If you want an electric vehicle with the longest range possible, you buy a Lucid Air. Specifically, you buy a Lucid Air Grand Touring with 19-inch wheels and an EPA range of 512 miles. Even Tesla can’t match that. Range anxiety? What range anxiety? And yet, in a recent interview, Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson told InsideEVs he thinks 180-mile EVs are “the future,” which may initially sound like an absurd idea. But you know what? He’s right.
The way Rawlinson sees it, once we build out our nation’s charging infrastructure, you’ll be able to charge pretty much anywhere you park, so range anxiety will basically disappear. And once Americans realize they don’t have to worry about running out of juice, they’ll finally be willing to accept an EV with less than 200 miles of range. That will then allow automakers to sell EVs for less, saving drivers even more money since a battery pack that would cost $25,000 today might only cost $2,500.
“It may seem paradoxical that you hear me saying this, when I’m synonymous with ultra-long-range vehicles,” Rawlinson told InsideEVs. “But I’m actually synonymous with big-picture thinking.”
And while Lucid is currently a high-end automaker, more affordable models have also been part of the plan from the beginning:
It was always the plan at Lucid, he says, to start with high-end, long-range cars, then apply that same technology to mass-market, lower-range EVs that actually turn a profit. The startup’s whole game plan is to make EVs so efficient that they beat rivals on battery costs, while offering equivalent range. Right now, it’s still in stage one of that plan; the Air and just-released Gravity SUV are on the market, and a roughly $50,000 crossover is on the way for 2026.
Now, if you’re one of those people who drive from Miami to Seattle multiple times a month or lives on a remote homestead in Alaska, of course a 180-mile EV won’t work for you. Then again, how many people do you think actually live that remotely and drive that much? We live in a country where something like 85 percent of people live in an urban area, and the average American drives about 40 miles a day. Plus, there are these things called rental cars that people can use if they want to take a trip that’s too long to make a fast-charging EV practical.
Personally, I’ve found that to be the case now that I own a 2015 Fiat 500e that had an EPA range of 87 miles when its battery was new. The effective range is now lower, especially when it’s below freezing, but despite the number of people telling me it’s useless, it just isn’t. And I don’t live in the big city anymore, either. It’s almost 20 miles to my girlfriend’s house, and most of that drive is on a road with a 65 mph speed limit. The real problem is slow charging. Give me double that range and true fast charging, and you’d probably never a peep out of me about range anxiety ever again.
Don’t think Lucid’s completely giving up on long-range EVs, though. Rawlinson promised InsideEVs that wasn’t the case, saying, “That is a lifestyle thing. That is buying the experience of not having to charge at all.”