Lucid Motors just scored a huge win in Europe — and this one carries some serious weight. But it’s not all of Europe that sent it praises, it was the Germans, adding a second, more prestigious weight to Lucid’s new accolade. Nearly five years after Lucid began delivering its first machines, the brand has just won a major award which should help brand awareness and customer buy in.
The Best Performance Car Of The Year
The Lucid Air Sapphire has been named 2026 German Performance Car of the Year, a title that puts the all-electric American luxury sedan ahead of some of the world’s fiercest performance machines.
The award comes from the German Car of the Year (GCOTY) organization, a panel of 30 top automotive journalists who test and evaluate new vehicles based on innovation, design, driving pleasure, quality, and emotional appeal. It’s a big deal — especially in a country that’s home to Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-AMG, and Audi.
So yes, the Germans have spoken. And they’ve decided an American EV deserves the performance mantle.
A Super Sedan Built To Shock Germany’s Autobahn
Lucid calls the Air Sapphire the world’s first fully electric luxury super-sports sedan, and its specs back that up. The car’s three-motor powertrain, developed entirely in-house, produces a staggering 1,251 PS (1,233 horsepower) and 1,940 Nm (1,430 lb-ft) of torque. That’s enough to send it from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in under two seconds, with a top speed of 330 km/h (205 mph) — putting it firmly in hypercar territory.
Even more impressive, it manages a range of 431 miles on a single charge, while consuming just 19.1 kWh per 100 km. That kind of efficiency from a 250,000-euro performance monster is unheard of — and it’s exactly the kind of engineering that tends to turn heads in Germany.
Lawrence Hamilton, Lucid’s President of Europe, called the award “validation that the Air Sapphire is the most well-rounded and versatile high-performance EV.” He added, “It offers an unsurpassed blend of performance, agility, and practicality.”
Practical And Fancy: The Lucid Way
Despite its record-shattering acceleration, the Air Sapphire isn’t just a drag-strip toy. Inside, it remains true to the Lucid Air’s grand touring roots — with limo-like rear legroom, a massive trunk and frunk combo, and the kind of interior materials and design that rival Bentley and Mercedes-Maybach.
Eric Bach, Lucid’s Senior VP of Product and Chief Engineer, emphasized that the Sapphire wasn’t a one-off engineering exercise: “Because a three-motor Lucid Air was always part of the development program, it retains all the strengths of the Air variants already on the market.”
That practicality — paired with mind-bending speed — is likely what won over Germany’s notoriously critical automotive experts.
TopSpeed’s Take
Winning over German judges isn’t just about bragging rights. Germany’s performance car culture is built on precision, endurance, and a discerning customer base — the exact environment that pushes vehicles to their limits. For Lucid, a California-based EV startup that’s been working to establish itself internationally, this award signals global credibility and technical maturity.
As Jens Meiners, co-founder of the GCOTY, put it: “By winning the ‘Performance’ segment, the Lucid Air Sapphire proves it meets the highest expectations of experts in Germany’s demanding autobahn market.”
That’s high praise from the birthplace of the super sedan — and a sign that Lucid’s Silicon Valley engineering might just be outpacing Europe’s best on their home turf.