I had the opportunity to drive the Lucid Air Touring for a little more than a week during the holidays, and I can say with confidence that the California-designed and engineered electric luxury sedan passes the Canadian winter test with flying colors.
I am impressed. Let’s dive into it.
I had never had the chance to drive a Lucid before. Our own Scooter Doll is our main reporter on the Lucid beat, and he is a big fan of the Air, to say the least. His main complaint has been the software, which has been improving as of late, so I was excited to give it a shot with a more complete version of the car.
Since launching in Quebec, they had tried to get me in a car, but we couldn’t make it happen. Eventually, they told me they had one for me on December 23rd.
Even though it was the holidays, I couldn’t pass on the opportunity and went to pick the sleek red Air Touring for my holiday travels.
I have been following the company for a long time. From their transition as Atieva, an electric powertrain and energy storage company, to Lucid, a complete electric vehicle maker. Getting to drive one felt like a long time coming.
Lucid Air Touring
Now, I say it passes the Canadian winter test, and if you are from the region, you might say: “What winter?” Winters are indeed becoming milder around here, but I had the car for just over a week, and the timing was perfect for a true winter test.
A few hours after picking up the car in Montreal, I had to drive it back home to Shawinigan in the middle of a decent snowstorm. Two hours in the snow and the left lane on the 40 East wasn’t even plowed.
Generally speaking, a new car I am not familiar with plus a snowstorm equals being extra careful, and I was obviously cautious, but the Lucid Air’s impressive driving dynamics quickly gave me an incredible amount of confidence.
At 5,200 lbs, it’s a heavy vehicle, but it is an incredibly well-balanced 5,200 lbs.
The Air Touring is just the third most powerful version of Lucid’s flagship sedan, but I never felt like I needed more power, and that makes sense, considering it is pushing 620 hp and can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds.
I was able to pass vehicles easily, even in the snow, and always felt in complete control of the vehicle. It is a fun, comfortable drive.
Speaking of comfort, the Lucid Air is a true luxury sedan with all the comfort features you would expect and more. The level of customization is also impressive for the seats. You could adjust them for hours to get them perfect.
The backseat is also impressive. Lucid did a great job optimizing the interior. The backseat feels like a limousine:
It’s a great car for drivers, for passengers, but the trunk space is where some people criticize the Lucid Air.
I understand why, but I would argue that trunk space is not a real problem. The trunk opening is one. It is extremely small and short:
However, in terms of volume, it is more than decent. You just need to be able to get things in. Thanks to Lucid’s extremely compact motors, there are very deep hidden compartments at the bottom of the trunk and frunk.
It leaves plenty of room for luggage, but again, it needs to fit the opening first.
For our travels, it was just my girlfriend, our cat, and I, but I could see this car easily fitting four people and luggage for a week.
That’s a good thing because this is a great road trip car, thanks to its incredible efficiency.
The Lucid Air Touring is rated at an EPA range of 406 miles (653 km), but like any other EVs or gas-powered vehicles, your mileage may vary, and the cold affects the mileage badly.
As I said, our winters are becoming milder, but I had the perfect Canadian winter test condition on Christmas day. We drove from Shawinigan to Quebec City, drove around the city, parked for hours in the cold without charging, and then went back to Shawinigan on a single charge.
Overall, it was just over 400 km (250 miles) and I arrived home with 27 km:
That might not seem too impressive for a 400-mile car, but the temperature on the drive ranged from -18 to -8°C (-1 to 18°F). If you have drivem EVs in those temperatures, you know that this is impressive.
What is most impressive is that I didn’t have to adapt my driving thanks to the impressive range and efficiency.
When I drive long distances in an electric vehicle in the cold, I would generally reduce my speed in order to extend the range, but in this case, I got a pretty good idea of the efficiency on the drive to Quebec City, so I was confident on my way back that I could make it without stopping to charge.
It enabled me to drive on the highway at my usual 119 km/h on cruise control and make it without breaking a sweat.
Electrek’s Take
That’s a game-changer. There’s no compromise. At Electrek, we like to emphasize that range is not everything with EVs. Non-EV drivers tend to think that you need more than 400 miles to have a viable EV. That’s wrong unless you drive 400 miles or more in one go often, which is not how most people use cars.
A 200-mile EV with fast-charging is a great solution for most people as you wake up with a full charge every day and for the few times a year when you drive long distances, you are able to stop for a quick 20-40-minute charge, which enables you to drive 300-400 miles in a single day easily.
However, things change in extreme cold. Once you start hitting temperatures below -15°C (5°F), the range starts to be affected badly, and that’s when a longer range becomes super useful.
Honestly, I’ve been driving EVs in the Canadian cold for almost a decade, and it hasn’t been a major issue for me. If you adapt your driving, you will be OK, and over that decade, I’ve also seen range prediction and efficiency improving, which help with this issue.
But now, if you have the money, you also have another solution: the Lucid Air. It’s truly a great, no compromise vehicle, as long as you have the money since the Lucid Air Touring at $78,900 USD ($109,300. CAD).
