Has any firm in historical past had a higher stroke of luck in its post-launch 12 months than Lucid Motors? 

The upstart maker of luxurious electrical automobiles, based by Tesla Mannequin S guru Peter Rawlinson, was in competitors along with his estranged former boss Elon Musk. Rawlinson’s flagship Lucid Air was launched in restricted version Dream kind in 2021 (here is my Lucid Air Dream assessment). The primary full-production mannequin, the 2023 Lucid Air Grand Touring(Opens in a brand new tab), began transport to clients in late fall 2022. In quite a few(Opens in a brand new tab) head-to-head comparisons(Opens in a brand new tab), the Lucid Air was judged a greater electrical car total than Tesla’s equal, the Mannequin S, and gained a number of(Opens in a brand new tab) automotive of the 12 months (Opens in a brand new tab)awards.

However the higher automotive does not at all times win within the market; motor historical past is affected by burned-out husks of revenge-fueled higher automobiles that smashed headlong into better-funded opponents. Lucid stored slashing its manufacturing(Opens in a brand new tab) final 12 months, thanks to provide chain points(Opens in a brand new tab) and value strain from Tesla(Opens in a brand new tab); Lucid’s shareholders aren’t blissful(Opens in a brand new tab) with all that purple ink. 

What Rawlinson wanted was for Musk to get distracted and flame out in some massively public means, making the Tesla model poisonous for its planet-conscious clients … and that is precisely what Musk has completed along with his tyrannical, Tesla stock-tanking reign at Twitter. 

That is an enormous stroke of luck! Nonetheless, I’ve obtained a greater one. As a result of when Lucid Motors provided a take a look at drive of the brand new $109,000 Lucid Air Touring version (that is a midrange Lucid, in comparison with the $155,000 Grand Touring; nonetheless to come back is the $89,000 Lucid Pure), a take a look at drive that might final for every week or so, I used to be hunkered down for the worst sequence of winter storms to hit California since I arrived many years in the past. 

What higher time, I figured, to get out of city, to see if I might discover the solar wherever – and if I could not, to place this fancy EV by means of its paces within the wettest and snowiest environments the Golden state has to supply? 

I’ve lengthy cherished electrical automobiles, and cheered their problem to the damaging combustion engine. But when I am being trustworthy, I’ve additionally lengthy harbored the background fears that may strike any potential EV purchaser. It is not simply vary anxiousness (although I used to be curious if I would really feel such a factor within the Air Touring, which boasts it may possibly get 425 miles on a single cost). It is the nagging fear that electrical automobiles are extra fragile in excessive situations. Chilly climate can considerably sap batteries(Opens in a brand new tab). I am nonetheless not over what occurred to my first-generation Prius nearly each winter when my spouse and I took it to the snowy heights of Lake Tahoe. Invariably, its regenerative battery and its ignition battery would faucet out. The mechanics of Tahoe Metropolis have been type and useful, nevertheless it was this repeated expertise that made us promote the automotive.   

I used to be suspicious of the large fancy Lucid sedan for different causes. Over the past 10 years, I’ve completed most of my every day drives in a Fiat 500e, a zippy little EV with about 75 miles to a cost. It is gentle, accelerates like loopy, is nice at cornering, matches into parking spots others cannot attain, fills its battery in a single day even from an everyday outlet, nonetheless appears cute even with a couple of dents and scratches – in brief, the proper little around-town automotive. For longer journeys, for hikes, for canine adventures, my spouse and I leased a Toyota RAV4 hybrid. 

How might the Lucid compete? It appeared too giant for metropolis EV wants, and never rugged sufficient for the nation. I am not a automotive nerd by any means, nor a speedhead. I am excited by the idea of going zero to 60 in three seconds, positive, however extra thinking about how the day-to-day driving expertise feels than within the 620 horsepower below the hood. What follows is basically a ten-day date with a automotive that gained my coronary heart in the long run, regardless of some shocking software program glitches and flaws in a design that won’t have had fairly sufficient contact with actuality. 

Day 1: Lucid show software program, a piece in progress 

The screens that command the Lucid Air Touring: Too refined?
Credit score: Lucid

January climate in California is commonly bizarre, however this takes the cake. I arrived on the pre-arranged pickup spot below heat blue skies, contemporary from jogging, sporting working shorts. Then, simply after I took possession of the Lucid’s rubbery key fob and got here to grips with the automotive’s heart pill and wrap-around dashboard display screen, proper as I pulled away from the curb, clouds gathered and the heavens opened. 

