News
Lucid Air unveiling: four variants, <$80k starting price, 1,080 HP, 517-mile range rating
Lucid has officially unveiled the Air, the company’s first production car, which aims to break the bounds of EV technology everywhere. The company’s September 9th unveiling event revealed the four variants of the Air, along with its tech developments that the company is using to compete directly with the growing electric vehicle market.
Deliveries of the first Air models will begin in Spring 2021, but the car has already set several new and unheard-of records for the EV sector. Not only is the Air currently holding the benchmark for EPA-estimated range at 517 miles, but its “Dream Edition” variant also set a 9.9-second quarter-mile record, becoming just the third production ar on Earth to ever accomplish that feat.
Lucid’s primary focus is similar to Tesla’s: Create a high-performance and efficient electric cars that help accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transportation.
“Lucid Motors is driven to make the electric car better, and by doing so, help move the entire industry forward, towards accelerated adoption of sustainable mobility,” CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson said. “The goal of this relentless approach to developing the world’s most advanced electric vehicle is to benefit all mankind with sustainable, zero-emission transportation, and to also attract new customers to the world of EVs.”
The company’s ideal entrance into the market was to create a car that would push the limits and be competitive with the leaders of the EV sector. The Air is the near-perfect car to do that with.
“With the Lucid Air, we have created a halo car for the entire industry, one which shows the advancements that are possible by pushing the boundaries of EV technology and performance to new levels,” Rawlinson added.
Lucid Space Concept
Lucid Air captures a revolutionary approach to automotive packaging, known as the Lucid Space Concept. The idea capitalizes on the compact design of Lucid’s in-house powertrain, which optimizes interior cabin and storage space. The company focused on a clean-cut, holistic approach that was never-before-seen from other companies who develop electric vehicles.
Lucid’s focus was to make smaller, yet more powerful electric motors that not only increase the performance of the vehicle but also give passengers a more comfortable experience. “This extends the philosophy of hyper-efficiency embedded in every facet of Lucid Air, from energy to spatial efficiency, delivering an unprecedented combination of range, practicality, performance, and luxury,” the company said.
- Credit: Lucid Motors
- Credit: Lucid Motors
The design also is drastically different from any other car on the road. While the differences are subtle, the modern proportions for the Air deliver a one-of-a-kind look that gives drivers a unique design.
“When we embarked on this journey at Lucid Motors and the development of our first vehicle, the Lucid Air, we refused to compromise. We decided early on that we were going to pursue every facet of performance, innovation, and luxury,” Vice President of Design, Derek Jenkins, said.
- Credit: Lucid Motors
- Credit: Lucid Motors
- Credit: Lucid Motors
- Credit: Lucid Motors
Advanced Glass Cockpit Displays with Tactile Physical Controls
The interior of the Lucid Air “reflects a revolution in how next-generation free form displays are elegantly integrated into the design architecture in the cabin,” the company states. The Air’s 34-inch curved glass 5K display sits lightly above the dashboard, contributing to an airy and light feel of the interior.

A retractable central Pilot Panel also sits in a convenient location for drivers, putting ultimate control into their fingertips. Digital displays are complemented by high tactile, precision-milled physical controls that are present for operators to take full control of their vehicle with ease of access.
- Credit: Lucid Motors
- Credit: Lucid Motors
Record-Breaking Performance
The Air’s Dream Edition variant, a Dual-Motor, All-Wheel-Drive architecture achieved the quarter-mile in just 9.9 seconds thanks to a 1,080 horsepower powertrain. It reached these times on a consistent and repeatable basis, and to date, it is the only electric sedan to achieve the sub-10 second quarter-mile time.
Additionally, the 113 kWh battery pack complements its high-performance specifications with 517-miles of all-electric range on a single charge.
World’s Fastest Charging Electric Vehicle
The Lucid Air will be the fastest charging EV in the world when it arrives on the market in the Spring. The company states that it will have the capability to charge at rates of up to 20 miles per minute when connected to a DC Fast Charging network. Owners will translate just 20 minutes of charging into 300 miles of range.
Additionally, Lucid plans to introduce a Vehicle-to-Grid and Vehicle-to-Vehicle charging infrastructures that will give owners bi-directional capabilities that are built into the Air.