If you do, it would be hard to find a downside compared to other similarly priced vehicles. As previously mentioned, the software has been an issue with early versions of the Air.
I’ve only ever experienced the latest version of Lucid’s software and despite some issues, I found it more than decent, especially compared to legacy automakers.
It is equipped with Apple Carplay for those who like it, but the native navigation worked great for me, and it also has a native Spotify app. Personally, I don’t need much more than that. It’s not all perfect though. On two occasions, I had issue connecting my phone to the car and I had to disconnect and reconnect it several times for it to work.
There’s also plenty of room for UI optimization. I would like to see something like media controls for the passenger at the bottom of the center display or the right of the top display.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.
Over the next two years, homebuilder Lennar is outfitting more than 1,500 new Colorado homes with Dandelion Energy’s geothermal systems in one of the largest residential geothermal rollouts in the US.
The big draw for homeowners is lower energy bills and cleaner heating and cooling. Dandelion claims Lennar homeowners with geothermal systems will collectively save around $30 million over the next 20 years compared to using air-source heat pumps. Geothermal heat pumps don’t need outdoor AC units or conventional heating systems, either.
Geothermal systems use the sustained temperature of the ground to heat or cool a home. A ground loop system absorbs heat energy (BTUs) from the earth so that it can be transferred to a heat pump and efficiently converted into warmth for a home. Dandelion says its ground loop systems are built to last for over 50 years and should require no maintenance.
Dandelion’s geothermal system uses a vertical ground closed-loop system that is installed using well-boring equipment and trenched back into the house to connect to a heat pump. The pipes circulate a mixture of water and propylene glycol, a food-grade antifreeze, that absorbs the ground’s temperature. A ground source heat pump circulates the liquid through the ground loops and it exchanges its heat energy in the heat pump with liquid refrigerant. The refrigerant is converted to vapor, compressed to increase its temperature, then passed through a heat exchanger to transfer heat to the air, which is circulated through a home’s HVAC ductwork.
Advertisement – scroll for more content
Daniel Yates, Dandelion Energy’s CEO, called the partnership with Lennar a “new benchmark for affordable, energy-efficient, and high-quality home heating and cooling.” By streamlining its installation process, Dandelion is making geothermal systems simpler and cheaper for homebuilders and homeowners to adopt.
This collaboration is happening at a time when Colorado is pushing hard to meet its clean energy targets. Governor Jared Polis is excited about the move, calling it a win for Coloradans’ wallets, air quality, and the state’s leadership on geothermal energy. Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, said that “ensuring affordable access to geothermal heating and cooling is essential to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and we’re excited to be part of such a huge effort to bring this technology to so many new Colorado homes.”
And it’s not just about cutting emissions – geothermal heat pumps help reduce peak electric demand. Analysis from the Department of Energy found that widespread adoption of these systems could save the US from needing 24,500 miles of new transmission lines. That’s like crossing the continental US eight times.
Colorado is making this transition a lot more attractive through state tax credits and Xcel Energy’s rebate programs. These incentives slash upfront costs for builders like Lennar, making geothermal installations more financially viable. The utility’s Clean Heat Plan and electrification strategy are working to keep energy bills low while meeting climate goals.
Now is a great time to begin your solar journey so your system is installed in time for those sunny spring days. If you want to make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20 to 30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate partner
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.
Polestar has removed the Polestar 2 from its US website header in an early sign of how new tariffs will restrict choice and competition for American consumers, thus increasing prices.
The Polestar 2 is Polestar’s first full EV – the original Polestar 1 was a limited-edition plug-in hybrid.
It started production in 2020 in Luqiao, Zhejiang, China, where Polestar and Volvo’s parent corporation, Geely, was founded.
Unfortunately, that interacts with some news that has been getting a lot of play lately: tariffs.
The US has been gradually getting stupider and stupider on the issue of tariffs, apparently determined to increase prices for Americans and decrease the competitiveness of American manufacturing in a time of change for the auto industry.
It is widely acknowledged (by anyone who has given it a few seconds of thought) that tariffs increase prices and that trade barriers tend to reduce competition, leading to less innovation.
It started with 25% tariffs on various products from China, implemented in the 2018-2020 timeframe. Then, in 2024, President Biden implemented a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs, effectively stopping their sale in the US. These tariffs included some exceptions and credits based on Volvo’s other US manufacturing, which Polestar had used to keep the most expensive versions of the 2 on sale in the US, while restricting the lower-priced versions from sale. Nevertheless, they were a bad idea.
Now, in yet another step to make America less competitive and inflate the prices of goods more for Americans, we got more tariff announcements today from a senile ex-reality TV host who wandered into the White House rose garden (which he does not belong in). These tariffs do not include the same exceptions as the previously-announced Biden tariffs.
Apparently this has all been enough for Polestar, as even in advance of today’s tariff announcements, the company suddenly removed its Polestar 2 from its website header today.
