1800 mile road trip report

[Unmutual]

1800 mile road trip from west of Seattle to Cupertino and back over 5 days. Handling and powertrain are superb--the car is a joy to drive long distances. Range is, frankly, disappointing. I averaged 3 miles/kWh for the trip, which is identical to my lifetime average over 3600 miles. Lots of elevation changes going over the Oregon/California mountain passes on I-5, of course, but even on the long flat stretches I was not getting much more than 3, generally driving around 70. 19" wheels, albeit with Pirelli Sottozero snow tires (snowed on the passes the day before we left), so some loss is attributable to the tires. Experienced the usual UX/infotainment issues. Lost all sound a half-hour into the trip, fixed by a Bobby reset. Lost the side view mirror cameras and Highway Assist, fixed by a valet card reset. Lost SiriusXm entirely--not fixed. CarPlay generally worked well but crapped out as we were getting close to Portland in heavy traffic. The phone showed it was connected to the car but CarPlay simply wouldn't come back on. We had lunch while charging and I turned the phone off and on, and CarPlay was working again once we got back in the car. Electrify America. Oy. Mostly OK but the station in Grants Pass, Oregon was a disaster. On the phone with EA for 45 minutes trying to get the thing to work. He rebooted the station to no avail, and kept suggesting that I move to another charger that was already occupied by a BMW that was having similar problems. I eventually got the original charger to work, but the cord was so short that I couldn't park in the designated space and had to park in front of another charger. This was fine for a few minutes, but a couple of other cars showed up and were understandably unhappy that they couldn't charge. I cut the charging session short. I had similar short-cord problems at a couple of other places. Fortunately, the new chargers EA is installing have much longer cords so I suspect this particular issue will be going away relatively quickly.

Now, what is it with some Lucid drivers? I came across my first Lucid (Zenith Red) already charging and we pulled in next to them, smiling. No reaction at all. I plugged in and walked in front of their car on the way to get something to eat, waved and smiled. No reaction from either the driver or her male companion in the passenger seat. My wife did the same and got no reaction. Weird. When I finally saw a Lucid on the road near Los Altos in the Bay area, the driver literally cut me off as I was proceeding down the highway and he flew across three lanes to exit. Quantum gray. Missed me by three feet. Thanks, buddy. We did encounter one other Lucid as it pulled up to charge next to us, and the young man was very friendly and excited about the car. Pretty much made up for the two negative encounters.

I took my wife's sister and her husband, daughters, and son-in-law for a spin in Portola Valley and may have inspired one or two future purchases. Note that Sprint mode works very well even with snow tires.

So, the car is wonderful to drive. Just need to expect a real-world range of under 350 miles and be very patient with the UX/infotainment systems.

 

[BobFM]

Glad you had a positive encounter with the one driver. As for the others, I'd say it is what it is. Not much you can do about it. Good to see more out on the road in any case!

With regard to the range, a couple questions:

1. Were you using ACC and/or HA around the 70 mpg, or manually driving?
2. What were the average temps when you were driving?
3. How much stop and go would you say you had?

I'll defer to others about the loss of efficiency with snow tires.

 

[Unmutual]

I used ACC as much as possible--I would say 70% of the time spent on highways. Temps were in the 50s and 60s. Not much stop-and-go, I would say fewer than 45 minutes out of the 15-16 hours on the highway.

 

[Bobby]

I used ACC as much as possible--I would say 70% of the time spent on highways. Temps were in the 50s and 60s. Not much stop-and-go, I would say fewer than 45 minutes out of the 15-16 hours on the highway.

I’m surprised you got 3.0. I recently put a review of a trip on my YouTube channel which involved a good bit of elevation change. 21 inch wheels. My average efficiency was 3.4. I limited myself to 70 mph max in the entire trip and was gentle in my acceleration. We did have some stop and go traffic. But mostly it was free sailing at 70mph using ACC. Speed seems to be the number one contributing factor, with temperature and elevation changes next.

 

[Steveinarizona]

I’m surprised you got 3.0. I recently put a review of a trip on my YouTube channel and involved a good bit of elevation change. 21 inch wheels. My average efficiency was 3.4. I limit myself to 70 mph max in the entire trip and was gentle in my acceleration. We did have some stop and go traffic. But mostly it was free sailing at 70mph using ACC. Speed seems to be the number one contributing factor, with temperature and elevation changes next.

If only I could make myself drive at 70 mph on the interstates. But I can't. 75-80 or so it is.

 

[Bobby]

If only I could make myself drive at 70 mph on the interstates. But I can't. 75-80 or so it is.

Me too. That range exercise was painful.

 

[BobFM]

I’m surprised you got 3.0. I recently put a review of a trip on my YouTube channel and involved a good bit of elevation change. 21 inch wheels. My average efficiency was 3.4. I limit myself to 70 mph max in the entire trip and was gentle in my acceleration. We did have some stop and go traffic. But mostly it was free sailing at 70mph using ACC. Speed seems to be the number one contributing factor, with temperature and elevation changes next.

I'm also surprised. Am wondering if the winter tires have that big of an impact.

Agree with @Bobby on the factors. Can also confirm the dropoff in efficiency above 75-80...

 

[hydbob]

I'm also surprised. Am wondering if the winter tires have that big of an impact.

Agree with @Bobby on the factors. Can also confirm the dropoff in efficiency above 75-80...

From my limited testing, 5mph = 0.3 mi/kwh above 70 mph on 21s.

