What Anxiety? Lucid Air EV Sedan To Have Over 500 Miles Of Range

A range of 500 miles is a nice accomplishment but it's not the right accomplishment. A range of 300 is fine. The accomplishment that needs to happen is to be able to fully recharge an EV as fast as filling a tank with gas. A 10-15 minute full-charge time would be the right goal after getting a range of 300 miles. No doubt though the EV charging infrastructure will be outdated at some point and will be in need of full replacement.

I believe the charging rate on next gen cars with massive batteries (130-200 kWH) could hit 500kw. That would translate to being able to charge at 30 miles a minute, so 300 miles in 10min.

If Lucid comes out of the gate with a 500 mile car, that will be tremendous marketing and the first time a company has brought out a new EV with a KPI significantly better than Tesla.

Tesla is not standing still, we don't know what battery capacity they will have by the time the Air hits the streets. Tesla recently updated the OBD PIDs to support 200 kWh readings.

I don't get the obsession on range.

My co-workers with EVs just use them for commuting, never road trips.
And I don't buy my ICE cars based on range. I buy them based on performance.

The oracle has spoken.

One big advantage of such a large range isn't being able to drive that far at once, but being able to drive for days without needing to charge. For owners that can't charge at home, being able to charge the car and then drive for a week or more without charging makes it more feasible.

But for owners that can charge at home it's more battery needed for the vast majority of the time, and you're just hauling around extra weight.

OK, this independent test did not follow the current EPA protocol. They used an older one from 2012, so an actual EPA number will likely drop below 500 miles. I would expect closer to 475 miles, all else being equal.