Happened in the garage so no safety concerns. Contacted Customer Care shortly after it happened on Saturday. Unfortunately Service in Houston closed at 4PM on Saturday so I won't speak to them until Tuesday morning. My question for others is whether or not Mobile Service can replace the 12V, or does this car get on a flatbed for 4 hour drive to Houston?
I'm also wondering about getting it a flatbed when the dead car is in park and the garage is a 90 degree turn from the driveway. Will let you know how all this works out.
A Lucid Mobile Tech telephoned at 8:30AM to say he would be leaving for my home right after we finish our conversation, and should arrive around 10:15AM. He told me Houston engineers had reviewed the logs and determined the vehicle is headed to Houston, and the flatbed would be arriving around 10:30-10:45AM. Both technician and flatbed arrived at about those times. Luicid gets an A+ for timeliness.
Upon arrival we talked about what Houston had determined. It is likely not a 12V failure, but a failure in the power converter from high voltage battery to the 12V OR in associated "fuses" in that conversion process, OR a wiring issue between those components. He jump started (passenger side rear wheel well) with a 12V that he brought with him but that quickly failed, basically confirming what Houston had said that it was not the 12V itself. Houston gets an A+ for their diagnosis from the logs.
We talked about the two 12V batteries, the other being under the rear seat in the center of the seat. The two run in parallel, again suggesting the failure point is not the batteries.
I asked about how the 12V gets charged, it would be via a charging session or regenerative braking when driving. Should the vehicle detect the 12V battery is low it would draw power from the high voltage battery. Hence, as mentioned above, that could be the failure point. I added it would be great if a future software update had a way for the user to monitor the health of the 12V other than the warning that is given about 10 minutes prior to shutdown.
About that time the flatbed arrived. Given the 90 degree turn from the garage it was determined the flatbed needed help. A tow truck was called. 30 minutes later the tow truck arrived, lifted the rear of the car, and successfully navigated the 90 degree turn to get the vehicle to the street where it was loaded onto the flatbed for the drive to Houston. However, I do wish the tow truck operator did not not damage the beautiful garage floor while sliding the component that lifted the car underneath the car. It also damaged one of the plastic aero wings at the rear of the Lucid. The Lucid Mobile Rep was on it and a work order to repair the garage floor was in effect even before the flatbed left. Tow Company gets a D- for their work due to the damage to the floor and the vehicle. Lucid Rep gets his A+ for having the work order in place even before I could talk to him about fixing the floor.
I'll also mention the Lucid rep had to inform the flatbed and tow truck drivers that the parking brake locks the driver side rear wheel, they did not know that. I suggested it would be great if Lucid provided all customers (perhaps via an app update) proper towing information that could be provided to a tow operator in the event a Lucid Rep was not present at the time of the tow.
That led me to ask how often this DFW based Mobile Rep had to have a vehicle towed to Houston, he indicated it is rare and this was his 3rd or 4th tow. I asked how many Lucid's are in the area he services, he responded for the wiring issue he fixed 55-60. Neglected to ask how big his area was, but he did mention traveling in Oklahoma.
While writing this Lucid in Houston emailed to provide a point of contact for me. I will call tomorrow for an update and suggest the 12V and app updates I mentioned above.
While I am disappointed with the failure, I am very impressed with the Lucid response thusfar.
teslamotorsclub.com