“Home charging is one of the key benefits of EV ownership. In addition to the standard Lucid Mobile Charging Cord that comes with every Lucid vehicle, Lucid has also developed the Lucid Connected Home Charging Station, one of the first AC charging stations with bi-directional charging ever offered. With bi-directional charging, owners can enjoy not just a more cost-effective charging method, but also use their Lucid Air as a temporary energy reserve to power their homes, including off-grid vacation properties,” the company noted.
- (Credit: Lucid Motors)
- (Credit: Lucid Motors)
Next Level Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)
Lucid’s DreamDrive is a first-of-its-kind platform that combines the most comprehensive sensor suite on the market with a cutting-edge Driver Monitoring System. It is standard on the Lucid Air Dream Edition and is the first system to ever combine 32 sensors with covering vision, radar and ultrasonics, and high-resolution LIDAR. The combination of these systems provides “the safest possible approach to Level 2 and Level 3 driver assistance technologies,” the company stated.
- Credit: Lucid Motors
- Credit: Lucid Motors
Variants and Availability
The Lucid Air will be available in the North American market initially with four model ranges.
- The Air, starting below $80,000 and available in 2022. ($72,500 after federal tax credits)
- The Air Touring, starting at $95,000, available late 2021. ($87,500 after federal tax credits)
- The Air Grand Touring, starting at $139,000, available mid-2021. ($131,500 after federal tax credits)
- The Air Dream Edition, starting at $169,000, available Spring 2021. ($161,500 after federal tax credits)

Reservations are now open for customers in the U.S. and Canada, as well as in select countries in Europe and the Middle East. The reservation requires a $1,000 refundable deposit, or $7,500 refundable deposits for the Dream Edition. Prices and delivery dates will be available for international markets at a later date.
The Air will be available through 20 Lucid Studios and Service Centers that will open across North America by the end of 2021.
- Credit: Lucid Motors
- Credit: Lucid Motors
- Credit: Lucid Motors
- Credit: Lucid Motors
Dream Edition
“The Lucid Air Dream Edition will feature a unique combination of Lucid attributes and technology, combining incredible performance with exceptional range. The 1,080 horsepower luxury EV sedan will be available in Stellar White, Infinite Black, or a Dream Edition-exclusive, Eureka Gold finish. Each color will come with an exclusive “Santa Monica” themed interior trim, including full Nappa grain, Bridge of Weir leather throughout with silvered Eucalyptus wood. The Dream Edition will also feature a unique 21-inch “AeroDream” wheel design and be highlighted by special badging and trim that marks its position as a limited-production halo edition of the Lucid Air.”

Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck too safe for even Musk’s biggest critics to ignore
Krassenstein’s decision reveals that superior safety isn’t a partisan issue. For parents prioritizing family protection over personal or political grudges, the Cybertruck has become too safe to ignore.
The Tesla Cybertruck is an extremely polarizing vehicle because of its potential symbolism as a political stance instead of just a pickup truck — or at least that is what many would want you to believe.
Of course, the Cybertruck is an icon of Tesla culture, and it is one of those things that never has a middle ground: you love it, or you don’t.
But maybe there is an establishment of that “grey area” happening.
In a striking illustration of engineering triumph over political tribalism, prominent Elon Musk critic Brian Krassenstein has purchased a Tesla Cybertruck, openly citing its exceptional safety as the deciding factor for his family.
The announcement on X triggered predictable backlash, yet it underscores a growing reality: the Cybertruck’s safety credentials are proving impossible for even Musk’s fiercest detractors to dismiss.
I might get hate for this too but I bought a Cybertruck.
With a young family, safety was important and so is not polluting the atmosphere with $5 a gallon gasoline. pic.twitter.com/XJqFqR6O9r
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) May 6, 2026
Krassenstein, who has repeatedly clashed with Musk over issues ranging from content moderation and “wokeness” to public health figures, made no attempt to hide his reservations. In his May 6 post, he acknowledged the coming criticism: “I might get hate for this too but I bought a Cybertruck.”
