As of July 31st, owners of the Lucid Air electric sedan are gaining access to access Tesla’s vast network of Supercharger stations, adding more than 30,000 new options for existing owners. But there’s a catch—Lucid’s surprisingly good and (and also surprisingly affordable) offering will be limited to just 50 kW of throughput. Forget Air; think water, then freeze it, because that’s positively glacial.
“Using this solution, the Air can charge at up to 50 kW and gain up to 200 miles of range per hour of charging, giving owners additional peace of mind while on the road,” the announcement said (emphasis added).
Meanwhile, the Lucid Gravity, which already has access to the Supercharger network, can sustain more than four times the throughput (225kW) on the same charging equipment. What would take the Air an hour, the Gravity (and most current Teslas, for that matter) can knock out in about 15 minutes.
The reason the Air charges so much slower than the Gravity and other EVs at the Superchargers is because of its 900-volt electrical architecture and the fact it was developed so much earlier than the Gravity SUV. Lucid spokesperson Andrew Hussey told The Drive the automaker’s engineers repurposed the Air’s Wunderbox for 80-amp AC charging to activate the 50-kw charging at Superchargers. That means the Air isn’t actually DC fast charging (in the sense we all know) at a Supercharger, rather it’s boosting the vehicle’s onboard AC charging speeds to the lowest levels of output that might be considered fast charging by outdated standards.
Other 800-volt vehicles, such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6, Ioniq 9, Kia EV9 and EV6, and expensive GM products with the huge double-stack battery packs (think Cadillac Escalade IQ, GMC Hummer EV, Chevrolet Silverado EV, and GMC Sierra EV) avoid this issue by essentially telling the system the battery packs are split in two and downrate everything to 400 volts for the Superchargers. We’ve seen well over 125 kw on an Escalade IQ, and over 100 kw on a Chevrolet Blazer EV and Ford F-150 Lightning.
Still, 50 kW is more than four times what most typical owners see while charging at home, but it’s thoroughly unimpressive by fast-charging standards, matching the rated fast-charging speed of a base-model 2017 Nissan Leaf.
As a point of reference, the Lucid Air has a peak charge rate of over 300 kw, which we’ve seen. This translates to the ability to add up to 20 miles of range per minute thanks to its super fast 900-volt electrical architecture. But to do that the car needs to be plugged into a 350-kw charger.
Lucid also announced that the 2026 Air Touring model offers 6% more EPA-certified range than the 2025. So, if you buy one of those, you’ll get to go a little further and possibly be able to find a charger that isn’t a Tesla Supercharger.
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