Lucid also developed its own compact electric motors that, the company claims, are the world’s most energy efficient. The Lucid Air has low-rolling-resistance tires specially developed by Pirelli for Lucid. Weight and aerodynamics are very important. The factors that contribute to an electric car’s efficiency include many of the same ones that impact the fuel efficiency of gasoline-powered vehicles. Also, he said, Taycan owners regularly report longer driving ranges (indicating better efficiency) than official EPA tests show. Porsche spokesperson Calvin Kim pointed out that, just as with Porsche’s gasoline-powered cars, the emphasis is on overall performance, not maximum efficiency. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the efficiency gap. The Porsche Taycan Turbo, on the other hand, is much less efficient. The Tesla Model S Long Range, while very impressive in its efficiency, is still just a bit more energy hungry than the Lucid Air. The Lucid Air Grand Touring has a range of just 516 miles, but it has an MPGe of 131. Surprisingly, it is not the most efficient version of the Lucid Air. The 520 mile version of the Lucid Air, the Air Dream R, has an MPGe of 125. That’s a measure of how far a vehicle will go on an amount of electricity equivalent to the energy in a gallon of gasoline. The website will show you the MPGe, or miles per gallon equivalent, of any electric car sold in the US.
Lucid seems to be an exception.Īn easy way to compare the efficiency of electric cars is to use the EPA’s website just as you would to see the efficiency of a gasoline-powered car. But few have been able to beat the energy efficiency of Rawinson’s old employer, Tesla. Given how important driving range is to consumers, most automakers focus heavily on the energy efficiency of their electric cars. That’s a lot less driving distance per charge than Lucid’s offerings, but it would cost much less, too.Īutomakers have been working to increase the efficiency of automobiles for decades regardless of what powers them. “The corollary of that is that, conversely I could go the same distance with 20% less battery.”įor the T21 car project, Rawlinson envisions a battery pack weighing about 275 pounds that would take the compact car about 150 miles.
“If I could get 20% more efficiency, I can go 20% further for a given amount of energy,” Rawlinson said. Increasing efficiency is a way to break that connection. The upcoming GMC Hummer EV, for example, tops out at over 9,000 pounds. Secondly, batteries add a lot of weight, and take up space which means longer range vehicles will tend to be bigger and heavier or have less room inside. The biggest problem with that method is that batteries are expensive and, even as battery prices come down, they still won’t exactly be cheap. “I call that dumb running,” said Rawlinson. When it comes to getting long range, or just useful range, the easiest way to do it is to just pack in more batteries. After all, most electric vehicle owners will charge overnight at home or at work and, when they take long trips, public chargers will be available at intervals of much less than 500 miles.Īnd the trick to getting longer range figures isn’t particularly hard with current technology, Rawlinson said. Like huge horsepower numbers on performance cars, long range on electric cars will be something people can brag about, but that will have little practical use in real life, Rawlinson said. Some of the same sorts of techniques used to design expensive cars with very long range can help do that, Rawlinson said, can be applied to cheap cars that will drive shorter distances that remain practical for most people. Lucid, a California-based company, recently started production of the Air electric sedan at its Arizona factory.
It is within our grasp to try to redress the damage that mankind has caused.” We have got this generation of engineers and technologists and designers.
“Ultimately, it had a devastating impact upon the planet. “The Model T Ford really mobilized mankind in the last century, the 20th century,” Rawlinson said. In fact, one of Rawlinson’s side projects is applying some of the efficiency tricks used at Lucid to something he calls the “T21,” meaning “the Model T for the 21st century.” This would be a car with fairly long driving range that almost anyone can afford. With greater energy efficiency, which contributes to the Lucid Air’s long range, electric cars will become accessible at all price ranges, he said. Fallon/AFP/Getty Imagesīehind that figure, though, is another rarely discussed statistic that Rawlinson thinks will decide the winners and losers in the future world of electric cars: efficiency. The Lucid Air Grand Touring can't travel quite as far on a single charge as the Dream Edition but it is actually slghtly more energy efficient.
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