Lucid Air review: the EV with an actual Gulf address
4/5motorssouq Editorial Team
The Air Grand Touring is arguably the most technically accomplished EV sedan on sale, and Lucid's Saudi manufacturing and retail presence — reachable from Bahrain across the King Fahd Causeway — gives it a servicing story that neither Rivian nor Bahrain's Tesla grey market can currently match in this region. It is still not sold here directly, and the price sits well above a comparably specced Model S. Buy it if range anxiety on the causeway run to Riyadh is your actual concern; buy a Tesla if you want the wider used and parts market that exists today.
Pros
- Class-leading real-world range and efficiency from the 900V architecture
- Genuine Saudi Arabia manufacturing and retail presence, reachable via the causeway
- Quiet, refined ride with one of the largest cargo volumes of any EV sedan
- Thermal management holds fast-charge speed better than most rivals in extreme heat
Cons
- No Bahrain-based showroom or service centre yet — nearest is across the causeway in Saudi Arabia
- Higher price than a comparably equipped Tesla Model S
- Small local ownership base means resale takes patience
- Public charging infrastructure in Bahrain is still limited
Lucid's engineering story is genuinely different from the rest of the American EV field: a team stocked with veterans of Tesla's own drivetrain programme built a 900-volt electrical architecture specifically to chase efficiency rather than raw battery size, and it shows. The Air Grand Touring's EPA range figure — north of 800 km on a battery no larger than several 500 km rivals carry — is the headline that got Lucid noticed, and it holds up in real-world Gulf driving rather than only on a test cycle.
The dual-motor Grand Touring makes 819 hp and is genuinely quick, but the more relevant number for a Bahrain buyer is how quiet and composed the car is at 140 km/h on the highway to the causeway — this is a car engineered around refinement first, performance second. The glass canopy roof and a cabin built around one of the largest combined cargo volumes of any EV sedan make it a genuinely usable long-distance car, not just a range number on a spec sheet.
Why Lucid is different in the Gulf
Lucid is not a grey-market curiosity here the way Rivian is. The company builds the Air at its AMP-2 plant in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia — backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund — and runs retail studios in the Kingdom. That is a genuinely reachable network from Bahrain: the drive to Lucid's nearest Saudi studio across the King Fahd Causeway is shorter than the drive many Manama residents already make for weekend shopping in Dammam or Khobar. There is still no Bahrain-based Lucid studio, but the regional backing behind the car is real rather than theoretical.
Efficiency is what matters most in a 45°C Bahraini summer, and this is where the 900-volt architecture earns its keep: Lucid's thermal management holds DC fast-charging speeds up better under heat load than most rivals, and because the car starts from a larger efficiency buffer, cabin cooling eats a smaller percentage of usable range than it does in a less efficient EV. Public charging in Bahrain is still limited, so most owners will charge overnight at home — fine for a villa with a dedicated wallbox, harder to arrange for a flat.
Who should buy one
Buy the Air Grand Touring if range and efficiency genuinely matter to you — a causeway run to Riyadh with real margin to spare is a legitimate reason to prefer it over a Tesla Model S. Buy a Tesla instead if you want the deeper regional used-car and parts market that comes with being the more established grey-market brand; Lucid's ownership numbers in Bahrain are still small enough that a private sale takes patience.