![Lucid Spills the Stats: Air Sapphire Makes 1,234 Horsepower Lucid Spills the Stats: Air Sapphire Makes 1,234 Horsepower](https://bighclassiccars.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2023-lucid-air-sapphire-front-quarter.jpg)
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Zero to 60 mph in 1.89 seconds. Zero to 100 in 3.84 seconds. Quarter mile time? 8.95 seconds.
They sound like comic book numbers. They surely belong to some exotic car with seating for two and cargo room for one phone, right?
Nope. A family sedan with room for five and a week’s worth of suitcases.
Meet the Lucid Air Sapphire.
Targeted at the Plaid
Electric car startup Lucid Motors this week revealed specifications for its long-awaited high-performance 4-door, the Air Sapphire. It’s a super-powered version of Lucid’s Air sedan – the electric car with the longest EPA-certified range on the market this year (516 miles).
Targeted at the Telsa Model S Plaid, the Air Sapphire uses three electric motors to achieve its absurd numbers. They make a combined 1,234 horsepower.
The numbers are impressive, but so is the price tag. The Air Sapphire starts at $249,000. You could get two Model S Plaids for that price and have enough left over for a Model 3, provided you qualify for the federal EV tax credit available on that car.
We should note that no one outside the company has verified the claims. EV builders have published outlandish performance stats in the past and struggled to prove them. Tesla CEO Elon Musk famously insisted the Plaid would be the first sedan to post a 0-60 time in under two seconds, then prevented journalists from testing the claim without agreeing to unrealistic conditions like a test track covered in a sticky substance.
When Lucid first announced plans for the Sapphire, it insisted the car would achieve a sub-two-second time “with no extra-cost equipment upgrades or protracted preconditioning routines.”
That claim is notably absent from press materials giving the car’s specifications.
Two Road Modes, Three Track Modes
Lucid does say the car has not one but three different track modes – “Dragstrip, Hot Lap, and Endurance, to further tune and condition the powertrain and battery for optimum performance.” For daily driving, Smooth and Swift modes are more appropriate.
It uses “torque vectoring control algorithms and traction control developed in-house” as well.
Other changes from the standard Air include “an exterior that is optimized for both downforce and efficiency at high speeds, as well as an exclusive Sapphire Blue exterior paint combined with Lucid’s Stealth Look trim.” It rides on Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires and comes with “removable carbon-fiber aero disk wheel covers.”
Getting out and adding wheel covers, we suppose, might not count as a protracted preconditioning routine.
Inside, the Sapphire gets trim-exclusive sport seats, a 21-speaker immersive audio system, and an exclusive interior color theme, Sapphire Mojave.
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