Lucid showed off a new variant of its Air sedan on X (formerly Twitter) this week. It's a police interceptor that the California Highway Patrol is purportedly testing for its suitability as a cop car. While details are scarce—the company only made one tweet about the car—there's a handful of things we can glean from the images.
The Air (whose trim level is not noted) has a light bar and a solid (not glass) roof. It also appears to ride on a gigantic set of steelies; The smallest wheels available for the standard Air are 19 inches, so these are likely the same. Other modifications include a bullbar with a front speaker and side-marker colored lights.
The car doesn't appear to have an internal cage or barred divider for rear (arrested) occupants, and a shot of the car on California Highway Patrol's Fleet Operations Facebook page doesn't show any changes to the frunk, interior, or dashboard. So if it is going to be a cop car, this is still an early variant (or, more likely, a ticket-first, publicity-heavy vehicle akin to the '90s CHP Camaros and Fox Body Mustangs).
This isn't the first time California has tried out electric cop cars, though. Several departments have purchased fleets of Teslas and fitted them for patrol duty, although many were disappointed with the interior space and low ride height. Ford produces police variants of the Mustang Mach E and F-150 Lightning and Chevy has shown off a pursuit version of the Blazer EV, so EV police vehicles aren't quite new.
Indeed, this wouldn't even be the first Lucid in police service. At the World Defense Show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Lucid unveiled a different police car that the Saudi Arabian government integrated into its fleet (complete with a flashy unveil video and roof-mounted drone). Redditors have even spotted normal fleet Airs in police livery around the country.
The Air, no matter which trim level, has some of the longest range (and longest rear legroom) of any EV currently on the market, so it makes some sense for police departments to investigate. It starts at roughly $70,000 for the cheapest Pure trim, which is a lot for a cop car... until you realize the 184 Mach-E Mustangs that the NYPD bought at the end of 2021 worked out to roughly $63,000 a pop. While gas-powered cop cars like the Explorer PPV generally cost somewhere between $40,000 and $50,000, EVs have significantly lower operational costs in police use because cops spend a lot of time idling. The long-run savings might make EVs break even for most departments.
Plus, with police funding on the rise and some departments (such as my home state) allowing for more frequent vehicle pursuits, 400+ horsepower, sub-4-second 0-60 cop cars make a certain kind of sense. Perhaps an Air Sapphire won't be too far in the future, and then Americans can finally make the chases from the Need For Speed video games of our childhoods a reality.
Source: Lucid via Twitter
