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There is still something quietly heroic about committing to a genuine American road trip. You pick a point several states away, set the cruise at a number your conscience and the state troopers can both tolerate, and see what kind of car you really bought. In this case, the machine in question is a Lucid Air Touring, a luxury electric sedan that carries a very old-school label on a very new type of drivetrain. One owner, posting under the handle gavram on the Lucid Owners Forum, decided that after two and a half years of living with the car, it was finally time to find out whether “Touring” was just a badge or a job description. The route was Cleveland, Ohio, to Wilmington, North Carolina, roughly 1,500 miles round trip, followed by a debrief not at some roadside diner, but online with fellow owners.
“Did a 1500-mile trip from Cleveland, OH to Wilmington, NC this week in the Air Touring. I've had my Air for 2.5 yrs & have never done a tri,p, so wanted to try one while I still have free charging. A few trip notes:
Planning: I used ABRP to plan the trip using 3.8 kWh for reference, which was way too conservative. I had used the option to link the app to the car & didn't realize it would auto-calibrate after a while, which it did to 4.36 mi/kWh, allowing us to skip a charge stop on the way home. Used Google maps for nav...great to have AA! The only thing I couldn't figure out was how to use the Lucid nav to initiate smart conditioning while also using Google nav for better routing.
Dream Drive Hands-free HA worked great (99% of the time). I wasn't brave enough to try it on the fast, steep highway curves of WV, but used it everywhere else & was definitely great to have it. We had 3 phantom rapid decelerations when next to large trucks & 4 incidents where it briefly tried to turn onto off-ramps. I was fine with this, but it freaked my wife out each time it happened & made her a bit skittish about using it. Auto lane change worked really well & I don't think I could live without turn signal cameras in the gauge cluster now that I've grown used to them.
Charging: I used EA chargers exclusively & all worked on the first try. I was expecting more charging drama! I also never had to wait in the car while charging. Our longest charge stops down & back were over lunch, & the others coincided with shorter bathroom & leg stretch stops, so there was almost no time spent sitting around waiting. Our hotel also had 4 free chargers that were available every day in the parking deck, so that was a nice surprise as we were driving a couple of hours each day after we arrived. I had purchased both Tesla adapters, but never needed to use either.
Range: Range was good at around 325 miles, although I really wish I had the extra range that comes with the GT. Kept the car at 75 most of the trip, which kept me right in line with ABRP estimates. I pushed it a bit on one leg by going from 85% to 5% to make it to the free EA chargers, vs paying for an EVGO a few miles earlier. Not sure if I'd cut it that close again, but it's good to know that I could.
Comfort: What a great highway cruiser...smooth & fast, never gets old & I found that I felt less fatigued after driving than in our other cars. I purchased the Lucid glass roof shades & they significantly helped with regulating cabin temps.
Can't wait for the next road trip!”
The first thing that stands out is how methodical the planning was. This is not a whim-and-hope kind of excursion. Using A Better Routeplanner with a conservative 3.8 mi/kWh benchmark, linking the app to the car, then watching it auto-calibrate to 4.36 mi/kWh and eliminate a charging stop on the way home tells you a lot about both driver and machine. The owner runs Google Maps for routing because he prefers the interface and traffic logic, yet wants Lucid’s own system to handle smart conditioning. That unresolved bit of software interplay is where the modern touring story lives now. In a traditional grand tourer, you considered fuel stops and maybe an atlas. In this one, you are negotiating between overlapping digital brains that all want to help.
Lucid Air: What People Say Online
- Reviewers often highlight the Lucid Air’s remarkable powertrain efficiency, noting that its compact electric motors deliver an unusual combination of lightness, responsiveness, and sustained high-speed performance.
- Many journalists praise the Air’s interior for its sense of calm, observing that the open cabin layout, sweeping glass canopy, and carefully selected materials create an atmosphere that feels more like a boutique lounge than a traditional sedan.
- Road testers frequently point out that the Lucid Air’s ride quality balances comfort and precision, giving it a poised feel over rough pavement while still retaining sharp control during spirited driving.
