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Ultra-luxury Lucid ‘Air’ will start at $52,500 with 240-mile electric range
Lucid Motors has announced that the starting price of its ultra-luxury ‘Air’ will begin at $52,500, after tax incentives. The base model will have a 240-mile range keeping it competitive to Tesla’s $35,000 mass market Model 3 with an expected minimum all-electric range of 215 miles.
The timing for today’s press release of a lower-cost ‘Air’ puts Lucid Motors in a strong position, as it clarifies previous rumors that the Silicon Valley-based automaker would only make a $165,000 ultra-luxury version. Air’s futuristic interior and lower-than-expected pricing could entice anxious Model 3 reservation holders to cancel and opt for the more luxurious, larger vehicle.
Additionally, Lucid ‘Air’ is poised to become the industry’s longest range electric vehicle with the option to upgrade to a 400-mile battery pack, currently held by Tesla’s Model S 100D.
It’s worth noting that Lucid’s press release indicates that the base price for ‘Air’ will be $52,500, after tax incentives, but a fully optioned version will cost north $100,000.
Here are the planned options for the vehicle:
- 315-mile and 400-mile-range battery options
- Up to 1,000-horsepower twin-motor configuration, with all-wheel drive
- Fully active suspension, delivering a world-class ride
- Glass-canopy roof
- Rear executive seats that recline up to 55 degrees
- 22-way power front seats with heating, ventilation, dynamic bolsters, and massage
- 21-inch Lucid-design wheels
- 29-speaker audio system with active noise cancellation
- Expanded leather trim with corresponding material upgrades
The base vehicle includes a plethora of features including; 400 horsepower, a rear wheel drive powertrain, combined trunk storage of 32 cubic feet, 240-mile range, autonomous driving hardware, and over-the-air software updates. The included options at this price range competes heavily with the Tesla Model S, which starts at $68,000 and has a lesser range of 210 miles. Lucid Motors is currently working with Samsung SDI to produce the vehicle’s batteries.
Lucid Motors demonstrated the ‘Air’ at a private event in Newport Beach, CA
The company is also offering a “Launch Edition” for the first 255 customers and starts north of $100,000. Options included for the Lucid ‘Air’ Launch Edition include:
- 315-mile range
- 1,000 horsepower, all-wheel drive
- Autonomous driving hardware
- 21-inch Lucid-design wheels
- Upgraded audio system
- Unique colors and badging
As Lucid launches the vehicle into production, they plan to produce 10,000 vehicles in the first 12 months. It is unclear exactly when the ‘Air’ will enter production, but the company told Teslarati at one of their private launch parties that the car is expected to go into production in 2019. Lucid currently building a $700M production plant in Casa Grande, Arizona that is expected to employ 2,000 workers.
Lucid Motors was founded in 2007 and has raised over $130M in venture funding over the years. The company’s CTO, Peter Rawlinson, was Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Tesla, where he developed the Model S. Additionally, one of Lucid’s co-founders, Sam Weng, was a VP at Redback Networks and Senior Director at Oracle.
If you are interested in placing a reservation for the ‘Air’, Lucid requires a $2,500 deposit for the standard vehicle and $25,000 for the Launch Edition. Reserve Here
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