The change can be seen at polestar.com/us, where only the Polestar 3 and 4 are listed in the header area. On other sites, like the company’s Norwegian website or British website, the car is still there. The Polestar 2 page is still up on the US website, but it isn’t linked to elsewhere on the site (we’ll see how long it stays up).
We reached out to Polestar for comment, but didn’t hear anything back before publication. We’ll update if we do.
It makes sense that the Polestar 2 would still be for sale elsewhere, as it only started production in 2020. Most car models are available for at least 7 years, so this is an earlier exit than expected.
So it’s likely that all of the tariff news is what had an effect in killing the Polestar 2.
Then again, this is also just the second day of a new fiscal quarter. Perhaps the timing offers Polestar an opportunity to make a clean break – especially now that the lower-priced version of its Polestar 3 is available.
Despite the lower $67.5k base price of the new Polestar 3 variant, that represents a big increase in price for the brand, which had sold the base model Polestar 2 for around $50k originally, before all of these tariffs.
Update: Polestar got back to us with comment, but understandably, it doesn’t say much:
Polestar is a three-car company and Polestar 2 is available for customers now. There are a select number of Polestar 2s in stock at retailers that can be found on Polestar.com, but Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 will be the priority in the North American market.
Volvo decided to build the car in Belgium and export it to the US, but now that new tariffs apply to the EU as well, maybe that low-priced, awesome, fast, small EV will instead stay in Europe instead of being shipped overseas.
This shows how mercurial tariff fiats from an ignoramus are bad for manufacturing, as they mean that companies can’t make plans – and if they can’t make plans, eventually, they’ll probably just write the country making the random decisions out of their plans so they don’t have to deal with the nonsense.
And we’ve heard this from every businessperson or manufacturer representative we’ve talked to at any level of the automotive industry. Nobody thinks any of this is a good idea, because it objectively is not. All it does is make business harder, make the US less trustworthy, make things more expensive, and overall just harm America.
Yet another way that Americans are getting screwed by this stupid nonsense. 49% of you voted for inflation, and 100% of Americans are now getting it. Happy Inflation Day, everyone.
Charge your electric vehicle at home using rooftop solar panels. Find a reliable and competitively priced solar installer near you on EnergySage, for free. They have pre-vetted installers competing for your business, ensuring high-quality solutions and 20-30% savings. It’s free, with no sales calls until you choose an installer. Compare personalized solar quotes online and receive guidance from unbiased Energy Advisers. Get started here. – ad*
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.
Lucid Motors (LCID) has now had six straight quarters with higher deliveries. The delivery record comes just as Lucid prepares to begin delivering its first electric SUV, the Gravity, to customers by the end of this month.
Lucid sets sixth straight delivery record in Q1 2025
Lucid delivered 3,109 vehicles in the first quarter, up 58% from last year and topping its previous record of 3,099 set in Q4 2024.
The company also produced 2,213 vehicles at its Casa Grande, Arizona, plant in the first three months of 2025, an increase of 28% from last year. Another 600 vehicles were in transit to Saudi Arabia, where they will be assembled at its new AMP-2 plant, Lucid’s first international manufacturing facility.
At this pace, Lucid will easily top the roughly 10,200 vehicles it delivered last year in 2025 at around 12,500. Lucid will likely see even more growth this year, with customer deliveries of its first electric SUV starting soon.
Advertisement – scroll for more content
During the Gravity SUV’s “celestial arrival” last week in NYC, Lucid’s interim CEO Marc Winterhoff said the EV maker is “nearly finished building all the vehicles that we wanted to build to put them into our studio and for test drives.”
Q4 2022
Q1 2023
Q2 2023
Q3 2023
Q4 2023
Full-year 2023
Q1 2024
Q2 2024
Q3 2024
Q4 2024
Full-year 2024
Q1 2025
Lucid EV deliveries by quarter
1,932
1,406
1,404
1,457
1,734
6,001
1,967
2,394
2,781
3,099
10,241
3,109
Lucid (LCID) EV deliveries by quarter 2023 to Q1 2025
Winterhoff added, “by the end of April, we will resume customer deliveries of the Gravity.” Lucid delivered the first models in December, but they were for employees, friends, and family.
Lucid calls the Gravity a “no compromise” SUV with a range of up to 450 miles, 120 cubic feet of interior space, advanced technology, and sports car-like performance. The Gravity Grand Touring starts at $94,900, while the Touring model will arrive later this year at $79,900.
Lucid Gravity Grand Touring in Aurora Green (Source: Lucid)
The new delivery record comes after Winterhoff told Fox Business last week that Lucid has seen a “dramatic uptick over the past two months” in orders from former Tesla drivers.
Currently, “50% of all the orders we have are from former Tesla owners,” Lucid’s CEO said. Winterhoff added that many are “looking for an option to not continue having a Tesla.”
Will we see the trend continue? Tesla announced earlier today that it delivered 336,681 vehicles in the first quarter, far less than the 390,000 Wall Street analysts expected.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.