Lucid Air house owners will quickly be capable of use Tesla Superchargers — however there is a catch

House owners of the Lucid Air sedan will be capable of cost their luxurious EVs at hundreds of Tesla Supercharger stations in North America beginning July 31, almost two years because the automakers reached an settlement. However there’s a notable caveat: Lucid Air autos gained’t be capable of cost as quick as Tesla autos.

Lucid mentioned on Tuesday that every one Lucid Air sedans, no matter mannequin yr, will be capable of entry Tesla’s community of quick chargers with an accredited adapter that prices $220. Tesla V3 (and above) Supercharger stations are suitable with the Lucid Air adapter.

Nevertheless, the Air will solely be capable of cost at 50 kW, a far decrease charge than the 250 kW peak charge that these Superchargers present. The problem stems from a mismatch between Lucid’s 924-volt charging system and the 400V Tesla Superchargers. Lucid, and some other EV with 800-volt charging methods, merely can’t cost as quick as they may with chargers designed for them, as Shopper Reviews notes.

Lucid spokesperson Andrew Hussey defined that engineers repurposed {hardware} within the Air’s built-in charging system, known as Wunderbox, to make the system work and activate 50kW enhance charging when utilizing a Supercharger. He added that Lucid views the 50kW charging for Air as an alternative choice for house owners who’re on highway journeys, or reside or work nearer to Superchargers.

Not like the Lucid Gravity SUV, which launched earlier this yr, the Air continues to be constructed with the Mixed Charging System (CCS). The CCS was thought-about the go-to EV charging customary in North America and utilized by all automakers, with one notable exception. Tesla developed its personal charging customary, which incorporates the built-in charging port on the car in addition to an EV charging connector. In 2022, Tesla shared its EV charging connector design in an effort to encourage community operators and automakers to undertake the expertise, and assist make it the brand new customary in North America.

Tesla calls the usual the North America Charging Customary, or NACS. In Might 2023, Ford grew to become the primary automaker to achieve an settlement with Tesla that will give its EV house owners entry to the Supercharger community. Current Ford EV house owners would use an adapter to make use of the Tesla community. However Ford — and shortly almost each different automaker, together with GM, Rivian, Honda, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia, and Toyota — additionally agreed that its future EVs would have the NACS charging port constructed into its autos.

Lucid was among the many final corporations to strike a cope with Tesla. And just like the others, Lucid introduced that its subsequent EV, the Gravity SUV, would have a built-in NACS charging port.