EV startup takes on Tesla, unleashes new high-performance electric luxury car: ‘I’d strongly consider it’

Every electric vehicle startup in the United States is chasing Tesla in an attempt to capture some of the market share that the popular EV company continues to dominate. The most recent company to try to stake its claim is Lucid Motors, which just unveiled its “luxury electric super-sports sedan” called the Lucid Air Sapphire.

The difference between the Lucid Air Sapphire and other EVs is that the Sapphire is extremely fast — possibly the sportiest of electric sports cars currently in existence. It beat a Tesla Model S Plaid, a Bugatti Chiron, and a Ducati motorcycle in a quarter-mile drag race and can reportedly go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in under 1.89 seconds, with a top speed of 205 miles per hour, per Electrek.

This led Electrek to describe it as rivaling the Tesla Model S Plaid, the fastest Tesla model currently available for purchase. But, as the Model S Plaid has a peak horsepower of 1,020 and has a $108,490 base price, the comparison to the Sapphire, which has a peak of 1,234 horsepower and costs $249,000, all per Electrek, may not be entirely fair.

A more apt comparison may be to Tesla’s second-generation Roadster, which is tepidly expected to go into production sometime in 2024. Rumors abound, and early reports say that the Roadster will have a top speed of 250 miles per hour and a starting price tag of $200,000. Tesla’s first-generation Roadsters, which have not been in production for over a decade, were largely recalled because of safety issues.

Since the second-generation Roadster does not yet exist and the Sapphire does, Lucid appears to be winning this minirivalry for the time being. But it remains to be seen how many of these cars the startup can actually sell at a quarter of a million dollars apiece.

“I’d strongly consider it, if I win the lottery,” wrote one Electrek commenter.

“Unless I were to participate in drag racing or NASCAR marathons, why would I care how many fractions of a second I could more quickly accelerate from 0 to 60 mph, or whether my top speed is 200 vs 205 mph?” wrote another. “When I buy an EV, my three main concerns are range, reliability, and comfort.”

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