- Analysts consistently admire the vehicle’s impressive real-world range, explaining that the Air’s aerodynamic design and energy management software allow it to travel distances that set a benchmark for modern electric luxury cars.
Then there is DreamDrive and the new etiquette of sharing control with the car. Hands-free Highway Assist works “99% of the time,” in his words, which on a trip that crosses multiple states is a meaningful percentage. He keeps it off for the steep, fast curves in West Virginia, which shows a healthy sense of judgment rather than blind trust. The three phantom slowdowns near large trucks and four brief attempts to follow off-ramps are not horror stories. They are the kind of edge cases that remind you this is still a driver-assistance system, not a chauffeur. His wife’s understandable unease at those moments becomes part of the narrative too, because a modern touring car is judged not only by how it behaves, but by how secure passengers feel while it quietly moves the load.
The range management story reads like something out of a very modern travelogue. Holding 75 miles per hour for most of the trip, seeing around 325 miles of usable highway range, and choosing to run from 85 percent down to 5 percent in order to reach free Electrify America chargers instead of paying at an EVgo a few miles earlier is not recklessness. It is a calculated exercise in understanding your car and your tools. The owner does quietly envy the longer legs of the Grand Touring, yet his result still aligns well with what you would expect when you take an officially rated figure and subject it to real traffic, weather, and speed.
Lucid itself quotes more than 400 miles of EPA range for certain Air Touring configurations, but those numbers are always a starting point, not a guarantee for every mile at Interstate pace.
Charging, historically the weak link in the case for long-distance electric travel, fades into the background here in a way that is almost startling. Every Electrify America station he used worked on the first try. He never had to sit in the car simply waiting for electrons. The longest charging sessions lined up with lunch stops, while shorter top-ups overlapped with bathroom breaks and leg stretches. When the rhythm of the car and the rhythm of the humans match like that, road-tripping ceases to be an experiment and becomes routine. The fact that the hotel offered four free chargers that were always available, and that both Tesla adapters rode along untouched, is another quiet indicator of how far the ecosystem has come.
The Lucid forum itself becomes part of the touring experience. User thommev replies that he is not sure he is brave enough yet for such a long drive, but that his limited time with hands-free operation has been very good, with lane centering now feeling improved and highway cruising matching this report. He sums it up by saying that Lucid’s overall experience is getting where it needs to be, which is a very measured kind of praise. Another member, Buffalo Bob, teases the original poster about the 4.36 mi/kWh figure, asking if the route was downhill in both directions. The response clarifies that this represents the efficiency value used inside the planning app, not an actual cradle-to-grave trip average. It is a small exchange, but it shows a community learning how to interpret, question, and refine the numbers that define this new type of grand tour.
What also emerges is how completely the Lucid Air Touring steps into the role of a classic long-distance car. The owner highlights the comfort in very human terms, noting that he felt less fatigued after this trip than in his other cars and calling it a great highway cruiser that stays smooth and fast without ever becoming tiring. The glass roof shades are not a flashy option in a brochure. On a multi-day, multi-state journey, they become the difference between a pleasant, bright cabin and a rolling greenhouse. This is the sort of detail that separates a machine engineered to impress in a fifteen-minute test drive from one built to carry you across half the Eastern Seaboard without wearing you down.
The Air Touring earns its badge the old-fashioned way. It takes a family from Cleveland to the Carolina coast and back with no drama at the plug, minimal surprises from its driver assistance, and a cabin that leaves the driver eager for another trip rather than desperate for a day off. The forum thread that followed is full of advice, gentle humor, and incremental wisdom about software settings, route planning, and trust in the charging network. Out on the highway, the Lucid Air Touring shows itself to be a special kind of luxury car, one that treats 1,500 miles not as a stunt, but as a reasonable way to spend a week. Back at home, its owner looks at the odometer, thinks about how comfortable it all felt, and is already planning the next run. That is what a real touring car is supposed to inspire.
Image Sources: Lucid Media Center
Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.
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