LUCID AIR: THE FIRST TRUE TESLA COMPETITOR

Tesla might be the first company that springs to mind when you’re in the market for a new electric vehicle, but California-based startup Lucid should not be underestimated.

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The firm unveiled its breathtaking Lucid Air vehicle last year, offering up to 1065bhp and a claimed maximum range of 517 miles, and last month teased its proprietary operating system that will connect drivers across the United States and around the world. The future is coming.

THE WORLD’S MOST AERODYNAMIC LUXURY CAR

Lucid’s debut model, Air, has been described by its engineers as the world’s most “aerodynamic luxury car,” with a drag coefficient of just 0.21; that’s 0.01 less than the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class to give you some perspective. The model offers an unrestricted top speed of more than 230 miles per hour (that’s around 370 kilometers per hour), which makes it the fastest electric production car on sale. By comparison, the Rimac C Two can reach a top speed of 415 kilometers per hour, but Rimac will only make 150 of them, and they’ll retail for around $2.4 million when they eventually enter manufacturing. The Lucid Air, on the other hand, is a consumer vehicle designed to be sold en masse: it’s the first real Tesla competitor.