This week I lastly obtained to check out the Lucid Air Pure, the bottom trim of the electrical sedan and the one one obtainable with rear-wheel drive. For a beginning worth of $78,900 together with vacation spot you get 430 horsepower and a variety of as much as 419 miles, the latter of which is longer than every other EV save higher-end variations of the Air. Lucid says the Air Pure will hit 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, which is fairly rattling fast, however much more spectacular is its braking efficiency.
Even the bottom Air Pure has 15-inch entrance brake discs with 6-piston calipers and 14.8-inch rear discs with 4-piston calipers, with nice stopping energy and good brake pedal really feel. But you’ll hardly ever want to have interaction the friction brakes, because the Air has a few of the strongest regenerative braking in the marketplace. Lucid says the Air can decelerate at a charge of 0.22 g utilizing regen alone (the AWD vehicles can do as much as 0.3 g), and it’s so highly effective that I discover myself stopping far too quick at lights and in visitors till I get used to it. Even when zipping via the canyon roads surrounding Palm Springs I nearly by no means need to hit the brake pedal, and it’s fairly straightforward to modulate.
To showcase simply how good the regen is, I made a decision to do a decidedly unscientific acceleration and braking run on a protected, empty stretch of street out within the desert, to see how lengthy it might take to carry the automotive to a complete cease utilizing regenerative braking alone. The Air’s launch management is straightforward to make use of – simply put the automotive within the Sprint drive mode, put one foot on every pedal till the lovable bear emblem pops up, and launch the brake.
My take a look at automotive has the elective 20-inch wheels, which put on Michelin Pilot Sport summer season tires which can be stickier than the Pirellis on the usual 19s, and the automotive immediately grips and rockets off towards the horizon. I do apologize for hitting 65-ish mph as an alternative of the normal 60 earlier than I left off the accelerator and began decelerating utilizing regen, however you get the gist. Obviously this isn’t a legit instrumented take a look at – go to Car and Driver’s evaluate for that – and I can’t let you know how a lot distance it took to finish the run, however it’s nonetheless fairly cool to see how rapidly the Air slows down after accelerating onerous.
If you actually need to cease and go as rapidly as attainable, although, you’ll must step as much as the 1,234-hp Air Sapphire. It’s one of many quickest accelerating manufacturing vehicles on the earth, in a position to go from 0 to 60 mph in 1.89 seconds and run the quarter-mile in 8.95 seconds. Understandably, the Sapphire is fitted with carbon-ceramic brakes which have bigger rotors with particular building and 10-piston entrance calipers.
Source: jalopnik.com