News
Lucid unveils Air’s Dual-Motor, 1,080 HP powertrain and 9.9-second quarter mile
Lucid Motors has released details on the powertrain it will use for its first electric vehicle, the Air. Lucid will equip the vehicle’s top configuration with a Dual-Motor, All-Wheel-Drive powertrain that is capable of 1,080 horsepower. Additionally, the Air was able to complete consecutive quarter-mile runs at under 10 seconds.
Lucid has developed the Air since 2016, and it has been fine-tuning the vehicle’s powertrain and all-electric, 113 kWh battery pack in preparation for entry into an increasingly competitive market. Over the past few weeks, the automaker has slowly released numerous details about the Air and its capabilities, starting with its 517-mile range and interior features. Now, Lucid is getting to the good stuff and is detailing its all-electric powertrain, which is the fastest to ever complete a quarter-mile.
The quarter-mile record was set by the Air’s Dream Edition variant at Sonoma Raceway in Northern California. Not only did the Air manage to set the record for the fastest quarter-mile time for an EV, but it beat the Tesla Model S and Porsche Taycan in the process.
Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO at Lucid, said that the company’s watchword has been “focus” since day one. But the focus goes much further than creating a fast performance vehicle.
-
- Credit: Lucid Motors
-
- Credit: Lucid Motors
“Our watchword has been ‘focus’ since day one at Lucid – a focus on sound engineering principles, a focus on creating efficiencies, and a focus on maximizing power to create a world-class EV,” Rawlinson said.
Lucid’s focus has been to create a vehicle that highlights the optimization that the company’s engineering teams have worked on for the last three-and-a-half years. At the heart of the Air, a 900V+ electric drive unit that is small enough to fit in a regular suitcase packs over 650 horsepower. It is 45% lighter and 59% lighter than the closest competitor, the company said. At speeds capable of up to 20,000 RPM, the Lucid powertrain holds significant advantages over any car in the electric vehicle market.
“When the Lucid Air comes to market next spring, the world will see that we have developed the best electric vehicle technology possible by a wide margin and effectively created a new benchmark for EVs. The result is nothing short of a technological tour de force in every facet upon which a luxury performance car is measured,” Rawlinson said.
-
- Credit: Lucid Motors
-
- Credit: Lucid Motors
-
- Credit: Lucid Motors
-
- Credit: Lucid Motors
Creating efficiency with every part of an electric vehicle was crucial to Lucid’s mission to develop a world-class powertrain. The Air’s internal parts can achieve high-performance through a series of new inventions that are part of lucid’s intellectual property.
“Most notably, an elegant and revolutionary new motor winding technology has been introduced to maximize power output and reduce electrical losses. The motor also features an innovative cooling system that more effectively removes heat from
the stator winding, minimizing losses and boosting efficiency,” the company said in a release.
The compact design, which Teslarati detailed in late-August, paves the way for the electric drive unit to take up as little room as possible while powering the Air to new heights.
“This is achieved in part by the transmission and differential, which have been fully integrated for the first time in an electric motor – together, they comprise a single rotational system that is both lightweight and extremely efficient. Meanwhile, Lucid
leverages a high voltage, silicon-carbide MOSFET system in its inverters to maximize efficiency, especially in real-world driving conditions,” Lucid said.
Lucid will debut the Air during an online reveal event on September 9, 2020. In addition to the Air’s finalized interior and exterior designs, Lucid will also release new details about pricing, production specifications, and available configurations during the event.
The Tesla Semi is entering a new Pilot Program with Paper Transport, LLC (PTI), a Wisconsin-based transportation provider. The company will test the Semi’s Long Range configuration through “dedicated operations within the Chicago market.”
Chicago presents an interesting challenge for the Semi, as it will be a colder-weather climate that will test the Semi’s ability to operate in lower temperatures and in potentially large accumulations of snow. This is something Tesla has been testing with the Semi in Alaska and even in Northern California during the colder months, but Chicago will present a truly tough midwestern winter.
Tesla Semi spotted on journey home after winter performance testing
PTI says it is using the Semi to evaluate its strategy of reducing transportation emissions while maintaining performance, reliability, and cost efficiency. These are major arguments for the Semi being introduced into new fleets.
CEO of PTI Tyler Ellison said:
“PTI has been a leader in sustainable transportation solutions for over 15 years. We take a consultative approach to helping customers identify and implement the right transportation solution for their network. Our partnership with Tesla expands our portfolio alongside renewable natural gas and intermodal, giving customers more ways to reduce Scope 3 emissions without compromising service or economics.”
PTI is far from the first company to adopt the Semi within a fleet, as Tesla entered strategic agreements with PepsiCo. and its subsidiary Frito-Lay for a Pilot Program that extended throughout the California region.
Tesla has let companies like those utilize the Semi to determine whether it would be suitable for their operations. Additionally, Tesla gets valuable information regarding the Semi’s performance, knowing what to improve and what is ideal for companies that will utilize the all-electric truck for regional and nationwide logistics.
