TESTED: 2022 Lucid Air Grand Touring Misses EPA Range by Nearly 80 Miles

• We bought a Lucid Air Grand Touring and it fell short of its EPA estimate by nearly 80 miles in its latest Edmunds EV Range Test.
• This is the second time we've tested our Lucid — we retested it to see if its range would benefit from recent over-the-air updates.
• Over 50 vehicles have performed the Edmunds EV Range Test and most exceeded their EPA estimates.
• A Lucid Air Dream Range Edition we tested last year only marginally missed its EPA estimate: 505 miles versus 520 miles.
• We have taken our car to Lucid for an inspection to see if there are any underlying issues that can help explain the discrepancies.

Our own 2022 Lucid Air Grand Touring has missed its EPA range estimate by almost 80 miles in its latest Edmunds EV Range Test. In two separate tests, we achieved 425 miles and 438 miles, respectively, compared with the EPA estimate of 516 miles. Even at 438 miles, this is the first time in more than 50 tests that a vehicle has underachieved its estimate by such a margin. Since the test was undertaken, we have returned our vehicle to Lucid for an evaluation and are awaiting the results.

We tested the Grand Touring, which we bought ourselves, when new and again after 5,000 miles. On our first test in September 2022, we saw a GPS-verified 425 miles on a charge, 91 miles (17.6%) off the mark. We also experienced some technical gremlins, most notably that the climate control system would switch on the rear climate system or ventilated seats unprompted. But over-the-air updates sent out between our two drives appeared to have fixed things. 

Those updates, in addition to seeing how the battery's capacity changes over time, are part of the reason we retested our car. The range improved slightly with the second test, up to 438 miles but still a substantial 78 miles (15.1%) shy of the EPA estimate. 

Our car's results contrast with the performance of the Lucid Air Dream Range Edition we tested last year, which was loaned to us by Lucid. That car achieved 505 miles on a single charge and still holds our all-time EV range record as of this writing. It did come up short relative to the EPA range estimate of 520 miles, but the margin was much smaller.

It's also notable that almost every vehicle has exceeded its EPA range estimate in our independent testing. An exception is Tesla, which may shed some light here. Lucid, like Tesla, uses a somewhat different test to calculate its EPA range than most other automakers. The testing procedure could help explain why both Lucids fell short of their EPA estimates — but it doesn't explain why our car was so far off the standard set by the previous Air. 

Viewed in isolation, a range of 438 miles is an impressive result that places the vehicle second on our leaderboard, behind only last year's Dream Range Edition. But we spent over $140K of our own money on the car in the expectation that it would at least come close to meeting its maker’s claims. 

We shared our results with Lucid and asked the company for a comment. A spokesperson said: “Overall, we are confident that our EPA range estimates are accurate, and we expect that the numerous environmental and driving style variables that impact the range of all EVs account for the discrepancy in your testing numbers. EPA testing remains the most reliable, given the ability to control for most of these variables during testing cycles.”

As noted, Lucid encouraged us to return the vehicle for inspection, which we have done. We will conduct another range test in the future and document whether this inspection yields any further gains or insight.

For more on our experience of living with the Air, head to our long-term test page.  

Edmunds says

Our long-term Lucid Air Grand Touring is the second-ranked vehicle out of more than 50 contestants in the Edmunds EV Range Test, but its 78-mile shortfall relative to the EPA's estimate gives us pause. We'll keep testing and reporting as our ownership experience progresses.

Note: Edmunds tests every new electric vehicle on the same real-world driving loop to see just how far it can travel from a full charge down to zero miles remaining. If you scroll through our EV range leaderboard, you'll see that most EVs have matched or exceeded their EPA range estimates in our testing. Much of that has to do with our ability to test in near-ideal conditions year-round.