Used Lucid Air GT Questionable Battery & Odometer?

talzer said:

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Field 11, battery_health_level: 95.00000141561031[/CODE]

My 2023 Air GT has ~15k miles, but the values are literally identical. Makes me think this isn't a great estimate.

Click to expand...

Assuming you are referring to the "battery_health_level" value, mine (from Aug) is indeed different:
Field 11, battery_health_level: 96.00000143051147
and I would expect the capacity numbers to not vary in many cases (i.e. a design point for a given battery size, not the actual capacity).

I'll summarize for folks possible causes not often thought about:
- Tire pressure. Even 2 PSI can swing efficiency by 10%.
- Yo-yo'ing the car. Wife and I can drive back to back, but she isn't as steady on the accelerator. 5%-15% swing between us with everything else the same.
- Bluetooth connecting to the car. I've seen 3kwh avg. drop to ~2.7kwh from proximity unlocking and locking. 10% total difference.
- Initial cabin cooling and heating. 1-2kwh per trip at 72 degrees for 30+ minute drives.
- Acceleration. Pure -> Touring -> Grand Touring -> Grand Touring Performance -> Sapphire all have significant step up in power even in smooth mode. I imagine most people are accelerating quicker than they realize, myself included (complaints on a trip where family was following us to our destination in a RAV4).
- Smooth mode now provides roughly a .1kwh improvement when cruising above 55mph due to single motor usage for the GT, GT-P, and probably the Sapphire too.
- Highway Assist. .1-.2kwh efficiency drop vs manual driving for me. It is either the sensors, usage of Regen to stay perfectly at set speed, or more aggressive acceleration.

Hope this helps.

For reference, I sit at 3.11kwh lifetime on 21" with no aero covers and no wheel diffusers. This is loaded down with luggage, 2 adults, and 2 children mostly on road trips. It includes quite spirited drives in the mountains for several months of ownership.

@talzer I think this is just chance - the readings for batteries are electrical and likely have some degree of inaccuracy. I was monitoring it constantly as it was in the shop as I continued to drive it around, and it eventually decreased down even more.

Just circling back here - quite the happy update.

A routine ~45 mile drive up and down HW101 hovering at around ~70mph, and only was able to manage 3.1 mi/kWh. That was the best I'll ever see, as more miles put on (without ever exceeding 75mph) kept me at 2.8-3.0 mi/kWh after some 300 miles.

I brought up this battery issue to the service when I brought the car in (as long as have them inspect for any other issues as this is a secondhand car). They did a few tests, and after a quick cell rebalance, they said all issues should be resolved but to let them know if I see the issue still (with timestamps and or images).

The same ~45 mile drive showed no improvement whatsoever as I saw 2.98 mi/kWH. I brought it back and explained that my previous experience with my AT, the numerous loaners I've had, as well as the loaner that I've had during that time all consistently had around 3.2-3.5 mi/kWh for my driving patterns, and around 3.5-4.0 mi/klWh if I'm on the 19"s.

They took the car back and I gave them images and timestamps of a 9 mile local drive after charging from work to 80% brought it down to 74%, and overnight it had drained to 71%. They said they'll investigate and gave me a loaner with 20". To no surprise, I was getting 3.2 mi/kWh driving around and actually was seeing more range the loaner AT than I was with my AGT.

The car spent some couple of weeks in the queue for service, then they started working on my car. First some routine stuff with the "In Service" mode activated. One day, I saw the car go from 80% down to 5%, and then the very next day at 4%, and then back to 75% or so. A quick check on the website showed that my battery capacity got updated to 114.6 kwh. Also, I got updated from the old LG battery cell type to the new SDI (Samsung) one.

After I checked in to pick up my car, they mentioned that they noticed a severe cell imbalance - a service engineer was literally sitting and watching it as the battery drained from the car and noticed it. Engineering recommended that the whole battery be replaced, and that explains the battery swap and the new numbers I'm seeing on the website. I thanked them for the work and they again asked for me to bring it back if there's any issue, but they were much more assured that this was the root cause to all the range and battery drain issues I've been seeing.

Some several hundred miles later, and can confirm that the battery swap did the trick. I'm back to seeing my 3.2-3.4 mi/kWh. The same routine ~45 mile test is now showing 3.5-3.8 mi/kwh range, with the latest upwards of 3.9 as I had to go around 60 mph for some parts due to traffic.

Many thanks to the folks at Lucid SJ - they're slammed with service appointments and customers, but they're doing their best and certainly made me a happy customer.

Great outcome!