Lucid Cuts Air Prices Again

• The Lucid Air Pure now costs $78,900 including destination.
• Lucid axes the Air Grand Touring Trim.
• The Air Sapphire will become available soon, priced at $250,800.

Once again, pricing for the Lucid Air has been cut. The cheapest Lucid trim, the Pure, now starts at $78,900 including destination, before any taxes or incentives. That is way down from the $83,900 MSRP for 2023. In addition to price cuts, Lucid has reworked trim levels, and three main trims will be available for the Air: Pure, Touring and Grand Touring. 

A new options structure also means greater flexibility, giving buyers of lower trims the ability to add options à la carte instead of having them attached to specific trim levels. In addition to the new trim structure, Lucid has killed one. The $180K Air Grand Touring Performance trim is no more, due largely to the new flexibility of options packages. Lucid is also still going to offer the Air Sapphire. That will be priced at $250,800.

How did Lucid manage to cut prices? By removing features. The Pure is now “purer,” offering a single-motor rear-wheel-drive setup with an estimated 419 miles of range, up 9 miles from last year’s AWD model. Moreover, power is down by 50 horsepower to 430 hp. As part of Lucid’s new à la carte plan for options, a $2,500 Comfort and Convenience package adds four-zone climate control, rear sunshades and soft-close doors. There are some new optional features too, like massaging seats, that weren’t previously available. You can also have a real-deal leather interior, though there is still no option for a sunroof.

The Air Touring also loses features and is priced at $87,400, down from $96,500. For example, the leather interior is now a $3,000 option. Other means of cost-cutting include a downgrade from 14-way to 12-way power-adjustable seats, though these can be optioned with ventilation and massaging functionality for a cool $3,750. Another Comfort and Convenience package is available here, adding all of the items from the Pure, plus a power frunk and heated wipers. This trim is now where AWD enters the lineup, and Lucid estimates over 400 miles of range, though an official figure won’t be here until later next year. Power output is set at 620 hp.

Presumably, the Air Grand Touring will cost less too but Lucid hasn't said by how much. But features have been cut here too. The glass roof is now a $3,500 option, and even a leather interior is now an option. Cushy 20-way seats with cooling and massage are an option also, but pricing hasn’t been mentioned for those either. What the Grand Touring doesn’t lose is power, which is still the same 819 hp from its dual-motor setup.

All this cutting does accomplish something, however. The Air is now significantly more competitive with its rivals, especially the Mercedes-Benz EQS and Tesla Model S. The Air Touring is now cheaper than, and produces more power than, the 355-horsepower EQS 450+, which starts at $104,400. It’s a much closer race between the Model S ($74,990), which makes 670 hp to the Air Grand Touring’s 620 horsepower. In any case, the trio are all fairly close in range, with most sitting at or above 400 miles on a charge. The Lucid Air Pure and Touring models are both available now, but customers will have to wait until later in 2024 for the Grand Touring model to become available.

Edmunds says

Lucid is now significantly more competitive with its rivals than before, even undercutting the base Mercedes EQS in some configurations. The changes ought to help the automaker sell more cars, even if the exhaustive list of price cuts and now-optional features does look like a lot on paper.