American Sports Sedans Go on Sale in Russia at Shocking Prices
The dealer holding Rolf has offered customers American electric cars Lucid Air, reports Rossiyskaya Gazeta. This concerns the most expensive Sapphire version with three motors producing 1234 horsepower, which accelerates to 100 km/h in less than 2 seconds. The car«s cost, according to some estimates, will be 40 million rubles (approximately $400,000 at current rates), which seems plausible: in the US, the price starts from $250,000, but when imported to Russia, it typically doubles.
Lucid Motors is a young American manufacturer that is attempting to challenge Tesla. It launched its first model, the Lucid Air, in 2021: it is a full-size premium sedan priced from $77,000 in the version with a 480-horsepower motor.
The car«s standout feature is its efficiency, which, combined with large battery capacity, provides phenomenal range. With the maximum battery capacity of 118 kWh the Lucid Air demonstrated a range of 840 km on a single charge under the strict American EPA methodology, which is close to real-world driving, including high-speed highway conditions. This is a record value for an electric car. It also remains the winner of tests by the publication Edmunds, having managed to cover 505 miles, or 813 kilometers, in real-world conditions. Under the lenient Chinese CLTC methodology, the Lucid Air»s range would exceed 1000 km, but such a cycle rather reproduces urban driving mode.
Despite exceptional technical characteristics, demand for Lucid in the US has been significantly lower than expected. Over five years of existence, the company has repeatedly been on the brink of bankruptcy. Only last year, with the launch of the second model, the Lucid Gravity crossover, production and sales began to grow, although the company still remains unprofitable. Like Tesla, Lucid is advancing on a broad front: plans include a mid-size crossover, as well as a partnership with Nvidia and Uber to create robotaxis based on the Lucid Gravity.
Rolf has displayed the Lucid Air Sapphire at a dealership center in Yasenevo (Moscow). Apparently, this does not signify a full-fledged entry of the American company into Russia. Rather, Rolf is testing the market by betting on the most expensive version of the car.
The most affordable versions of the Lucid Air would cost around 15–18 million rubles (approximately $150,000–$180,000 at current rates) in Russia, but finding buyers for them is difficult: comparable Chinese electric cars are two to three times cheaper, and for the indicated amount, one could import a German premium-class gasoline car.
Enthusiasts of electric car exotics can look towards the Lotus Emeya or Eletre: these are sports cars from the British company, which was purchased by the Chinese conglomerate Geely. The same conglomerate also owns Zeekr.
