Use Your Lucid Air to Bail Out Stranded EVs

• Lucid Motors introduces RangeXchange functionality to the Air sedan, allowing it to transfer power to other EVs.

• The V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) function requires an adapter and an OTA update, with the Air sedan able to transfer power at 9.6 kW.

• The transfer will permit another EV to gain up to 40 miles of range per hour, depending on several factors.

Automakers have spent over a decade trying to ameliorate the range anxiety that comes with EV ownership. But next time you find yourself on the wrong side of the range display readout, you may not have to call AAA and wait for a tow. All you'll have to do is wave down a passing Lucid Air.

The EV maker has just begun offering the RangeXchange vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) adapter, which will allow Lucid owners to recharge other EVs. All Lucid owners will need besides this cable is an OTA update.

Yes, now is the time to make friends with a Lucid owner in your area so they can bail you out.

Using the Wunderbox bi-directional charging technology, the RangeXchange adapter will permit a Lucid Air to transfer juice at 9.6 kW to another car, which should translate to about 24 to 40 miles of range per hour, the EV maker notes, depending on environmental factors as well as the receiving vehicle's energy efficiency.

Lucid Motors notes that the basic bi-directional charging hardware and software has been built into every Lucid Air from the start. The OTA update and the adapter cable are only taking advantage of it now that it's being activated.

"From giving other EVs a boost with RangeXchange today, to possible future applications like vehicle-to-home backup power, time-of-use (TOU) optimization, and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) power, Lucid's proprietary bi-directional charging technology has the potential to greatly improve our customers' lives," said Eric Bach, senior vice president of product and chief engineer at Lucid.

V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) and V2L (vehicle-to-load) technology has always seemed far more promising and relevant for the current EV era, despite V2G (vehicle-to-grid) receiving the most publicity in recent years. And it's also something we wish every EV would offer.

Even though Lucid also touts V2H (vehicle-to-home) and V2G capabilities, in reality these sorts of power transfers require quite a bit more hardware to actually implement. So if your house loses power and it doesn't have the necessary wiring to actually allow V2H charging, it's not something you'll be able to hook up in five minutes even if you have a Lucid and the adapter cable. The same goes for V2G, which is even a far more complex power transfer in practice, and is mostly at the experimental stage at the moment.

Is range anxiety still one of the main factors that inhibits greater adoption of EVs, or are other factors like EV price more important for consumers? Let us know what you think.