How to lose a race you're winning

Something weird is happening to me. I'm getting a bit hyped about some cars that I should not even get hyped about. I mean they're SUV's. I don't like SUV's. I like station cars, small fun ones and the Land Rover Defender 90, which is not an SUV.

So why is it that I'm getting a bit tingly it comes to the BMW iX3, the Volvo EX60 and even - I'm having trouble admitting this - the Mercedes-Benz GLC. It gets worse: I can see myself owning and daily driving one of these things.

Thankfully I know, at least in part, why my tingly sense turns on when it comes to above mentioned four wheeled luxury boats. It's because there is a clear race going on. Volvo is trying to cut the Achilles heels of both BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and kind of succeeding at it too. But the Germans are valiant in their efforts to protect their heels from the Swedish stabbings. Even trying to fight on price and options that elevate their offerings above the Scandinavian minimalism.

Who's going to win this race? I don't know. I'll need to drive and experience them for real to make up my mind. At which I'm kind of guessing the BMW will be declared winner of the war. I'm predicting the most sporty drive in the iX3, which is what probably will give it the edge over the others. For me at least.

What I do know for sure is that the people over at Lucid found something they thought worth to celebrate over. The Lucid Air won first place in a winter test done at -30 degrees Celsius in Norway. The challenge: see which car has the most range in the cold conditions. Which the Lucid had with over 500 km. The others didn't even touch that figure, so fair play, right?

Not really from my viewpoint. The Air, while being an amazing car which I definitely could see myself owning if the software would work like it should, not only has one of the biggest ranges of the tested cars, it also has one of the biggest batteries. Having the most range at -30 is more or less a given. Scoring way lower than cars with two thirds of the capacity would be a shocker. And it's not for lack of trying: percentage wise the Lucid nearly lost the most range: 45,8 percent (coming in second after the Opel Grandland, which lost 45,9 percent).

Let me clarify this one: if the Lucid Air would've been on a level playing field regarding battery sizes, it would not have won. It's like putting me, an overweight (according to BMI, which is bullshit as we all know) car journalist against Usain Bolt in 100 meter sprint race with the handicap of having one leg tied behind our backs. There is no way in hell I'm going to win that one, mostly because I'm not making it to 100 meters anyway.

As I've said many times in the past: I'm rooting for Lucid. I love the company. I love the cars, and think they're a group of the most motivated and smart people I've ever had the privilege to talk and work with. They should however get a bit better at communication.

I mean, I'm over here getting all excited over three electric SUV's that can finally do more than 700 km on a full charge, while Lucid has quietly been winning at this race for years now...

In other news:

It's Sunday dear reader. As you all know, the world stopt turning on this day. I've also heard that some guy floating in the sky is very much against working on this day, so I might get struck down if I keep at this for much longer. So no news. Maybe next time. If there will be one. I can feel some tingling. Is that the guy from the sky?