Lucid's Latest Tech Talk Analyzes How It Crafted Its Super Powerful, Yet Very Tiny Electric Motor

The Lucid Air drive unit is really, really tiny.

Lucid’s super tiny drive motor produces a whopping 670 horsepower, from a motor that only weighs 67 pounds. This week’s Lucid Tech talk sheds light on the how, and why of this very clever motor.

Lucid’s Tech Talk videos have been a series, made by Lucid engineers, chronicling the development of the Lucid Air. Although many EVs have had complicated development schedules, the Lucid Air is nearly entirely bespoke, made up and designed by ex-Tesla engineers. Aside from its distinctively mid-century modern styling, the Lucid Air has made some really interesting strides with battery and motor development. Its latest video analyzes how, and why it came to the design decisions it did, with respect to its electric motor.

It’s hard to encapsulate how small the Lucid Air’s drive motor is, and I’ve seen one in person. Whereas most EV motors tend to take up roughly the same size as an engine block (sans a head or exhaust), the Lucid Air’s motor looks as if it could fit inside of a backpack. To achieve this, Lucid has miniaturized its motor and stator, mated to an extremely tiny differential unit mounted in the center of the Lucid air’s stator. The end result is a super tiny, much lighter EV motor that produces power well into the 600-horsepower range. This allows for superior packaging on the Lucid Air, which has a big trunk, and big frunk, besting any EV this side of a Ford F-150 Lightning.

Lucid’s tech talk videos can be found on its Youtube channel.

Discuss this story on our Lucid Forum.

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