An electric car with a 500-mile range is here

The Lucid Air Grand Touring is now capable of an EPA range of 512 miles

By Bradley Brownell2 min readUpdated September 3, 2024

The Arizona-made Lucid $LCID (LCID) Air is perhaps the king of modern electric car luxury. It’s got its own aerodynamic design aesthetic, efficient layout, tons of power, but the new 2025 Grand Touring model is also the king of EPA-rated EV range, supposedly delivering more miles per charge than any other EV on the market. And it might surprise you to learn that Lucid actually under-sold its range ratings, as YouTube tester Kyle Conner recently found out with an all-highway real-world range test.

The Lucid Air Grand Touring with 19-inch aero wheels, thanks to its new-for-2025 heat pump system, is now capable of an EPA range of 512 miles. In his highway test, Kyle managed to get the car to run a full 523 miles, albeit with the last dozen or so of those miles power-limited by the car’s computer.

Most EVs don’t hit their full range numbers in sustained highway testing, because the EPA test is conducted at lower speeds less sensitive to aerodynamic drag. So when Kyle blows past the 500-mile number with the Air GT, it’s worth sitting up and taking notice. The test involved Kyle charging the car up to 100 percent, then setting out onto the highway with the climate control set to 70 degrees, the heated/ventilated seats turned off, and the cruise control set to a GPS-verified 70 miles per hour (72 on the speedometer). Most of the test occurs on wide open American highways out west, so traffic isn’t much of a factor.

Through the course of the test the car consumed 118 kWh of juice, which translates to an impressive 4.44 miles per kWh. It’s a really good test conducted in a relatively scientific real-world manner, and it’s worth watching, even if it is almost an hour long.

Is a 500-mile range EV going to convince anyone to make the switch from gasoline-powered cars? Are you convinced?

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