Lucid Air EVs Recalled Over Loose Bolts That Could Leave Drivers Stranded
The Lucid Air Pure is widely recognized as the most energy-efficient EV you can buy right now, achieving 5.0 miles per kWh. But that's assuming the half-shafts are still connected to the drive motor on the rear axle. According to a recall filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the rear-driven base model of the Air may have loose half-shaft bolts, potentially resulting in the half-shafts being disconnected from the drive unit and leaving drivers stranded. The recall affects 2024-2026 model years, but the good news is that not too many vehicles are named in the recall.
Thousands of Lucid Airs Could Lose Power Again
The NHTSA recall report states that 3,627 Lucid Air Pure sedans are potentially involved in the recall, which follows Lucid's earlier recall for a similar issue from 2024 (SR-25-03-0). That earlier recall only potentially affected 1,539 vehicles from the 2024 and 2025 model years, and the NHTSA recall report stated that the impacted EVs were built using a design for the rear subframe wiring harness "that was inadvertently shortened from the original design length." As a result, affected vehicles could face excess stress on their harness connectors, potentially leading to intermittent or complete disconnection from the drive unit, which would mean the drive unit could stop supplying power to the axle. In the latest Air recall, Lucid says affected vehicles have under 25,000 miles on their odometers, have not already had a drive unit replacement, and were not part of the earlier recall, showing that two completely different problems can sometimes lead to the same unfortunate outcome.
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The NHTSA says the main reason the Air Pure's half-shafts could be loose is "interruption of the torque operations during the adhesive curing window," potentially resulting in bolts with damaged adhesive or contamination of the half-shafts. It could also be that bolts with cured adhesive were reused after torquing was interrupted. Either way, the bolts (M10x1.5) will need to be replaced.
Lucid Air Pure Owners Getting Hardware and Software to Address Loose Bolts
Lucid says it is implementing the same remedy as in an earlier October 2025 recall, but is also working on a software detection strategy with a revised algorithm to enable "continuous, real-time, on-vehicle evaluation" of each impacted Air Pure to determine if a vehicle may be at risk of having its half-shaft/s disengaged while driving. With this, drivers will at least be warned if the problem is rearing its head before they're left stranded. Owners will be notified of the recall by first-class mail with instructions to contact a Lucid Service Center, but these letters are only planned for May 22. Until then, Lucid hopes that the over-the-air software update will allow it to limit bolt replacement to only the vehicles at risk, rather than replacing hardware on all Air Pure models.
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This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 6:00 AM.