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Rebecca Choi

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Article text courtesy of nytimes.com

When One Car Has More Horsepower Than Churchill Downs

Welcome to the next front in the horsepower war, whose battles have raged since the dawn of the automobile, pausing only for actual wars, fuel crises or bids to rein in pollution. If gasoline-fueled provocations aren’t enough, electric cars are smashing the 1,000-horsepower barrier.

Burnt rubber will be in the air this spring with a Lucid Air, among several E.V.s that are leading a cavalry charge to unimaginable heights. The sedan’s $169,000 “Dream Edition” combines 1,080 horsepower with an industry-leading 503 miles of driving range as rated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Other Air sedans will follow, including a model in 2022 with “only” 480 horses, a 406-mile range and a $69,900 price after a federal tax credit.

Peter Rawlinson, Lucid’s chief executive and the former chief engineer of Tesla’s Model S, said the Lucid’s performance and efficiency would never compute in a gasoline car, where horsepower and high mileage tend to be mutually exclusive.