The Lucid Air tops other EVs in EPA-rated range, meaning drivers will have plenty to spare after most trips. Now they can use it to charge other EVs.
Lucid on Thursday announced that it is enabling this function, dubbed RangeXchange by the automaker, via an over-the-air (OTA) software update and adapter. This will enable an Air to charge another EV at up to 9.6 kw, which Lucid estimates is enough to add 24 to 40 miles of range per hour.
Lucid has said from the start that the hardware for bidirectional charging is included in the Air—it just needs to be enabled. The necessary software update will arrive later this month for U.S. owners for some of this functionality, the company confirmed in a press release. But owners will still need to buy the adapter to charge other EVs.
Lucid Air Pure
In the release, Lucid also hinted at other applications, including vehicle-to-home (V2H) backup power, vehicle-to-grid (V2G), and time-of-use (TOU) optimization for home charging. But the company didn't give a timeline for the implementation of these features.
Several other automakers have discussed bidirectional charging, but the actual rollout has been quite slow. Although bidirectional charging was engineered into the Hyundai/Kia/Genesis E-GMP platform, the Kia EV9 is the only model that is set to allow vehicle-to-load (V2L), for applications that include charging other EVs, plus home-backup power as well as V2G helping back up the grid, from the start.
Ford offers the equipment to turn its F-150 Lightning into a home-backup power source, while General Motors has discussed doing the same through its new GM Energy business. In August the automaker announced that would expand bidirectional charging to all of its Ultium EVs by 2026. Volkswagen said back in 2021 that its EVs would have the tech in 2022, but it's still not here in the U.S.
Lucid Air Pure
Tesla, one of the holdouts, surprisingly—perhaps as it makes money from Powerwall stationary battery packs—has announced that its vehicle lineup will get bidirectional charging capability in 2025.
Lucid, meanwhile, recently announced that it is adopting Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) fast-charging connector. The automaker said earlier this week that it will integrate the NACS connector into new vehicles in 2025. Existing Lucid vehicles with the current Combined Charging Standard (CCS) connector will be able to access the Tesla Supercharger network with adapters that same year.
