Lucid: the best electric cars in the world, from a company that can't support them

Published · Researched 2026-09-21

Lucid: the best electric cars in the world, from a company that can't support them

Verdict first: Lucid builds the most efficient, best-driving electric cars in the world — 516 miles of EPA range, 4–5 mi/kWh in owners' hands, steering that reviewers grade as sports-sedan. Consumer Reports gives the Air 7 out of 100 for predicted reliability. The Gravity's launch included a 29-day delivery halt and a key fob so bad the CEO apologized for it. The Air proves a startup can out-engineer the Germans and still lose the ownership game; the Gravity proves it can happen twice.

Where Lucid wins

The engineering is not debatable: the Air Grand Touring does 516 miles of EPA range at efficiency that embarrasses cars costing twice as much, and The Drive's loaded Gravity tester at $122,200 still undercut a slower, weaker Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid by $40,000. Owners who came from a BMW 7-Series call the Air's seats the most comfortable they've owned, and the highway silence "addictive." The motors and batteries are genuinely durable — one owner reports 100,000 miles on a flawless powertrain, and no major battery or motor failures show up in the forum samples. The Gravity drives like the hype says — "the best-driving three-row money can buy" — with a genuine adult third row and 6,000 lb towing. On the road, no rival here does 516 miles or steers like this.

Where Lucid loses

Everything around the engineering. The Air's NHTSA record: 76 complaints, 47 recall campaigns, concentrated in electrical systems and powertrain electronics. The owner-reported greatest hits: frunks with minds of their own, door handles glitching after ~18 months, 2–3% daily phantom drain, CCS charging far below the brochure — one owner clocked two hours thirty-five minutes against the marketing's fraction. Jason Fenske of Engineering Explained researched the Air for months, bought a 2025 Touring, and called it the most frustrating car he'd ever owned: failed OTA updates, silent speakers, coolant pumps not spinning up. The Quebec case is the full cautionary tale: repeated towings, electrical faults, trim falling off, ADAS steering toward oncoming traffic — the owner won arbitration while Lucid's lawyers allegedly argued the car wasn't designed to be parked outside in freezing winter. In Quebec.

The Gravity launched worse: the March 2026 recall covered 4,476 SUVs — every unit built Dec 2024 to mid-Feb 2026 — for improperly welded seat-belt anchors; deliveries halted 29 days, a securities lawsuit followed, and eight straight quarters of record deliveries snapped. The key fob — eight firmware updates, a CEO apology, the entire software leadership team replaced — stranded one owner with his 35-week-pregnant wife and toddler when the car wouldn't recognize the fob or enter Drive, three times in a week. One Grand Touring owner reports 80+ days out of service with recurring seat failures and drive-system errors. And depreciation is the open wound: a 2025 Air GT with 6,500 miles sold at auction for $75,500 — 39.5% gone in twelve months.

The matchups

Air vs Model S: closer than Lucid fans admit. The Model S has genuinely good batteries (5–8% degradation at 50,000 miles), 402–410 miles of range, the Supercharger network, and Plaid absurdity — wrapped in the most resented service experience in this research. The Air drives better, goes farther, and costs less used: a 2024 sits at roughly half its MSRP. But Tesla's support exists at scale; Lucid's is a handful of centers and 2–3-week waits. Road-trip: the network wins. Driving for the driving: the Air wins. Buy used either way and let someone else eat the cliff.

Air vs Taycan: the engineer's tragedy derby. The Taycan is the precision instrument — owners call it that — but 2020–2024 cars sit inside a battery-fire class action, with an 80%-charge interim remedy, "wait and see" module replacements, and 16-week service stays. Porsche dealers at least exist. The Air's drivetrain is the reliable one here — no battery saga, no class action — which tells you how bad the Taycan's battery story is. The Taycan drives like a Porsche; the Air drives nearly as well and goes 100+ miles farther. Buy the 2025+ facelift Taycan or the used Air. Never the 2021 Taycan, never the new Air.

Gravity vs EV9: the three-row reality check. The EV9 starts at $54,900 — $25,000 under the Gravity Touring — with standard NACS, a 10-year battery warranty, and a dealer on every corner. It also loses 47% in two years. The Gravity is the better vehicle by every driving measure and the worse purchase by every ownership measure: no used market, a recall on every early build, service that goes quiet after repurchase cases. Family EV that just works: the EV9. One that steers like a sports sedan: lease the Gravity and hand the risk back.

Gravity vs Model X: the flawed-flagship SUV derby. The Model X's falcon doors malfunction on 2026 cars — an owner stranded with two toddlers in February 2026 — with suspension the #1 NHTSA complaint area. The Gravity has no falcon doors; it has a key fob that doesn't recognize you and seats that break repeatedly. Both are beta tests with badges. The Model X has Tesla's scale; the Gravity has 450 miles and better steering.

The support question

Lucid's service network is thin: 2–3-week waits, long drives to sparse centers, capacity stretched thinner by the Gravity launch. The alarming pattern: multiple owners report service going quiet after they open a repurchase case — on the Air and the Gravity both. That's not a bug, that's a strategy, and it's ugly. The warranty is 4 yr/50k basic, 8 yr/100k on battery and powertrain. The counterweight Rivian doesn't have: Saudi Arabia's PIF majority-backs Lucid, so the existential math differs — the company is unlikely to vanish. But "won't vanish" and "will call you back" are two different things.

The geography problem

Lucid sells in the US, Europe, and the Middle East — not China. Europe got a reworked Gravity lineup in August 2026 (€94,900–€147,500), and the Saudi plant makes the Middle East a real market. American buyers get the deepest used market; mid-2026 incentive stacks suggest new-car prices are already softening. In Europe the Air's CCS-charging complaints matter more and the thin service bites harder. The PIF backing makes Lucid a geopolitical car company in a way Rivian isn't — which reads as either a comfort or a warning, depending on your temperament.

Who should buy which

Buy the Air used — a 2024 at roughly half MSRP, past the worst early-production quirks, with the drivetrain proven. Never buy new; the depreciation curve is a cliff with a car at the bottom. Lease the Gravity as a post-recall 2026 build — let Lucid hold the lemon risk. Skip 2021–2022 Airs and any Dec 2024–Feb 2026 Gravity build without documented recall work. Don't buy either if you're far from a service center, if software bugs make you furious, or if you need the company to pick up the phone.

One sentence for a friend: the best electric cars in the world, from a company that treats service like an afterthought — buy used, lease new, keep the service center's number handy.