Which is why this can be the primary luxurious EV assessment ever to focus extra on windshield buttons than on the automotive’s horsepower: I needed to determine them out in a rush. 

What I found was an odd truth concerning the button-filled a part of the touchscreen that falls to the left of the steering wheel, one which irked me for the remainder of the lengthy week. It appeared indicative of the teething troubles Lucid is having with knowledge association on this show.

The display screen actual property right here on the left of the wheel is so restricted that there is solely room for a button that opens the frunk, not one which opens the trunk. For that, annoyingly, you must use the middle show.

However there are 4 wiper choices on it (not counting the wipe button on the flip sign deal with that is proper there). Two choices that promised to auto-detect rain didn’t appear to work on this sudden storm. 

Fortunately, button structure is the sort of function that would simply be modified in a future replace. Lucid appears significantly eager to improve its software program, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto set to come back on-line shortly. (And never a second too quickly, particularly on the Google Maps entrance; as we’ll see, Lucid’s personal navigation system left one thing to be desired.) 

Day 2: Lucid brakes and one-pedal driving

Residing on the high of a steep highway makes you used to using the brakes when heading for the flatlands. My Fiat 500e will get a ton of regenerative vitality this manner, normally a few further p.c on the battery from one journey down the hill. However the Lucid Air loves regenerative braking a lot, you do not even need to pump the brake. Actually, it is braking for you so laborious by default always that you simply truly need to hold your foot on the accelerator when taking place hill simply as a lot as it is advisable do on the flat – which could be a profoundly out-of-control feeling, at first. 

This was a style of the single-pedal driving Lucid Air desires to encourage you to do as a lot as doable. Single-pedal driving was bizarre in my Dream take a look at drives, and it was bizarre within the first few days of this expertise too. I am blissful to report I obtained used to it quick, as soon as I discovered the fragile contact the pedal wants, and even began to favor it – however solely after a variety anxiousness expertise that made me welcome each single time this automotive tries to claw vitality again from the highway.  

Day 3: Lucid Air EV cost vary, in concept and observe

Dusty at nightfall: The Lucid Air Touring on its return from the Sierra Nevada mountains
Credit score: Chris Taylor / Mashable

I did not make a remark of the precise vary the Lucid Air promised after I got down to drive from Berkeley to Nevada Metropolis (which, confusingly, is in California, within the foothills of the Sierra mountains). All I do know is that vary was at the very least double the 140-mile distance between the 2 cities. I might, in concept, have made all of it the best way to Lake Tahoe on one cost. 

Such a wide range, nevertheless, in comparison with what the Fiat can deal with, could have made me somewhat cocky. Freeway driving within the Lucid Air actually is its candy spot: the automotive simply annihilates distance. It is such as you choose a spot on the highway forward, you suppose “I would wish to go there,” and also you virtually teleport. The suspension is so easy, the automotive’s form so aerodynamic, the acceleration so easy and quiet, that you simply may not belief the 90 mph studying out of the blue and improbably showing in the course of the dashboard display screen. Whoops! 

That is even true when accelerating up hills. The Lucid Air likes to speed up up them much more than it likes to speed up down them. It may’t get sufficient! “Name {that a} hill?” the EV appeared to ask, early and infrequently, even on the steepest highway within the Bay Space(Opens in a brand new tab). “Barely felt it! Come on, give me an actual problem!” 

Bother was, this journey concerned a lot of hill. It is a 2,300-ft elevation achieve to Nevada Metropolis. Was my fearless hill driving the explanation for the precipitous drop in estimated vary, or did that day’s 35-degree temperature up there reduce into the battery? 

All I do know is that after I obtained to Nevada Metropolis, I used to be shocked to find the Lucid Air had a mere 10 miles of vary left. And much more shocked to find that Nevada Metropolis has zero public charging stations. 

If I would tried to make all of it the best way to Tahoe, the holy sainted Lucid Air would have been as useless as that first-generation Prius. 

Day 4: Lucid Air EV cost instances, value

Lucid nightmares: The important thing fob is not registering regardless of being within the automotive, and its charging is slowing as a result of temperature.
Credit score: Chris Taylor / Mashable

Fortunately, I used to be capable of borrow a cup of electrical energy from mates who stay within the former Gold Rush city. And a cup appears like the fitting measurement to make use of right here. After I plugged the common mains charger into their storage, the automotive instructed me it could take 177 hours to refill the entire battery that means. No worries, Lucid, simply drink what you possibly can. 

