German sports sedans—built by Audi, Mercedes, and BMW—have defined their market segment for decades. It’s felt like automakers from Lexus to Cadillac are constantly playing catch-up. So it’s all the more exciting to see the American-built Lucid Air Sapphire go to Germany and win the country’s Performance Car of the Year award. The performance segment’s shift to electric powertrains is giving American ingenuity a chance to shine bright.

Lucid is an EV startup headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley, with engineers based in Detroit and final assembly in Arizona. It was founded in 2007, delivered its first “Air” sedans in 2021, and its first “Gravity” SUVs in late 2024. It’s a publicly traded company, though the government of Saudi Arabia owns the majority of the shares.

The best performance is now electric

The GCOTY honors are awarded by a panel of 30 journalists and industry experts. The 2025 winner was the VW ID.7 EV sedan, while in 2024 it went to the BMW 5 Series, and in 2023 the Genesis GV60. The jury considers 12 criteria, including innovation, design, driving pleasure, emotional appeal, and quality.

There are now multiple EVs with performance that puts traditional internal combustion vehicles to shame. The quad-motor Rimac Nevera hypercar made headlines when it broke 23 speed records in a single day. The GCOTY didn’t need to choose a performance sedan. But even in that category, the Tesla Model S Plaid, Porsche Taycan Turbo, and Lucid Air’s “Sapphire” trim can all rocket to 60 mph in under two seconds.

I’m honestly surprised the redesigned Taycan didn’t win. It’s not just engineered for straight-line speed, but has the adaptive suspension and advanced brakes to shatter records at tracks around the world. And it’s German.

The Lucid Air Sapphire claimed Germany’s ‘Performance Car of the Year’ for 2026

So why the Lucid Air Sapphire? The key may be the insanely aerodynamic sedan’s WLTP range of 694 kilometers (431 miles) on a single charge. I’m personally more impressed by the sedan’s rapid charging capabilities. Lucid engineering’s most important metric has always been miles of range per minute attached to a DC fast charger. The result is an impressive road trip vehicle, no matter how you measure it.

“By winning the ‘Performance’ segment at the German Car Awards, the Lucid Air Sapphire proves it meets the highest expectations of experts in Germany’s demanding autobahn market. Congratulations to Lucid on the success of this groundbreaking electric sedan in its most advanced form.” —Jens Meiners, co-founder of the GCOTY (German Car of the Year)

Lucid is deservedly proud of the award. “We are honored to receive the German Performance Car of the Year Award for the Lucid Air Sapphire, which reinforces our belief that it is the most well-rounded and versatile high-performance EV.”