Lucid Air Grand Touring Review

Lucid's engineering is not in dispute. The drive units are miniaturised to the point of absurdity, an entire motor, inverter and gearbox weighing about seventy kilograms, and the 900 volt architecture converts a given number of kilowatt hours into more miles than anything else sold. 516 miles of EPA range from a pack barely larger than a Model S carries is the proof. The cabin is genuinely special, with real wood, real metal, glass that sweeps into the dashboard and rear seat space a limousine would recognise.

Then comes the ownership arithmetic. Software has been the persistent weak point, with over the air updates repeatedly fixing things that should never have shipped broken. Service centres are few and far between and a body repair can take months. And the resale figures are the worst of any premium car currently sold, with three year old examples routinely worth under half their list price. That makes a new one very hard to justify and a used one one of the great bargains available anywhere.