I made do with the additional 40 miles this setup gave me in a single day: greater than sufficient to get me to a charging station in Grass Valley, conveniently subsequent to a grocery store and a climbing path the place I might simply kill a few hours. Complete fill-up value: $38.40. 

Forty miles was not sufficient, sadly, to get me to the closest Electrify America(Opens in a brand new tab) charging station, in Auburn. Lucid has a candy cope with EA the place you get free quick charging for 3 years together with your Air buy. No card required, no tapping the app: plug it in and the Lucid Air is robotically acknowledged. 

Later, on my means residence from the Sierras, I might hit up the Auburn EA station (weirdly positioned in a Motel 6 car parking zone), and the Starbucks throughout the road the place I took conferences for an hour whereas the Lucid guzzled electrons at a “hyper-fast” 350 kilowatts. That is 100 kW greater than the highest fee of Tesla Supercharger stations. 

The upshot being that the EA station added roughly 20 miles of vary each minute. And in contrast to Tesla within the U.S., it wasn’t being egocentric with a proprietary connector. Though Lucid house owners are favored clients, the station was open to just about anybody with an EV.     

Day 5: How the Lucid Air Touring handles snow

The Lucid Air Touring within the snows of Lake Tahoe.
Credit score: Lucid

If there was one level on my journey that had the Lucid Motors workforce involved, it was Donner Cross. The steepest and snowiest space on California’s Interstate 80 – certainly, one of many snowiest factors within the decrease 48, with a mean 411 inches of snow per 12 months — Donner calls for a toll of respect from all who traverse it. 

It is not simply the chilly reminiscence of the Donner Celebration, that notorious group of westward settlers who obtained caught right here in 1846, misplaced half their crew, and needed to resort to cannibalism. These winters you are extra prone to get caught in an hours-long line ready for the California Freeway Patrol to examine whether or not you want snow chains in your tires. 

The Lucid Air is all-wheel drive and thus exempt from that requirement, although I wasn’t wanting ahead to convincing CHP that this uncommon low-riding luxurious sedan was extra hardy than it might seem. The Lucid workforce, in the meantime, prompt I would need to swap out the common tires for one thing grippier — which I might theoretically do through the corporate’s cell service van program, Lucid Care(Opens in a brand new tab). 

Because it turned out, Donner Cross was vibrant and clear, if under freezing, after I traversed it. CHP was nowhere to be discovered. There was nonetheless loads of snow and ice on the highway, and deep drifts round it, however the common tires by no means felt something lower than extremely steady. The Lucid Air stored the highway in a bear hug round all method of curves. Solely as soon as did it skid, for a couple of seconds. (Bear in mind youngsters, by no means break throughout a skid(Opens in a brand new tab).)

As I drove down winding roads to Truckee and Lake Tahoe, the most important hazard had nothing to do with the automotive’s dealing with or holding its cost within the freezing chilly. (I would gotten used to the regenerative braking by now, and had nice enjoyable seeing if I might hold the automotive’s cost stage simply above 50 p.c through the downhill.) It was the Lucid Air’s huge windshield, which wraps up and round and makes you’re feeling such as you’re in a Jetsons bubble automotive. 

Usually there’s not quite a bit to have a look at up there, however right here I used to be passing by means of a forest of tall pines dusted with what seemed like cake frosting. Who wouldn’t be distracted from the highway by that incredible sight? I used to be reminded that the Touring’s normal possibility(Opens in a brand new tab) offers it an everyday aluminum roof (the glass cover is $4,500 further). Not solely would that be much less distracting, it could additionally — given how chilly the glass bubble was to the contact — most likely be quite a bit simpler to warmth. 

Talking of heat, the Lucid’s sectionally heated seats and heated steering wheel (each accessible through the middle pill) have been a comfortable delight. They put as many smiles on my face as the new candy rum drink I had by the shores of Tahoe, and helped banish the dangerous reminiscence of older electrical automotive programs failing on this winter wonderland. 

Day 6: The attention-catching Lucid Air exterior — and nervous, glitchy Lucid Air inside

Tweet could have been deleted
(opens in a brand new tab)
(Opens in a brand new tab)

The Tahoe journey had one different benefit after I returned to Nevada Metropolis: a layer of snow grime gave the automotive some camouflage. It was barely unnerving what number of pedestrians cease and stare when the Lucid rolls by, particularly when the “Clever Micro Lens Array” LED strip on the entrance — no mere headlights for the Lucid Air! – is on. The “Quantum Grey” shade mannequin I used to be testing appears fairly incognito when parked, at the very least; I obtained extra feedback on its Florida license plate, which is one thing Californians can not help however discover, than the design itself. 

