BMW i7 vs. Lucid Air Grand Touring: Which Big Electric Luxury Sedan Is Worth Your Dollars?

The quietest battle you'll (n)ever hear

2023 BMW i7 and 2022 Lucid Air GT hero

written by Brian Wong^{Senior Reviews Editor
Brian Wong has worked in the automotive industry since 2010, writing over 1,000 car-related articles and testing and reviewing hundreds of vehicles over the course of career. Brian is a senior reviews editor at Edmunds and has also contributed to Cars.com, Motor Authority and Green Car Reports. Brian has also been featured on MotorWeek as an expert for several car comparisons. He loves convertibles (the smaller the better) and hates paying for parking, so Los Angeles is both the right and wrong city for him.}
8/24/2023
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The BMW i7 is the electric version of BMW's flagship 7 Series sedan
Our long-term Lucid Air Grand Touring is fast, but is it enough to overcome the BMW's opulence?
Both vehicles come with sky-high price tags, so which one feels truly worth the spend?
Watch to find out!

Our long-term Lucid Air Grand Touring's size, speed and $140,500 price tag mean that it competes against a number of well-regarded super-EVs. These include the excellent Porsche Taycan, Mercedes-Benz EQS, Tesla Model S and BMW i7. The latter is one of the newest electron-infused flagship sedans on the block, so we thought it was an opportune time to pit this electric 7 Series against the Air.

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Yes, the i7 does cost a little bit more in the configuration we tested ($151,995) but at this level, that price gap isn't all that wide. And it makes for a compelling study: What's the tangible difference between a big electric sedan from an established automaker versus one from an upstart?

As we came to find out in our comparison test, the BMW, perhaps unsurprisingly, is far more refined than the Lucid. But the Air still holds undeniable advantages in terms of range, performance and charging speed. Are those highlights enough to claw the Lucid back into contention? You'll have to watch to find out.

2023 BMW i7 front

Edmunds says

The whipcrack performance and range of the Lucid Air impress, but there's still a massive gulf between the upstart and the BMW i7 when it comes to the latter's superior materials quality, technology and overall refinement.

Brian Wong

Brian Wong has worked in the automotive industry since 2010, writing over 1,000 car-related articles and testing and reviewing hundreds of vehicles over the course of career. Brian is a senior reviews editor at Edmunds and has also contributed to Cars.com, Motor Authority and Green Car Reports. Brian has also been featured on MotorWeek as an expert for several car comparisons. He loves convertibles (the smaller the better) and hates paying for parking, so Los Angeles is both the right and wrong city for him.

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