He stressed that the decision had “nothing to do with Elon or politics,” pointing instead to practical advantages—his existing Tesla charger, eligibility for Full Self-Driving upgrades, a returning-owner discount, and crucially, the vehicle’s strong safety profile.
With gasoline prices hovering near $5 a gallon in some areas, he also highlighted the environmental benefit of switching from a polluting combustion engine.
The numbers, data, and awards validate Krassenstein’s choice.
The 2025 Cybertruck earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) elite Top Safety Pick+ award—the only pickup truck to achieve this highest rating. It delivered “Good” scores across every crashworthiness category, including the challenging updated moderate overlap front crash test, while excelling in crash avoidance and mitigation systems.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) awarded it a perfect 5-star overall rating, with top marks in frontal, side, and rollover categories. No other pickup truck holds both distinctions simultaneously.
Tesla Cybertruck crash test rating situation revealed by NHTSA, IIHS
Beyond lab results, the Cybertruck’s stainless-steel exoskeleton and ultra-rigid structure have demonstrated remarkable real-world resilience. Owners have reported surviving high-speed collisions with minimal cabin intrusion.
In one widely discussed incident, a Cybertruck endured a 70 mph sideswipe on the interstate; the driver reported barely feeling the impact while the other vehicle was heavily damaged.
Tesla’s crash demonstrations and independent analyses consistently show how the vehicle’s design prioritizes occupant protection through a fortified passenger cell rather than traditional crumple zones, giving families superior safeguarding in many common crash scenarios.
The online pile-on following Krassenstein’s post focused on aesthetics, politics, and perceived hypocrisy rather than the data. Critics called the angular truck “ugly” or accused him of selling out.
Yet his purchase highlights an inconvenient truth for polarized discourse: when objective safety metrics—IIHS awards, NHTSA ratings, and documented crash performance—point decisively toward one vehicle, even Musk’s biggest critics are forced to confront its merits.
Krassenstein’s decision reveals that superior safety isn’t a partisan issue. For parents prioritizing family protection over personal or political grudges, the Cybertruck has become too safe to ignore.
News
SpaceXAI signs agreement with Anthropic for massive AI supercomputer access
SpaceXAI announced today that it had signed an agreement with Anthropic to give the company access to its Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee.
It is a monumental deal as Anthropic will gain access to all of the compute at the plant, delivering more than 300 megawatts of power and over 220,000 NVIDIA GPUs within the month.
Anthropic’s Claude AI account on X announced the partnership:
“We’ve agreed to a partnership with SpaceX that will substantially increase our compute capacity. This, along with our other recent compute deals, means that we’ve been able to increase our usage limits for Claude Code and the Claude API.”
The company is also:
- Doubling Claude Code’s 5-hour rate limits for Pro, Max, and Team plans;
- Removing the peak hours limit reduction on Claude Code for Pro and Max plans; and
- Substantially raising its API rate limits for Opus models.
We’ve agreed to a partnership with @SpaceX that will substantially increase our compute capacity.
This, along with our other recent compute deals, means that we’ve been able to increase our usage limits for Claude Code and the Claude API.
— Claude (@claudeai) May 6, 2026
SpaceX also published its own release on the new agreement, noting that it is “the only organization with the launch cadence, mass-to-orbit economics, and constellation operations experience to make orbital compute a near-term engineering program rather than a research concept.”
CEO Elon Musk also commented on the partnership and shed light on intense meetings he had with senior members of Anthropic last week, stating, “nobody set on my evil detector.”
Same here.
By way of background for those who care, I spent a lot of time last week with senior members of the Anthropic team to understand what they do to ensure Claude is good for humanity and was impressed.
Everyone I met was highly competent and cared a great deal about…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2026
This has turned the argument that SpaceX is as much an AI company as a space exploration company into a very valid argument:
SpaceX is following in Tesla’s footsteps in a way nobody expected
Nevertheless, this is an incredibly valuable and important move in the grand scheme of things. AI scaling is fundamentally bottlenecked by compute, and demand for Claude has surged, bringing terrestrial power grids, land, and cooling operations hitting limits everywhere.
