2025 Lucid Air Sapphire Is the Quickest Car We've Ever Tested

Car and Driver

3 days ago

The Lucid Air Sapphire we tested hit 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, 100 mph in 3.9 seconds, and finished the quarter-mile in 9.1 seconds at 155 mph.
The Sapphire's 60-mph time ties the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Weissach, but the Lucid is even quicker in accelerating to triple-digit speeds.
Both EVs we tested wore ultra-grippy Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS tires, and while the Sapphire is 418 pounds heavier, it has an extra 215 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque.
Welcome to Car and Driver's Testing Hub, where we zoom in on the test numbers. We've been pushing vehicles to their limits since 1956 to provide objective data to bolster our subjective impressions (you can see how we test here).
Have you ever wondered what it's like to drive a Top Fuel dragster on the street—legally, of course? The 1234-hp Lucid Air Sapphire is arguably the closest thing, minus all the noise and nose-hair-tingling smell of race fuel. Similarly quick and equally electric, the 1019-hp Porsche Taycan Turbo GT qualifies as a close second.
In fact, in Car and Driver's nearly 70 years of testing cars, the Taycan Turbo GT was the first to record a sub-two-second sprint to 60 mph, hitting that mark in an incredible 1.9 seconds. With the mass-reducing Weissach kit, the Turbo GT was even quicker, but not enough to get to a 1.8-second zero-to-60 time. While Porsche deserves its flowers, holding the title of quickest car to 60 mph we've ever tested was short-lived, as Lucid's quarter-million-dollar supersedan has tied that record-setting run.
Since ties are as exciting as waiting in line at a public fast-charger, we need a way to separate these two hypercar-like EVs. When it comes to acceleration, the Sapphire owns the tiebreaker.
Incredible Quickness
This isn't the first time we've tested the ultimate Lucid Air. Previously, we tested a 2024 model that hit 60 mph in 2.1 seconds. However, that car wore Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, which aren't nearly as grippy as the Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS Elect rubber on our 2025 Sapphire, a $2900 option. Along with sticky tires and all-wheel-drive traction, the tri-motor four-door makes 1430 pound-feet of torque that puts every heavy-duty truck's diesel engine to shame. That stump-pulling torque and 1234 horsepower helped give the Sapphire an acceleration advantage against the Taycan Turbo GT Weissach, which makes 914 pound-feet and has the same type of tires. The Weissach we tested weighed 4915 pounds, which is 418 pounds less than the 5333-pound Lucid.
Jessica Lynn Walker
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Car and Driver
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Michael Simari
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Car and Driver
It's probably best to eat a light lunch before launching either of these machines. The experiences are akin to a catapult, instantly forceful and eerily quiet, apart from the mostly muted sound of outside wind and road noise. Besides the sensation of butterflies in our stomach and feeling like being glued to the back of the seats, both the Sapphire and Taycan Turbo GT have launch control that makes it relatively easy to pull off these insane feats of acceleration. But while they each reach 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, the Lucid pulls away after that, hitting 200 mph in 17.9 seconds on its way to a governor-limited 208-mph top speed. Meanwhile, the top Taycan tops out at 190 mph, but we only hit 170 mph in our acceleration test, which took 12.7 seconds—1.5 seconds slower than the Sapphire.
While it's officially a tie to 60 mph, if you zoom into the hundredths place, the Sapphire is fractionally ahead, and the Lucid's acceleration advantage starts hitting the tenths place after they both hit 80 mph in 2.8 seconds. From there, the Sapphire's lead grows, and it hits 100 mph two-tenths sooner at 3.9 seconds. It hits 130 mph in 6.3 seconds and 150 mph in 8.4 seconds, which are advantages of 0.3 and 0.5 second, respectively.
Michael Simari
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Car and Driver
Our 2025 Lucid Air Sapphire had an as-tested price of $253,400, and the 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Weissach was $20K behind it at $233,395 as tested. Despite being slightly slower than the Sapphire, the top Taycan posted better cornering grip on our skidpad (1.11 g vs. 1.09), and both cars stopped from 70 mph in an identical 140 feet. However, we're not sure the Weissach's slight edge will be enough to overturn the Sapphire's decisive lap-time win at Virginia International Raceway over the non-Weissach Taycan Turbo GT at our last Lightning Lap. If track days aren't part of the equation, the Lucid's comfier cabin, with its luxurious massaging front seats, and bigger trunk definitely make it a more desirable daily driver. Not to mention, the Sapphire comes with a limo-like back seat, whereas the Weissach-equipped Turbo GT ditches its rear buckets to save weight.
Quicker Than a Bugatti?
While all-wheel-drive EVs have blistering off-the-line quickness, one area they haven't been as strong in is higher-speed acceleration, through the quarter-mile and beyond. The 2022 Bugatti Chiron Super Sport we tested is the king of triple-digit acceleration times, hitting the 200-mph mark in 14.8 seconds. That's 3.1 ticks ahead of the Sapphire. The Chiron has also been our reigning king of the quarter-mile, with its 1578-hp quad-turbo 8.0-liter W-16 propelling it to a 9.1-second time. However, this latest Lucid sets the quickest quarter-mile we've ever seen from an EV, tying the $4.3 million Chiron hypercar at 9.1 seconds.
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Marc Urbano
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Car and Driver
However, once again, if you zoom into the hundredths place, the Sapphire pulls off a slight victory and is oh, so close to a run of 9.0 seconds flat. We managed that in one direction, but the best in the opposite direction dragged the average up to 9.1. (All of our acceleration results are an average of the best run in each direction to help neutralize the effects of wind or slight elevation change.) Also, the Sapphire hit 60 mph three-tenths quicker and reached the century mark two-tenths sooner than the Chiron SS. While the two machines are neck and neck through the quarter-mile, the Bugatti's additional horsepower is evident in its 161-mph trap speed, which is 6 mph faster than the Lucid's.
Eric Stafford
Managing Editor, News
Eric Stafford's automobile addiction began before he could walk, and it has fueled his passion to write news, reviews, and more for Car and Driver since 2016. His aspiration growing up was to become a millionaire with a Jay Leno–like car collection. Apparently, getting rich is harder than social-media influencers make it seem, so he avoided financial success entirely to become an automotive journalist and drive new cars for a living. After earning a journalism degree at Central Michigan University and working at a daily newspaper, the years of basically burning money on failed project cars and lemon-flavored jalopies finally paid off when Car and Driver hired him. His garage currently includes a 2010 Acura RDX, a manual '97 Chevy Camaro Z/28, and a '90 Honda CRX Si. Read full bio