Watch Lucid Air's Electric Vehicle Reach 235MPH on the Track

As reported by Engadget: Electric cars are quick off the line by their very nature (they have gobs of torque available at all times), but what about top speed -- how are you supposed to know how quickly they can go when they're usually capped at an artificial 155MPH ceiling? Lucid Motors is happy to help... sort of. The fledgling electric car maker has posted video of a Lucid Air prototype reaching a whopping 235MPH on a test track after removing its speed limiter, or 18MPH more than it managed in April. That's performance you rarely see from supercars, let alone a luxury sedan. That doesn't mean that it would beat a conventional supercar in a drag race (gas-powered vehicles tend to catch up once they hit their peak torque levels), but it's impressively fast for a company's first car. At least, until you realize that you won't see those numbers on the street.

It's not just public speed limits that will keep the Lucid Air below 235MPH. As with Tesla, Lucid is unlikely to lift that 155MPH software speed limit on production cars lest it anger rival luxury brands who've informally agreed to that restriction in the name of safety. You certainly wouldn't get this kind of breakneck pace from the base-model Lucid Air -- you'd need to pony up for a high-powered variant to achieve this feat even if there were no restrictions. Also, notice how this prototype is both stripped down and includes both a roll cage and a large spoiler? It's going to have a much easier time hitting 235MPH than a production car loaded with creature comforts and no real racing amenities, especially when it's driving on a road instead of the track.

As such, this is more of a theoretical exercise than a representation of what you'll actually get. With that said, it's still useful as a demonstration of how far EVs have come from the days when they were barely quick enough to keep up with traffic.