Lucid Air owners will soon be able to use Tesla Superchargers — but there’s a catch

Owners of the Lucid Air sedan will be able to charge their luxury EVs at thousands of Tesla Supercharger stations in North America starting July 31, nearly two years since the automakers reached an agreement. But there is a notable caveat: Lucid Air vehicles won’t be able to charge as fast as Tesla vehicles.

Lucid said on Tuesday that all Lucid Air sedans, regardless of model year, will be able to access Tesla’s network of fast chargers with an approved adapter that costs $220. Tesla V3 (and above) Supercharger stations are compatible with the Lucid Air adapter.

However, the Air will only be able to charge at 50 kW, a far lower rate than the 250 kW peak rate that these Superchargers provide. The issue stems from a mismatch between Lucid’s 924-volt charging system and the 400V Tesla Superchargers. Lucid, and any other EV with 800-volt charging systems, simply can’t charge as fast as they might with chargers designed for them, as Consumer Reports notes.

Lucid spokesperson Andrew Hussey explained that engineers repurposed hardware in the Air’s integrated charging system, called Wunderbox, to make the system work and activate 50kW boost charging when using a Supercharger. He added that Lucid views the 50kW charging for Air as another option for owners who are on roadtrips, or live or work closer to Superchargers.

Unlike the Lucid Gravity SUV, which launched earlier this year, the Air is still built with the Combined Charging System (CCS). The CCS was considered the go-to EV charging standard in North America and used by all automakers, with one notable exception. Tesla developed its own charging standard, which includes the built-in charging port on the vehicle as well as an EV charging connector. In 2022, Tesla shared its EV charging connector design in an effort to encourage network operators and automakers to adopt the technology, and help make it the new standard in North America.

Tesla calls the standard the North America Charging Standard, or NACS. In May 2023, Ford became the first automaker to reach an agreement with Tesla that would give its EV owners access to the Supercharger network. Existing Ford EV owners would use an adapter to use the Tesla network. But Ford — and soon nearly every other automaker, including GM, Rivian, Honda, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia, Toyota — also agreed that its future EVs would have the NACS charging port built into its vehicles.

Lucid was among the last companies to strike a deal with Tesla. And like the others, Lucid announced that its next EV, the Gravity SUV, would have a built-in NACS charging port.