Anthropic has been aggressively signing multiple large-scale deals to be competitive in the space, including:
- Up to 5GW with Amazon
- 5GW with Google and Broadcom
- Strategic $30b Azure deal with Microsoft/NVIDIA
- $50b U.S. infrastructure investment with Fluidstack
Access to Colossus 1 gives Anthropic immediate relief on NVIDIA GPU capacity. For SpaceXAI, it turns its rapid buildout into revenue. It also showcases its ability to deliver at world-leading speed and scale.
Most importantly, it plants the seed that its much larger vision, orbital AI compute, is totally viable.
Starlink V3 satellites could enable SpaceX’s orbital computing plans: Musk
Within the month, Anthropic will begin using 100 percent of Colossus 1’s compute, directly expanding capacity for Claude Pro and Max subscribers and the API. This means fewer limits, faster responses, and support for heavier workloads.
In the long term, meaning 2026 and beyond, there will be a continued rollout of other multi-GW deals Anthropic has signed, and an early exploration of orbital compute with SpaceXAI.
News
Tesla unveils mysterious prototype at Giga Texas: Is the Model Y L coming to America?
The Model Y L has been available in China for some time, but Americans are wondering when it will potentially come to the United States, offering a larger version of the best-selling vehicle in the world, as the Model X is officially phased out.
Tesla unveiled a mysterious prototype, covered up between a Model Y and a Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas, perhaps giving yet another hint that the Model Y L is coming to America.
The Model Y L has been available in China for some time, but Americans are wondering when it will potentially come to the United States, offering a larger version of the best-selling vehicle in the world, as the Model X is officially phased out.
Giga Texas observer and drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer captured an image of the vehicle on May 6, showing a fully-covered prototype parked alongside a standard Model Y and a Cybertruck.
This mystery Tesla is covered at Gigafactory Texas
What do you think it is? https://t.co/l5WVKLi9yM pic.twitter.com/CcOybDkCkn
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 6, 2026
From top-down and angled views, the prototype appears nearly identical in scale to the Model Y but reveals noticeably distinct rear proportions—an elongated rear door that stretches farther over the wheel arch and rear glass that flows uninterrupted to the spoiler lip.
The side-by-side placement provides an immediate size reference. The mystery vehicle sits comfortably between the compact Model Y and the massive Cybertruck, suggesting it occupies a practical middle ground for families seeking more interior room without jumping to a full-size pickup.
Enthusiasts quickly took to social media with guesses ranging from an extended-wheelbase Model Y to a potential station-wagon variant.
The sight of this prototype follows an earlier look at another shrouded body-in-white resting in a wooden shipping crate at the Giga Texas plant in late March.
That prototype appeared to display an elongated silhouette. Some analysis seems to show nearly exact dimensions as to what is reported for the Model Y L in the Chinese market, approximately 4.98 meters long with a 3.04-meter wheelbase, roughly seven inches longer overall than the U.S.-spec Model Y. The rear-door extension and glass-to-spoiler design were identical to the current sighting:
The Model Y L has already proven popular in China, where it launched in six- and seven-seat configurations and quickly ranked among the top-selling mid-to-large SUVs. Owners enjoy roughly 10 percent more cargo space and enhanced family versatility.
Tesla has remained silent on U.S. plans other than CEO Elon Musk saying it could come in late 2026, but localizing production at Giga Texas would make strategic sense.
With the Model X phase-out and steady Model Y output already humming along expanded lines, a longer-wheelbase variant could add tens of thousands of annual deliveries without major retooling.
The latest sighting arrives amid Tesla’s broader push to refresh its lineup. Whether this prototype represents the long-rumored Model Y L, a subtle Juniper-style update, or something entirely new remains unconfirmed.
Yet the consistent visual cues—precise dimensional match, distinctive rear styling, and strategic placement at Giga Texas—point strongly toward an extended Model Y designed for American families who want extra space without sacrificing the Model Y’s efficiency and affordability.Tesla watchers will be monitoring future drone flights closely.
If the prototype is indeed the Model Y L, it could mark a significant expansion of the company’s best-selling vehicle and deliver the extra room many U.S. buyers have been requesting for years. For now, the blue tarp keeps its secrets—but the clues are getting harder to hide.