PTI plans to utilize the Long Range configuration, which is priced at $290,000 and features a range of approximately 500 miles, a three-motor powertrain, up to 800 kW of drive power, and consumption of just 1.7 kWh per mile.
Tesla Semi pricing revealed after company uncovers trim levels
VP of Maintenance at PTI, Bryan Ellen, added:
“We are excited to partner with Tesla, leveraging their ever-evolving technology. We are bullish in our estimation of the parallels available between our dedicated model and the efficiency of their fully electric Class 8 tractor. We anticipate a growing synergy between our businesses as we work to facilitate this sustainable solution for our customers.”
PTI has logged more than 87 million miles using sources like compressed and renewable gas, but now is looking to take it a step further with fully electric operations.
Tesla revealed on Monday that it is building a new autonomous vehicle at Gigafactory Texas, its plant just outside of the City of Austin. This particular vehicle will be geared toward those who are in need of a wheelchair-accessible car that would require no human driver for operation.
According to a new report from Wired, Tesla’s Senior Policy Advisor, India Herdman, told members of the Washington D.C. City Council on Monday:
“We are in development for a purpose-built, wheelchair-accessible autonomous vehicle. We know that paratransit can be very difficult, and people who are confined to wheelchairs permanently should still be able to move around freely, so that is an active product being built by Tesla in Texas.”
This builds upon what CEO Elon Musk said last year on X, which confirmed the company was working on accessible rides within its Robotaxi platform, which currently is confined to the Model Y.
Absolutely
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 19, 2025
Tesla is also developing the Cybercab, which started employee rides last week. However, this vehicle is not necessarily geared toward wheelchair accessibility.
That leaves a major gap in the autonomous ride-sharing program that Tesla is attempting to build; the company has been pretty clear that it does not want to complicate its manufacturing lines by bringing in a wide array of body styles.
However, it seems necessary to have something larger that could help transport people to appointments when they cannot drive. For wheelchair accessibility, the Robovan, which was unveiled at the “We, Robot” event in October 2024, seems to be the most ideal solution:
Herdman did not indicate whether she was referring to the Robovan or if Tesla is building yet another body style that is geared toward full autonomy but also caters to the handicapped.
Tesla might need to develop something specifically for the handicapped in order to align with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prevents discrimination against people with disabilities in transportation services. Uber was hit with a lawsuit late last year for “refusing to reasonably modify its policies, practices, or procedures where necessary to avoid discriminating against riders with disabilities.”
Tesla would obviously like to avoid this.
It will be interesting to see what Tesla will do with this project, and whether it will introduce something new to the market or just continue with the Robovan.
Tesla weirdly confirmed that its steering wheel-less and pedal-less Cybercab vehicle is now in the process of giving employees rides, a huge milestone for the vehicle program.
But the entire thing was super strange. On Friday, Tesla released a video stating that there was “Cool news from Giga Texas” and that employees were now taking rides in Cybercabs that have no manual controls. The units seen on public roads are engineering vehicles that have manual controls inside, a necessity as Tesla moved through the testing phase.
However, Tesla removed the video and reposted it shortly after with a more vague title. It seems like the employee rides are still going, but the video was adjusted slightly. The initial upload showed employees doing things like watching movies and adjusting the climate, but these snippets were removed in the second upload.
Cool news from Giga Texas pic.twitter.com/gvbG456Tzw
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) July 11, 2026
Both images below were uploaded with the first video, but were removed after Tesla re-uploaded the announcement. These are not available in the second upload
Credit: Tesla
Credit: Tesla
Nevertheless, the announcement from Tesla is that the Cybercab is operating with employees inside who can control the vehicle’s audio, video, climate, and destination settings through their smartphone app.
Tesla has already been testing Cybercab engineering units, but last month, it was able to self-certify for SAE Level 4, which would enable unsupervised self-driving in Texas. The company is moving toward that, and the plans have always been to launch Cybercab rides this year.
The Cybercab is potentially looked at as the next generation of Tesla’s mobility leg. For the past 15 years, the company has been known as somewhat of an automaker, among many other things. However, these passenger vehicles that Tesla has manufactured are now moving into a new realm, as they will eventually drive themselves with no supervision thanks to the Full Self-Driving suite.
The Cybercab is just the next step of that: a true vehicle developed for the sole purpose of ride-hailing. It has no human controls, it has only two seats, and it will get passengers from Point A to Point B with no awkward driver, no need for manual inputs, and with no stress.
Tesla is moving forward with other developments related to the Cybercab project as well. However, the big announcement will come when Tesla finally announces that it is launching Cybercab rides to the general public, something that it plans to launch either late this year or early 2027.
Tesla Semi enters new Pilot Program with interesting challenge
Tesla is building a wheelchair-accessible Robotaxi
