2024 Lucid Air prices slashed, more feature and customization possibilities offered
First, the bad news. If you were expecting the 2024 Lucid Air to get the same interior/technology upgrades as the Lucid Gravity, you will be disappointed. The new hardware, including the wraparound touchscreens, portrait-oriented supporting touchscreen and touchpad steering wheel, won’t be making the jump just yet. Cost and time would be the mitigating factors for that, according to Lucid’s head of design and brand Derek Jenkins. He added that they could be possible in the future for the Air.
In the meantime, the good news is that what carries over for the 2024 Air is still plenty “wow”-inducing. The changes for 2024 are less about the car itself and more about aligning its various offerings with what customers want. That means fewer choices in some areas and more choices in others.
Lucid found that customers were confused by the various powertrain options, especially as they were tied to named trim levels that gained non-powertrain equipment. For 2024, the entry-level Pure is now rear-drive/single-motor only. The Touring is now the entry point for all-wheel-drive/dual-motor. The Grand Touring Performance has been discontinued, but Lucid says that much of what made that version unique is being brought down to the surviving standard Grand Touring trim level. That’ll result in more power and range, but how much is still to be announced.
On the flip side, customers are now granted more flexibility in terms of what features can be added to each of those trim levels/powertrains. Pricing for the Pure drops considerably down to $78,975, including the $1,575 destination and documentation fees, but base feature content remains the same. Better still, the Pure can now be optioned with items from upper trims, most notably the heated, ventilated and massaging front seats that were one of the top customer demands. You can also now add full leather and natural grain trim, and choose from different interior color schemes. Fathom Blue is added as a color choice throughout the lineup, minus the carry-over Sapphire.
The Touring sees its price reduced by about $10,000, to $87,475, but that is partly due to a reduction in its standard feature content. Much of that decontenting involves features many customers didn’t see themselves using and therefore didn’t like paying for. Lucid mentioned heated rear seats and steering wheel for customers in warmer climates. As such, a new Comfort & Convenience package debuts, which adds those features back to the Touring and makes them available for the first time in the Pure. The package includes heated steering wheel and rear seats, soft-close doors, four-zone climate control and power rear sunshades in both trims, while the Touring further gets power-operated trunk and frunk lids, and heated wipers. Those fancy seats are also optional on the Touring along with leather, granting some customers’ wish for a cow-free interior. The Grand Touring will get that same seating material choice.
There were two other hot-topic options (or non-options) among customers. The glass roof that had been standard on the Grand Touring is now an option – turns out some people wanted max power and luxury without the sun permanently baking their heads. Hmm, go figure. (Side note, I know someone who specifically did not order a Grand Touring for that reason). The glass roof continues to be an option for the Touring.
To the surprise of no one in 2023 when black trim rules supreme, the Stealth Appearance package (pictured above) proved to be quite popular and now finds itself as an option on the Touring as well as the Grand Touring. This collection of 32 individual trim pieces is actually much cheaper now at $1,750 with the aluminum roof. It’s $3,500 with the glass roof.
It’s also worth pointing out how Lucid found out what it customers wanted. Because the company directly sells its cars, there aren’t independent dealerships in the way to filter customer data (or eliminate the possibility of its collection entirely). It also used its online configurator to see how people were building their cars, which seems like an obvious thing every car company does, but they don’t. Besides looking at the end “built” car, Lucid could actually follow along with the build process to see which features and trim levels users were going back and forth with. Things like glass roof availability for the Grand Touring vs Touring would show up in such data, for instance.
The 2024 Lucid Air is currently for sale, and that configurator is up to date, awaiting your contributions to its data.