My worry of the automotive being a goal for thieves could have been unfounded, however that did not cease the automotive itself from sounding prefer it had a foul case of hysteria. The Lucid Air will beep at you the second you get within the driver’s seat as a result of you have not put your seatbelt on but: I took to responding “OK, mother, I am doing it!” The home the place I used to be staying had a reasonably steep driveway, which the Lucid’s low-slung cameras learn as a highway obstruction when driving down it. I additionally encountered a glitch described by different drivers: the Lucid Air often sees lane dividers as an obstruction too. 

Talking of software program glitches, this was the day I encountered the Lucid Air at its worst. Usually when reversing, the rear view exhibits up on the dashboard display screen, and the middle pill fills with “encompass view” – a intelligent laptop development that exhibits what the automotive appears like from above, and allows you to zoom round it in 3D. Now, each screens have been clean with a spinning wheel — the Lucid equal of the blue display screen of dying.

It is hardly the worst glitch on this planet; I might nonetheless look over my shoulder, in any case. And I did not encounter it once more after an over-the-air software program replace downloaded that night. 

Nonetheless, the occasional feeling that you simply’re driving a $109,000 beta product is not precisely encouraging. 

Day 7: The aerodynamic Lucid bubble and mediocre mapping 

Lucid Air fail: The navigation system wished to steer me down a closed highway clearly marked non-public.
Credit score: Chris Taylor / Mashable

Again within the Bay Space, the worst of the winter storms had handed, however the wind was nonetheless off-the-charts insane. I didn’t understand this, nevertheless, till I used to be ready at an intersection and noticed timber bending and leaves scurrying horizontally throughout my field of regard. I am used to automobiles that may rock at the very least a tiny bit in robust winds, so it was somewhat unnerving that the Lucid Air did not budge within the slightest. Its supremely aerodynamic design does not simply let air movement from the entrance to the again to offer you a smoother journey, it really works facet to facet too. The sensation of being in a bubble, untouched by the skin world, was full. 

Sadly, the true world is not going to at all times conform to the Lucid Air’s inferior navigation system. The corporate makes use of Right here Maps somewhat than Google Maps(Opens in a brand new tab) knowledge, a undeniable fact that infuriates drivers on Lucid boards(Opens in a brand new tab). It is not simply that the visitors knowledge hundreds so slowly that you simply’re normally dedicated to a route earlier than you understand all of the choices. It is that Right here maps usually appear woefully outdated and confused about highway entry. 

I counted 3 times when the Lucid tried to ship me the unsuitable means down a one-way avenue, and as soon as — heading to a trailhead simply outdoors of Berkeley — the place it tried to divert me by means of a sequence of personal roads, one among which was chained off. The automotive’s sense of privilege ran headlong into actuality. Google Maps, through CarPlay and Android Auto, cannot come quickly sufficient. 

Day 8: The Low Journey Air 

Golden Gate, silver fox: The Lucid Air Touring in San Francisco.
Credit score: Lucid Motors

“It is an asshole automotive,” a good friend laughed as I drove her round San Francisco. She had a degree. Earlier that day I used to be parked in a slim EV spot at Entire Meals, subsequent to an accessible spot the place a girl was getting one thing out of her automotive. After I approached with the important thing fob in my pocket, the automotive did what it at all times does, robotically unfolding the facet mirrors. 

On this case, nevertheless, that unfolding blocked the lady’s path to the sidewalk, forcing her to stroll across the automotive. I apologized profusely and commenced questioning whether or not Rawlinson’s engineers had thought-about an on a regular basis metropolis scenario like this. 

However that wasn’t the one cause my good friend lobbed her loving insult. The highest-down encompass view encourages you to have a look at the automotive and the few inches round it when pulling out of a car parking zone; pedestrians do not seem until they’re proper subsequent to it. (Annoyingly, encompass view additionally replaces the navigation display screen at speeds under 15 mph, usually stopping me from seeing the place my subsequent flip was.) 

Additionally, the annihilation-of-distance factor had by now inspired me to do all of the belongings you affiliate with efficiency automotive drivers, together with weaving impatiently round different visitors. There wasn’t an orange gentle the place I did not suppose I might make it throughout the intersection in time, apparently. 

After which there’s how low the automotive rides. This helps with its aerodynamics but in addition makes it laborious to get out. I assumed my legs would regulate – heck, I am a runner, with thighs to match – and it could really feel much less awkward after every week. It didn’t. 

