One of the big selling points of the Lucid Air, is the airy aspect of it, which means the “full glass canopy roof.” This glass roof stretches from the hood and goes right back through the back seats, it is a seamless full glass roof – not sectioned off by much of anything.
That is what partially gives the car the name “Air,” so getting the Lucid Air without a full glass roof seems wrong to me. But there are plenty of reasons to opt for a metal roof, if that is something available on the trim you selected.
Photos Of Glass vs Metal Roof
Currently, Lucid has not made a production car with a metal roof. The only Lucid Airs off the line so far have been the Dream Edition and the Grand Touring and those all come with the full glass canopy roof and there is no option to have a metal roof on those models. So it is hard to find photos of the metal roof to compare it to the glass roof.
The website configuration on Lucid’s website does show it off a bit, so here are some photos comparing the two based on the website configurator between the Grand Touring and the Pure model:
So those are the best comparisons I can see so far of the metal roof compared to the glass roof on the Lucid Air.
Trims & Glass Roof Options
From what I can tell and what I have heard, the Dream Edition and the Grand Touring only come with the glass roof. There is no option to get the metal roof on those trim levels, the more expensive trims.
The Touring trim comes by default with the metal roof option but lets you upgrade to the optional glass roof for an additional $4,000. I do believe if you are going with the Touring trim that it does make sense to strongly consider upgrading to the glass roof.
The Pure trim, according to the Lucid web site, does not seem to offer an upgrade to the glass roof. It by default comes with the metal roof and I see no way of upgrading it to a glass roof.
Metal Roof Late Availability
One concern is that if you are going with the Touring trim, or even the Pure trim, is that there is a note on the meta roof option on the web site that the metal roof is “late availability.” This is more of a concern for those who want a metal roof and reserved the Touring trim. It might mean that when Lucid Motors begins to confirm those orders, the Touring trims with the glass roof will be first to be confirmed, over the metal roof options.
It makes sense that Lucid would first produce the glass roof because that is what they have been doing for the trims they have been shipping so far, the Dream Edition and the Grand Touring. So if you really want the meta roof, it might delay your car a bit longer, espesially the Touring trim.
Glare & Heat Issues With Glass Roof
In the Lucid Owners Forums, there are some concerns around if the car will get too hot with the glass roof or if there will be glare issues due to the glass roof. From what I can tell so far, from those who own the Lucid Air, the glass is prepared in a way that reduces any heat issues or glare issues to a point where it is not a concern.
Here are some of the comments in the forums that stood out to me on this topic:
The tinting and heat rejection of the glass roofs in the Lucid is insanely good; I’d be extremely surprised if I notice any difference at all in the summer.
The Tesla heat rejection was *not* good, and there is a very noticeable difference between my friends’ Tesla glass roofs and my Lucid.
The glare was manageable before, but after I added tint to the front windshield it is a non issue.
Just test drive the AGT at the Torrance Studio at 12.45 pm and the sun was high in the sky. It felt Ok temperature wise but the glare from the sun only convinced me that I made the right decision to wait for the AT and not upgrade my reservation to the AGT. However, many others may enjoy their glass roofs and so be it. Different strokes for different folks! We can’t all be alike!
The recently-developed glass coatings do an amazing job of reducing IR heat gain in car interiors.
We took delivery of our Model S Plaid with its full glass roof in August in southwest Florida. While waiting for delivery, I kept looking at the Tesla Store website for a pop-in mesh sunscreen for the new model, as the older Model S’s with glass tops presented a real issue with heat gain. To my surprise, the full glass roof in the new Model S presented no problem at all. Even in bright sunshine, the glass did not become warm to the touch on the inside, whereas the earlier roofs became uncomfortably hot to the touch. I don’t even check any more to see if Tesla is now offering the mesh screen, as I would not bother with it.
Although we received our Air at the end of December, south Florida still gets strong winter sunshine. We are having the same experience with the Air’s glass canopy: it poses no problems with glare or heat gain at all. It took me a couple of weeks of driving in bright sunshine finally to quit putting my hand on the glass compulsively to be sure I had not been imagining how cool it remained.
Lucid has very effective IR and UV shielding in all its glass. I have used 3M Crystalline on other cars, including our earlier Tesla. I’m not going to use any film in either the Plaid or the Air.
Sun Visor Weird Placement
The last point is that the sun visors look like they are suctioned or mounted on the piece of glass. It just looks a bit off to me. It seems like it would have been better, stylistically, to mount the visors to the side rails instead? I assume they tried that. The visors are regulation, so they are needed, but they just seem to get in the way. It would have been nice to tuck them off to the side and not have them always there breaking up this full glass canopy look.
Going Full Glass Canopy
For me, I will probably opt for the full glass canopy on the Touring trim. This is despite often having a sun roof on my cars that I rarely ever open or use. Again, having a Lucid Air that is not airy seems just wrong to me. But I do totally get the concern over the heat and the glare.