Lucid Air Luggage Test: How much trunk (and frunk) space?

And the nominees for weirdest trunk are …

Like many EVs, the Lucid Air has a front trunk (aka frunk) as well as a regular trunk. Both are very large and very weird. The reason for this can be attributed to a few factors. Its packaging is atypical due to the inherently different architecture an EV allows, which isn’t that different from most EVs on dedicated platforms. However, the Lucid frees up loads of space with its relatively tiny electric motors (read more about those here), while also featuring unusual design, especially at the rear. 

Officially, the trunk offers 22.1-cubic-feet of space, which would be bigger than the vast chasms that were the last Ford Taurus and Crown Victoria trunks. As you’ll see, though, it’s absolutely nothing like those. Meanwhile, the frunk measures 10 cubic-feet, which is comparable to a typical coupe trunk and greater than what you’d find in a Tesla Model S, Porsche Taycan and Mercedes EQS (which doesn’t have one at all). Again though, it’s nothing like those. 

So this test is going to be weird. 

Weird Part 1: the clamshell trunk lid. Basically, the entire rear of the car lifts up like the bow of some cargo vessel. Or maybe a feeding whale. 

Weird Part 2: Note how the opening is basically just a slot that stretches the full width of the car. 

Deep in the belly of the beast, you can see just how much width you have at the rearmost area, but note that it’s not that tall. How tall isn’t it?

Bring on some bags. As in every luggage test I do, that means two midsize roller suitcases that would need to be checked in at the airport (26 inches long, 16 wide, 11 deep), two roll-aboard suitcases that just barely fit in the overhead (24L x 15W x 10D), and one smaller roll-aboard that fits easily (23L x 15W x 10D). I also include my wife’s fancy overnight bag just to spruce things up a bit (21L x 12W x 12D).

In my experience, only the smallest trunks fail to accommodate my biggest bags on their side. The Lucid could not. As you can see above, it was just tall enough for bigger roll-aboard, but the two bigger check-in bags had to lay flat. This left a not-very-useful remaining space above them. As such, I could only fit those two biggest bags, one roll-aboard and the fancy bag. The two other roll-aboards were left out.

At first glance, this is crappy and definitely not 22.1 cubic-feet. Oh, but wait, there’s literally more. Tip of the iceberg.

Removing the floor reveals a vast space, not unlike what you get with the Mercedes EQS. However, the left and right edges of this trunk basement are actually structural members. There is space below them that connect this large main space to additional smaller spaces on either side to create one contiguous, trunk-width floor. Wild. The left-side space can be occupied by a charge cord bag designed specifically to reside inside. Very thoughtful. 

The main space is big enough to hold my smaller roll-aboard and the fairly squished fancy bag. 

So, the trunk can almost fit all my bags, but on two levels and with lots of not-especially-useful space left over. The 22.1-cubic-foot number is therefore deceiving. Applicable if you’re loading the area with ping pong balls, less-so in terms of actual luggage. You can definitely fit more in an old Taurus. (BTW, if you find another place where a Lucid Air is compared to a Ford Taurus, let me know). 

Oh, but wait again, there’s still more.

Here’s the frunk, which is opened with a permanent, virtual button in the vehicle control touchscreen left of the instrument panel. You can also use the key fob (though I’m honestly not sure how as there are no buttons on it) or through the Lucid app. You can close the hood using that same touchscreen button or a physical button inside the frunk. Both are pictured below.

Now, before we get to the bags, let’s pause for a moment. Watch the below video.

Um, so it sure seems like you can drive with the frunk/hood open. Please don’t.

OK, back to your normally scheduled luggage testing.

Here is the frunk, although I’ll spoil it right now, this is just the first floor. Or the second, either way, the floor comes out of this one, too. I like this approach, because it allows for a wider space if you need it. 

It is deep and tall enough to accommodate the standard roll-aboard bag. Again, with lots of space leftover, but not enough to also fit the fancy bag.

Now, here is the space with the floor removed. Frankly, I’d probably just leave the floor removed at all times, because although having the option is nice, I doubt I’d use it much.

Here’s a standard roll-aboard atop the bigger blue check-in bag. This seems excellent for a frunk. I didn’t test it, but I suspect my 38-quart cooler would’ve fit in here also. Again, there was extra space left over.

Basically, with the trunk and frunk combined, you could easily hold all of my bags without even using the trunk’s under-floor space. Or, all of my bags plus another big check-in bag. Or, more bags than I have in my garage. That’s excellent for a sedan and, now that I think about it, probably about the same as an SUV with 32.1-cubic-feet of cargo volume. Sure, it’s spread across two cargo areas and four different levels, and there’s lots of hard-to-use extra space, but hey, I’ll never complain about weird.