The Lucid Air Dream Edition travels up to 520 miles (837 kilometers) on a charge, more than any electric vehicle on the market by a wide margin. If a buyer chooses the larger, 21-inch (53-centimeter) wheels, however, 39 of those miles vanish — a 7.5% range penalty.
To be fair, the bigger shoes do look cool, and they’ll still take you nonstop from New York to Cleveland. But when it comes to wheels and tires — where the rubber literally meets the road on electric vehicle range — there’s an escalating battle between physics and aesthetics. More often than not, the latter is winning, as the people who buy EVs (and the people who make them) choose bigger, stickier, "spokier” options that prize looks and performance over efficiency.
"Everything is about range, so the slipperier you make it, that’s great,” says Richard Scheer, exterior design director at Chevrolet. "But even in the EV world, people will trade off range for cool wheels.”