No less than I did not do what my good friend did getting out of the passenger facet one final time, banging her head on the highest of the door, sending her sun shades flying. Nonetheless, she could not cease laughing. The automotive may very well be a privileged asshole generally, nevertheless it was additionally undeniably enjoyable. 

Day 9: Lucid’s main indicators 

One other good friend within the tech world had taken a journey in one of many earliest Lucid Air prototypes years in the past, however hadn’t seen the ultimate product. So I drove us down Freeway 1 to Pacifica – a phenomenal, windy stretch of highway you could acknowledge from a number of automotive commercials – and he drove us again. 

His verdict? General, “it was a pleasure to drive,” he stated. Suspension and traction exceeded his expectations, particularly on the curves. The acceleration, zero to 60 in as little as 3.4 seconds, is most noticeable if you’re merging onto the freeway and by no means fails to thrill. 

However there have been destructive factors I hadn’t thought-about. My good friend famous that the roll cage – these bars to the left and proper of the big glass cover – have been bigger and extra vision-obstructing than he’d anticipated. “Undecided I would make that commerce off” in day-to-day driving, he added. He wasn’t a fan of the non-intuitive navigation system, or the best way that key info just like the automotive’s present vary appeared to mix into the show. 

He did at the very least grasp the flip sign, the acute sensitivity of which had aggravated me since my first Lucid take a look at drive. The Lucid’s left and proper blinkers cease robotically after making a flip, however not when altering lanes – until you give the flip indicator a non-intuitive longer press down, apparently. The blinker noise is so quiet I failed to note it below music, and the blinker gentle blends into the show too simply. I would by no means fairly felt like an older driver along with his sign caught on prior to now.

Day 10: Reluctant return

The Lucid Air, touring no extra: Very laborious to offer this murals again.
Credit score: Lucid Motors

I did not fairly understand how a lot I would fallen in love with the Lucid Air Touring till it was time to offer it again. If I used to be the sort of one that might drop a thousand Benjamins on a brand new EV, I would give this one some severe thought. 

Although the hefty 4,850-lb car by no means fairly labored as a metropolis automotive – the turning circle is simply too small, the parking awkward even with the autopark setting (which appeared somewhat too desperate to swing out into the oncoming lane) – the Lucid did give me an unbelievable sense of quick access to in every single place. Random unplanned long-ish drives which may have in any other case appeared like a chore, like assembly my good friend at a convention the following day to return the sun shades that the low door had knocked off her head, turned a pleasure. 

The Lucid can also be an amazing automotive to only sit in, one thing I might discover myself doing an increasing number of on the finish of a drive. It is not simply that the automotive does not have an off button, which by no means stopped feeling bizarre (you are alleged to set it in park with a click on of the fitting gear stick and simply stroll away whereas it locks itself). 

It is also the Dolby Atmos audio system, offering the clearest, crispest sound I’ve ever loved in any car. Even when the software program does require you to show the sound up from its midpoint each time you get within the automotive – one other bizarre selection – it is simple to manage through the steering wheel. It’s a must to manually cease a track if you don’t need it blaring if you exit the EV (a very asshole automotive transfer), however who desires to cease a track when it sounds this good?

After handing over the bizarre rubber key fob factor, I returned to my outdated automobiles with new eyes. The In my Toyota RAV4, oddly, I discovered myself driving extra slowly. The Lucid Air hadn’t led me to be thinking about velocity per se, however in electrical velocity, ideally generated by as equal an quantity of braking as doable. The Toyota has a dial that exhibits you when your braking is charging the car; I pay much more consideration to that dial now. 

The Fiat 500e, nevertheless, I discovered myself driving quicker round city. As a result of why not use the unbelievable torque that you have in such a light-weight EV? No level in sipping mileage when it may possibly simply be plugged in each evening; the place charging on a primary stage 1 charger and filling it up is not a pipe dream. Missing the Lucid Air’s heft, I nonetheless felt considerably like I used to be driving one (the town model, at the very least). 

And that, in the end, is why it is price at the very least taking a take a look at drive in a Lucid Air you probably have the chance, even when you’d by no means take into account shopping for one. Its hyper-engineered options could not absolutely account for the true world but; its software program is a piece in progress; however basically, that is how all electrical automobiles ought to really feel, and hopefully all will quickly sufficient. Even when Peter Rawlinson loses the long run battle with Elon Musk for the posh finish of the market, the Lucid legacy will stay on in different designs — and in all drivers who obtained to expertise it.