Monterey Car Week Trip

Ran the Gravity up to Monterey this week and wanted to share the numbers, because this trip captured what keeps impressing me about this car.

Road trips are supposed to be an EV's nemesis, the one place where owning electric means compromising. This drive (like many in Lucid) felt like the opposite, it was the moment the Gravity felt most like an ICE vehicle. 288 miles, door to door in 5h 5m, with 4h 55m of it actually driving. One stop. Ten minutes. That's a gas station stop - restroom, coffee, go. The car peaked at 220 kW (Tesla SC) and pulled 37→62% before my coffee had a lid on it. I genuinely didn't wait on the car at any point.

I didn't even baby the setup, left home at 90%, not a full charge, and rolled into Pebble Beach at 25% with margin to spare. 2.71 mi/kWh at a 65 mph average (Cruise set to 75 mph on freeway), normal driving, no hypermiling.

I know, I know, we need some negativity though. The kicker? That one stop cost a WHOPPING **$21.45** . With California gas near $6/gal right now, a comparable 3-row SUV burns ~$84 covering the same 288 miles and doesn't get there any faster.

That's the part I'd tell anyone cross-shopping. The thing everyone warns you about is the thing Lucid quietly solved. The charging curve on this pack is so strong that the "EV road trip experience" and the "gas road trip experience" are the same experience, except one of them costs a quarter as much.

Longer days would obviously mean a second short stop, but at this charge rate that's a stretch-your-legs break, not an itinerary item.

My road trips are a breeze in this car. For example my wife just went on a 250 mile trip yesterday and back today in her EV9 and the trim she has (GT line) gets 270 miles and she was so used to road tripping in Gravity, she thought she could comfortably make it in one go but at highway speeds, had to stop to charge. Gravity could have handled that with ease, an overnight charge up, then all the way back home in one go. When I do have to charge, like you mentioned, it's usually ready to go before we are done. It's a no brainer easy road tripper like going back to gas, but still an EV! Best damn road tripping SUV on the market right now!

9point81 said:

It's a no brainer easy road tripper like going back to gas, but still an EV! Best damn road tripping SUV on the market right now!

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100%. I’m sure I could have pushed it all the way if I left with 100% SoC but what’s the point? I was going to stop for a quick break anyway.

To top it off, I didn't even hunt out the fastest chargers either, just the ones I knew would work on first try.

It’s great to hear this story and also see @notchEV and @kyleconnor doing cross country trip videos.

Combined with a surprisingly excellent hands free DA, best in class handling, quiet cabin and massaging seats, there is no doubt this is the top road trip EV. Hope that message is being spread far and wide.

That's the #1 reason I got a Gravity. 80% of our miles are road trips (2000+ miles each, 6-7 a year). It's the closest to an ICE road trip experience you can get in an EV, with the long range and fast charging.

Denver-Vegas (785 miles) was 2 gas stops in ICE. It's 3 DCFCs in the Gravity. And that's with lots of 80 MPH speeds.

HC_79 said:

Ran the Gravity up to Monterey this week and...

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So you drive to Monterey to visit one the world's grandest annual car events, aaaaaand

...the drive was evidently more impressive than anything experienced at the actual event?

Okay! I'd probably agree...

nelslens said:

So you drive to Monterey to visit one the world's grandest annual car events, aaaaaand

...the drive was evidently more impressive than anything experienced at the actual event?

Okay! I'd probably agree...

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I went to the Monterey Historics in 1999 (the year Auto Union was the celebrated Marque). We were next to where one of the auctions was taking place. Walked by a 16 cylinder inline Rolls Royce (two inline 8's spliced together). However the highlight of the evening was we were standing at a fence looking at a Shelby Cobra. It was around dusk and a guy walks up to the car, hops in and starts it up. Breathtaking sound and flames 12" out the exhaust. Turns out it was Shelby Cobra #1 which was being auctioned off. IIRC it went for in the $4M range.