Lucid unveils Air’s 900-volt charging system, 3 years of free charging and more

If you regularly drive an electric car, the ability of the car to recover miles quickly when connected to a charger is almost more important than the maximum range of the red. Would the general public be just as excited about Tesla, if their Supercharger network did not exist to make fast charging easy?

Realizing that EV startup Lucid Motors announced Wednesday that not only buyers of their first car, the Air sedan, get the benefit of the 500-mile range of crazy bananas, but that they will get three years of fast charging of 350 kilowatts DC for free America electrifying, the nationwide charging network with VW support.

But wait – there’s more. Lucid also announced the Air’s ability to handle 900-volt charging. This will allow the Air, in theory, to get 20 miles of range per minute recharged back at its maximum rate. For comparison, Taycan made Porsche waves when it was announced it brought 800-volt charge to market, and this deserves that handy.

“We designed every aspect of the Lucid Air and its own platform to be hyper-efficient, from propulsion to aerodynamics, and we set several new benchmarks through these efforts, including the longest range EV with an estimated EPA range of 517 miles, “said Eric Bach, Lucid’s vice president of hardware engineering, in a statement. “With our ultra-high voltage 900V + electrical architecture and the proprietary Wunderbox, we have increased the speed of energy in, run and even out of the car, delivering the fastest charging EV in the world, complete with future ready charging features. “

But what if you do not have access to a sweet, sweet DC fast charger and your leftovers are plugged into an AC-based charger? Lucid thought about it too. The Air has an on-board 19.2-kW AC charger that will charge at a rate of 80 miles range per hour if supplied with an adequate source of power. Lucid also has plans to enable car-to-car and even car-to-car charging functionality later in the road, as well as a home energy storage system (a la Tesla’s Powerwall) using batteries without cars.

Like most EVs on sale today, the Air will use the almost non-existent CCS charging standard, so you do not have to worry about finding or owning a proprietary charging station, taking out some of the hassle again and an electric to drive car.

The Lucid Air is set to receive them full production debut online on Sept. 9, with production driving cars set to begin early next year at Lucid’s plant in Arizona.