 427 Miles

The Sapphire is the first Lucid to get three permanent magnet electric motors—one in front and two in the back. Output of those three motors adds up to 1234 hp and 1430 lb-ft of torque at the wheels. The next-closest Lucid Air model is the Grand Touring, with 1050 hp and only two motors.

The Sapphire has two single-speed reduction gears per axle, 7:1 reduction gear in the front and 6.8:1 in the rear. The whole thing runs on a platform architecture of 900 volts+ and can recharge at up to 300 kW (assuming you can find that many kW anywhere).

Range for the Sapphire is way more than you will likely ever need between charges—it’s now officially listed at 427 miles from the 118-kWh battery. That battery consists of liquid-cooled lithium-ion 21700 cells mounted under the floor and in the “transmission” tunnel between the front seats.

Inside, it offers all the luxury you’re ever likely to want, from Alcantara microsuede on the steering wheel, center seat sections, upper dash, headliner, and on the door, over sections of genuine alpaca textile (alpaca!).

Outside, my loaner car was slathered in Sapphire Blue paint under an “Infinite Black” aluminum fixed roof. The track is just over half an inch wider in front and just over three-quarters of an inch wider rear. The bright work is a dark, smoked chrome.

It also gets a longer front chin spoiler and a rear, fixed ducktail spoiler that’s almost four inches high for added aerodynamic stability. Unique lightweight wheels—20-inch fronts and 21-inch rears—are wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires made just for the Sapphire. Brakes are lighter-weight carbon-ceramics with 10-piston front calipers and six rear. Yes, ten-piston front. Aye Chihuahua.

Drivetrain Takes No Brains at All to Operate

Engineers retuned the ABS, brake boost, stability control, adaptive damper control, torque vectoring, and electric power steering just for the Sapphire. Drive modes include Smooth, Swift, Sapphire and Track.

Within Track mode are three more modes for Drag Strip, Hot Lap (for a single, presumably qualifying lap), and Endurance, for several laps, though just how many laps was not clear.

“You can go full throttle in a corner in the wet and not spin a tire,” said senior director of chassis and vehicle dynamics David Lickfold (“Like an envelope.”)

To prove his point, he let me drive. And not just drive, but drive way faster than I might have on an empty, twisty, four-lane, canyon road.

Going as quickly as I dared through several empty curves, I did not feel any slip to speak of. Whatever little squeak was immediately attended to by traction control and torque vectoring. Roll was likewise minimal. It would have been better to try it out on a race track where some repeatability could have been employed, but it passed this test with electric surety.

Did it feel as enjoyable as your old M5 or Chevy SS? It’s different. The drivetrain takes no brains at all to operate, no waiting for the meaty section of the torque curve to come on, since all the torque is available all the time, and there was no shifting, of course. The adaptive dampers adapted away. It’s a different feel, very efficient, very insistent, as if to say, “This is the future of performance, you will enjoy it, dammit!” And I did, for the most part.

Try This New Hyper-Rocket Howler

Compared to its electric sedan competition—the Model S and the Mercedes EQE and EQS—it is certainly faster and sportier, in its electric way, or the AMG versions of those. You get that same, hyper-thrilling feeling under acceleration that only drag racers have known up until now.

That is really a spaceship sensation, almost a Warp Factor 7 feeling. But the tossability is not the same as your old M5 or SS. Whether you would prefer this or something you’re familiar with might depend on how open you are to change. Many web commenters might just insist they like the old, internal-combustion ways, even if they haven’t tried this new hyper-rocket howler approach to thrilling.

As for price, it starts at $249,000, more than a hundred grand over the cost of the BMW M8 Competition Gran Coupe powered by internal combustion. The AMG Mercedes E53 is also ICE-powered and a lot less expensive.

For electric competition consider the EQE or EQS sedans, both all-electric and both a lot more affordable, or the BMW i5 M60 or i5 eDrive40, with six-figure savings over the Lucid Air Sapphire.

But you won’t be lost in the crowd with the Lucid, which is still new and exciting, isn’t it? It’s certainly exciting to drive, I can tell you that. Yow!

Do you think the Lucid Air Sapphire is a lust-worthy EV? Please comment below.

Mark Vaughn grew up in a Ford family and spent many hours holding a trouble light over a straight-six miraculously fed by a single-barrel carburetor while his father cursed Ford, all its products and everyone who ever worked there. This was his introduction to objective automotive criticism. He started writing for City News Service in Los Angeles, then moved to Europe and became editor of a car magazine called, creatively, Auto. He decided Auto should cover Formula 1, sports prototypes and touring cars—no one stopped him! From there he interviewed with Autoweek at the 1989 Frankfurt motor show and has been with us ever since.