- Lucid broke the Guinness World Record for longest journey by an electric car on a single charge.
- The car, a Lucid Air Grand Touring, drove nearly 750 miles without recharging.
- This record bests out even the Mercedes Vision EQXX concept that set a non-certified record back in 2022.
Lucid has always been one of those companies that loves to geek out anytime it's given the chance. Don't believe me? Just listen to one of its Tech Talks. If there's one thing that Lucid is really good at, it's building extremely sophisticated and efficient electric-vehicle hardware. That just led it to a very impressive and official world record.
The automaker managed to snag a shiny new Guinness World Record for the longest journey by an electric car on a single charge. A Lucid Air Grand Touring managed to nab the title after traveling a whopping 749 miles on a single charge.
No pit stops, no magic winds or downhill cheating—just pure hypermiling.
The Air Grand Touring, which is officially rated at 512 miles in the U.S. by the EPA, went from St. Moritz, Switzerland to Munich, Germany on a single charge. That's 1,205 kilometers, or 749 miles if you don't care for the metric system.
Lucid has been chasing range records from day one. Back in 2022 when automakers were chasing 400 miles, Lucid rolled up with an EV that packed 516 miles of range and 819 horsepower. That range is, in part, thanks to its massive 117-kilowatt-hour battery pack.
The other contributing factors come from Lucid's impressive engineering. Let's not forget that the company's CEO, Peter Rawlinson, was the chief engineer behind the Tesla Model S back in the day (unless you ask Elon Musk, that is). It's probably fair to assume he knows a thing or two about building EVs, and those in his employ are focusing on building the most advanced EV tech out there with the goal of Lucid positioning itself as a supplier to other automakers rather than a standalone car company.
Lucid has previously claimed that it has a seven-year efficiency lead on all automakers. Its closest competition? That might nor surprise you given Rawlinson's history, but it's the Tesla Model S—which, actually, might be a bit unexpected considering that the car's high-voltage system is only at 450-volts compared to Lucid's 900-volt architecture.
Tech aside, the Lucid Air is also insanely slippery. The car has an uber-low drag coefficient of just 0.197, which is less than even the Volkswagen XL1. Very few cars are that aerodynamic, which is one of Lucid's secret ingredients to its range record—in fact, it was only recently bested by the Xiaomi SU7 at 0.195 for a modern production car. It's hard not to wonder how much Lucid could beat its record if it could only surpass the granddaddy of EVs, the GM EV1, which sits at just 0.19 with its 30-year-old design.
Of course, this record doesn't exactly translate into Lucid selling a boatload more cars. Sure, it's an impressive feat, but more than 500 miles of regular range in the Air will cost you upwards of $110,000. Maybe the (slightly) more affordable Lucid Gravity will get some hype out of it, though. Of course, that could probably stand to shoot for a Guinness record of its own someday.
Lucid may not be the household name that folks think of when someone mentions EVs, but one this is for certain: it is the quiet king of range. And with its new record, that's now indisputable.