 

[Unmutual]

I'm putting the original wheels/tires with the aero inserts back on the car this week and will see what happens. The stretch of I-5 from Vancouver WA (where I last charged) to Tacoma is pretty flat, and my "since last charge" efficiency was stuck at 3.0 even when doing mostly 65. I'll mention it to the Seattle service center when it goes in next week for issues with water intrusion into the right-side B pillar camera and the taillights.

 

[LucidMike]

I’m driving to Tahoe in a few weeks and was wondering…any idea how much extra range you lose when going up a significant amount of elevation?

 

[Unmutual]

I’m driving to Tahoe in a few weeks and was wondering…any idea how much extra range you lose when going up a significant amount of elevation?

Going up the high passes, I dropped from 3.0 to 2.3 - 2.4.

 

[LucidMike]

Going up the high passes, I dropped from 3.0 to 2.3 - 2.4.

Thanks…so, I guess about 20% ‘extra miles’.

 

[Unmutual]

Thanks…so, I guess about 20% ‘extra miles’.

I gained a lot of it back going downhill (high regen). It was great not having to deal with brakes or downshifts.

 

[DeaneG]

Snow tires in warm temperatures are going to cost quite a bit of range compared to all seasons. Not sure about a comparison to 21" summer tires.

 

[Rogue]

We had a similar length trip up to Delaware from Alabama, plus the driving local. With no chargers on the entire peninsula close to us, we babied the car with a 1kwhr charge rate at my relative's house for the past week sitting below 30% most days and breaking even on charge vs. usage most days.

The best I can tell you is to be easy on the throttle and minimize yoyo-ing with cruise control. At 5,500 miles on the car, I was suddenly starting to get 3.6-3.7 miles per kwhr at 70mph on 21". It takes practice to keep off the accelerator enough to not kill efficiency. The car can do it, but you have to be conscious of the effort.

The one owner we met on the way was friendly enough, not an enthusiast though. A Ford Lightning owner knew more about the car than the Lucid owner. Plenty of friendly people at stations though when we do stop for the most part.

 

[Unmutual]

One interesting thing I just noticed was that the car uploaded 2.9 gigs of data after we got home yesterday--I guess 1800 miles generates lots of info for Lucid.

 

[lucidtouringman]

One interesting thing I just noticed was that the car uploaded 2.9 gigs of data after we got home yesterday--I guess 1800 miles generates lots of info for Lucid.

How does one check for how much data lucid uploaded?? Didn't know we could do that.. please share...

 

[DeaneG]

How does one check for how much data lucid uploaded?? Didn't know we could do that.. please share...

The car does not provide this information, but some home routers can track client data usage.

 

[HariK]

1800 mile road trip from west of Seattle to Cupertino and back over 5 days. Handling and powertrain are superb--the car is a joy to drive long distances. Range is, frankly, disappointing. I averaged 3 miles/kWh for the trip, which is identical to my lifetime average over 3600 miles. Lots of elevation changes going over the Oregon/California mountain passes on I-5, of course, but even on the long flat stretches I was not getting much more than 3, generally driving around 70. 19" wheels, albeit with Pirelli Sottozero snow tires (snowed on the passes the day before we left), so some loss is attributable to the tires. Experienced the usual UX/infotainment issues. Lost all sound a half-hour into the trip, fixed by a Bobby reset. Lost the side view mirror cameras and Highway Assist, fixed by a valet card reset. Lost SiriusXm entirely--not fixed. CarPlay generally worked well but crapped out as we were getting close to Portland in heavy traffic. The phone showed it was connected to the car but CarPlay simply wouldn't come back on. We had lunch while charging and I turned the phone off and on, and CarPlay was working again once we got back in the car. Electrify America. Oy. Mostly OK but the station in Grants Pass, Oregon was a disaster. On the phone with EA for 45 minutes trying to get the thing to work. He rebooted the station to no avail, and kept suggesting that I move to another charger that was already occupied by a BMW that was having similar problems. I eventually got the original charger to work, but the cord was so short that I couldn't park in the designated space and had to park in front of another charger. This was fine for a few minutes, but a couple of other cars showed up and were understandably unhappy that they couldn't charge. I cut the charging session short. I had similar short-cord problems at a couple of other places. Fortunately, the new chargers EA is installing have much longer cords so I suspect this particular issue will be going away relatively quickly.

Now, what is it with some Lucid drivers? I came across my first Lucid (Zenith Red) already charging and we pulled in next to them, smiling. No reaction at all. I plugged in and walked in front of their car on the way to get something to eat, waved and smiled. No reaction from either the driver or her male companion in the passenger seat. My wife did the same and got no reaction. Weird. When I finally saw a Lucid on the road near Los Altos in the Bay area, the driver literally cut me off as I was proceeding down the highway and he flew across three lanes to exit. Quantum gray. Missed me by three feet. Thanks, buddy. We did encounter one other Lucid as it pulled up to charge next to us, and the young man was very friendly and excited about the car. Pretty much made up for the two negative encounters.

I took my wife's sister and her husband, daughters, and son-in-law for a spin in Portola Valley and may have inspired one or two future purchases. Note that Sprint mode works very well even with snow tires.

So, the car is wonderful to drive. Just need to expect a real-world range of under 350 miles and be very patient with the UX/infotainment systems.

How much elevation change did you see? I have 19" Pure AWD HA 70mph 4300ft with an elevtation gain and a 370 miles stretch from Burbank, CA to Fremont CA n mid 50s weather. There was no snow on the road at Tejon pass. This is what I got in that trip.