- Electric powertrains make any vehicle, no matter its shape or weight, very quick in a straight line.
- With over 1,000 horsepower and all-wheel drive, the Rivian R1S Quad and Lucid Gravity Dream Edition are as quick as supercars once were.
- These two most powerful electric SUVs are evenly matched in a quarter-mile drag race, but the Lucid just has the edge.
Drag races may seem trivial to some, but they help put cars’ performance into perspective. They often yield surprising results and unexpected winners, which accelerate much quicker than they would have any right to. That’s the case for both the Lucid Gravity Dream Edition and the new quad-motor version of the Rivian R1S, both of which are quick enough to move your eyeballs from the front of your head to the sides.
Jason Cammisa assembled quite the roster for his latest Hagerty drag race, which included combustion vehicles, electric vehicles and one exceptionally fast plug-in hybrid. The stars of the show were the two new SUVs, though.
With four new Gen 2 motors that give it a combined 1,025 horsepower and 1,198 pound-feet, the R1S Quad catapults itself off the line. With launch control enabled, it lowers the nose before blasting off in a similar manner to Tesla’s Chetah Stance feature. Even with the nose hunkering down, which is done to push it into the tarmac to get extra traction, the front tires still spin a bit of the power away before hooking up.
Seeing the R1S Quad launching is quite something, but as this video proves, it’s not quite as quick off the line as the new (and much less powerful) Porsche Macan Turbo EV. With 630 hp and 833 lb-ft of torque, the top electric Macan leaves the two larger, heavier and more powerful SUVs for dead, but then their higher output allows them to quickly reel it in.
The Macan EV’s superb sprint ability can also be attributed to its much lower weight, which would definitely give it an edge if a corner was involved, like in Edmunds’ U-Drag races, which also test braking and cornering. The R1S Quad quickly catches up and passes the lower-powered Porsche, and it looks like it’s headed for a win.
Meanwhile, the Lucid Gravity Dream Edition is behind both of these vehicles with its gentler start. However, once it does get going, it reveals that it has a lot more pulling power and takes the win every time. As it approaches the end of the quarter-mile run, the R1S Quad is approaching its limited top speed of 130 mph, while the Lucid keeps pulling since it can go all the way up to 155 mph. The Rivian’s acceleration begins to taper off, which is what allows the Lucid to take the lead.
What makes the Lucid’s performance even more impressive is that it comes from just two motors, not four like in the Rivian. It makes more power, 1,070 hp, but a bit less torque, 1,107 lb-ft, and it carries a few hundred pounds less weight, helping it accelerate even at higher speeds. Jason Cammisa describes it as “pulling like a Boeing” with its very high trap speed at the end of each quarter-mile run.