The collective online screams about EVs being “useless” in the cold, because their range is zapped, can be heard across the Internet. In some cases, there’s truth to this, but it doesn’t always have to be. Lucid has just proven it while simultaneously setting the bar that its rivals should aim for.
Some context about my automotive background: I grew up in Minnesota in an Audi quattro house. After the front-wheel-drive 5000 CS Turbos came a 1990 V8 quattro, then two D2 A8s, then a C5 A6 Avant. There was also a C5 A6 2.7T, a D2 A8 L, an A4 3.0, and last but not least, the A6 4.2 widebody within my immediate family. Almost every one of these cars lived on Nokian winter tires during the cold and snowy months.
The 2026 Lucid Air is an incredible daily driver that shrugs off sub-zero and blizzard conditions while giving an old-school quattro feel from before the quattro-light era, or, as Audi tried to pitch it, quattro with ultra technology.
Here’s what I learned during an absolutely brutal week of Minnesota winter weather with the 2026 Lucid Air Touring.
The Basics
The Air isn’t new. The electric luxury sedan launched in 2022 as a luxury EV marred with software bugs. Since then, the automaker has expanded its lineup with less expensive models, such as the Touring trim tested here. But the premise of what this thing is hasn’t changed: an advanced electric sedan with efficiency and driving dynamics as its core focus.
The Air is stunning and, frankly, a relief. In an era where everything looks like a boring blob, the Air stands out. The short overhangs, notable dash-to-axle ratio, long hood, slim LED lights, and low roofline make it look like nothing else on the road. That’s before even opening the trunk, which is a clamshell design. There’s a bit of a Citroen vibe going on here, and I love it. Though the 19-inch Aero wheels on the Touring tested are ugly, the $600 optional Aeronaut wheels should be standard. Part of why this car looks so good is that it sits low to the ground, and Lucid says the Air has 4.9 inches of ground clearance. Remember that number later. It matters in the winter.
Inside the Air delivers real controls for what’s necessary with stalks on the steering column, toggles for the climate control functions, a real volume knob that looks like a turbine, and lovely buttons and toggles on the steering wheel. It all augments a curved 34-inch, 5K screen that houses the digital gauge cluster. There’s also a 12.5-inch touchscreen floating on the center dash with a simple interface. It’s all futuristic while feeling grounded in reality.
Driving the 2026 Lucid Air Touring in the winter
The Air Touring is the model just above the base rear-wheel drive Pure trim. The Touring trim is the entry point today for all-wheel drive with a dual-motor powertrain rated at 620 horsepower and 885 lb-ft of torque, all fed by a 92-kWh battery pack connected to a 700-plus-volt electrical architecture. The least expensive all-wheel drive Air does 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds, can go 140 mph, and is just downright quick. It’s not even the quick one.
Riding on Pirelli high-performance Sottozero 3 winter tires, the Air shrugged off driving through blizzard-like conditions. The electric sedan didn’t spin a tire or flash a traction control or electronic stability control warning once as it passed Ford Escapes spinning their tires. The ABS system never engaged, and the regenerative braking system still allowed me to use one-pedal driving without issue. It’s worth highlighting that the Air doesn’t even have a dedicated Winter driving mode.
At times, I could hear snow scraping the bottom of the car or the front bumper from other vehicles’ tracks. Not since my wife’s 2001 C5 A6 4.2 widebody on Nokians have I driven a car that felt so planted and secure in treacherous winter weather, and that includes her current 2015 WK2 Jeep Grand Cherokee High Altitude with a Hemi on Nokians.
The fact that the Air Touring weighs 5,009 pounds helps deliver that planted feeling, but the tuning of the traction systems is really astonishing and worth applauding.
One morning, the snowplow had come through the neighborhood, and there was a berm at the end of the driveway that was almost up to the Air’s headlights. The car didn’t blink backing out of the driveway through the berm and later right back through the snow into the driveway. The 4.9-inch ground clearance is a hair more than our old A6, which had 4.8 inches of clearance.
After the snow had been cleared from the roads by a symphony of snowplows (Minnesota knows what it’s doing), the adaptive dampers soaked up the heaving, broken Midwest pavement. Controlled, but comfortable, the tuning feels right out of Germany. The same can be said for the perfectly-weighted steering, which should make Audi A6 E-Tron engineers jealous.
Even with ambient temperatures below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, the Air had no issues heating the cabin quickly, keeping it warm, and the rear defroster for the back window engaged instantly, though I wish it wouldn’t time out.
As amazing as the Air handled winter weather, there’s no question that the software is still a bit buggy. It never crashed, and it’s far better than what the Gravity SUV launched with, but teething issues still exist. At times I had to double tap the digital button to get the frunk to open, there were moments a command to turn on the seat heater from the iOS app failed to execute, the front and rear cameras simply went offline for about 24 hours and then inexplicably started working again, and twice the car got confused thinking I had stepped out (I had not) and demanded a pin be entered on the center screen. A pin I did not have because this was not my car, mind you. That last one happened once while in the drop-off line for my daughter at school, which was less than ideal timing, and I somehow managed to get the car to start again without a pin by opening and closing the driver’s door a few times. Hopefully, gutting the company’s software team will fix lingering software issues.
Range, Charging, and Efficiency
The Air Touring on 19-inch wheels, as tested, has an EPA-estimated range of 431 miles. That’s obviously in ideal conditions, which sub-zero weather would not classify as.
Over the course of 542 miles, I averaged 2.63 mi/kWh. That would translate to 242 miles of range in sub-zero weather in real-world driving. As a point of reference, that efficiency seen in the Air in sub-zero weather is about what a Cadillac Lyriq achieves on a good day, in my experience.
I was able to turn on the Lucid from my iPhone each morning while the kids were having breakfast, tell the cabin to warm up to 70 degrees, turn on the heated steering wheel, my and the kids’ heated seats, and do it all while the garage door was closed and the car was plugged in. Though it would’ve also worked if the car had been unplugged outside, albeit less efficiently.
Value and Verdict
The base 2026 Lucid Air Pure costs $72,400, including a $1,500 destination fee. A base Touring, which adds more power and a dual-motor powertrain for all-wheel drive, among other things, costs $81,400. The car tested had some expensive options, such as a 21-speaker surround-sound system, a Comfort & Convenience Package that adds soft-close doors and four-zone climate control, and 20-way power front seats with a massage function, bringing the total to $100,350.
The Air isn’t cheap. Six figures is serious coin for a sedan from a startup automaker. But no car sold today is as efficient as the Air, and no EV can drive as far as the Air.
Perhaps above all else in my little universe, after being brought up in the house that quattro built, the Air sets a bar for winter driving that should shake its rivals, be applauded by enthusiasts, and studied by the competition.
Lucid provided The Drive with a seven-day loan of this vehicle for the purpose of writing this review.
| 2026 Lucid Air Touring Specs | |
|---|---|
| Base Price (Touring) | $81,400 ($100,350) |
| Powertrain | dual-motor | single-speed automatic | all-wheel drive |
| Horsepower | 620 |
| Torque | 885 lb-ft |
| Seating Capacity | 5 |
| Curb Weight | 5,009 pounds |
| Cargo Volume | 22.1 cubic foot trunk | 10.0 cubic foot front trunk |
| Ground Clearance | 4.9 inches |
| 0-60 mph | 3.4 seconds |
| Top Speed | 140 mph |
| EPA-Estimated Range | |
| Score | 8.5/10 |
Quick Take
The Lucid Air shrugs off treacherous winter conditions the way Audis used to.
