2023 Lucid Air Grand Touring Salvage – Charging, Reverse & Brake Light Issues

[Macloque002]

Hello all,
I own a 2023 Lucid Air Grand Touring with a Rebuilt Salvage title and am experiencing several serious issues:

HV charging problem: the car shows it is charging, but the dashboard always stays at 0 miles added. Fast charging, AC charging, and OTA updates are all disabled.
Reverse gear issue: in Drive (D), the car moves forward normally, but in Reverse (R), it also moves forward instead of backward. Park (P) and Neutral (N) work normally.
Brake / lights issue: the brake lights stay on at all times, even when the pedal is not pressed, and multiple warning lights are on the dashboard.

The car was purchased at auction and imported. Lucid USA refuses to provide remote diagnostics due to the salvage status, and transporting the car to a Lucid Service Center in Europe is very costly and challenging.

I am looking for:

• Any experience with Rebuilt Salvage Lucid Airs having similar charging, reverse gear, or brake/light issues.
• Solutions to bypass software locks, perform remote diagnostics, or reset post-crash safety flags.
• Tools, procedures, or contacts that would allow a qualified local technician to safely perform checks under guidance.
• Any advice before considering international transport to a Lucid Service Center.

Any guidance or solutions to help restore at least a minimally functional state would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Northpointe]

Due to the complexity of these cars and their proprietary nature, buying a salvage vehicle is a huge risk. And importing one only adds to the challenges. Obviously you’re now confronting this reality.

The only viable option would be to get it to a service center. But I’m not entirely certain they would work on a salvage vehicle based on prior comments. I don’t expect that you’ll be able to find anyone with independent expertise on resolving the problems you’re reporting.

 

[Download_Complet]

Respectfully, this is a Lucid owners forum, not a Lucid repair forum. You are not likely to find the answers you need here since the VAST majority of us bought the car new or CPO, and therefore the only places to find answers would be a Lucid tech.

I hate to say this, but if you aren't established enough to troubleshoot this car on your own, you probably shouldn't have purchased it in the first place. It was totaled for a reason.

 

[Rogue]

Someone from Ukraine posted something along these lines a few years back in the middle of the ongoing war...

The cost of certification and tooling is extremely expensive for small shops. However, Lucid will likely require that route to provide any support on repairs.

As others have stated, these cars are extremely complex and locked down to prevent tampering of any kind. Your work for better or worse falls into the tampering bucket. If something happened to someone while driving the car, they would look to Lucid for fault rather than you. That is a liability for the company.

 

[Macloque002]

Someone from Ukraine posted something along these lines a few years back in the middle of the ongoing war...

The cost of certification and tooling is extremely expensive for small shops. However, Lucid will likely require that route to provide any support on repairs.

As others have stated, these cars are extremely complex and locked down to prevent tampering of any kind. Your work for better or worse falls into the tampering bucket. If something happened to someone while driving the car, they would look to Lucid for fault rather than you. That is a liability for the company.

Hello,
Thank you for your response. If I understand correctly, the locking is done directly by Lucid themselves.
Therefore, without their unlocking, I cannot save / repair the vehicle.

 

[Tâm]

Hello,
Thank you for your response. If I understand correctly, the locking is done directly by Lucid themselves.
Therefore, without their unlocking, I cannot save / repair the vehicle.

Short answer: Good luck to you. I can't help.

For Tesla salvage cars, Tesla would automatically disable DC charging remotely but it seems that Lucid goes further by disabling AC charging as well.

There have been some DIY Do-it-yourself owners who have successfully figured out how to bypass Tesla restrictions and re-enable DC charging again. Overthere in Tesla forum, salvage discussions have been quite active since the beginning. However, talk is not cheap. You could fly a Do-it-yourself owner to your country to help the repairs. The specific instructions about how to fix it remotely would cost some money as well.

I suspect it's possible to do the same with Lucid as well since it's software that just needs some Do-it-yourself owners who know how to read and write the codes.

If you have money, the easiest solution is to ship your car out of the country to one that has a Lucid Center Service. That's what they do in Việt Nam for their Tesla cars because there's no Tesla stores/service center over there either.

 

[SaaSManKS]

ummm have you read the forums about the software functionality when the cars are new?

 

[Tâm]

ummm have you read the forums about the software functionality when the cars are new?

I don't understand the question.

How that question would help to avoid shipping the car out of the country to enable charging?

 

[SaaSManKS]

You are very observant, I was being cheeky in how the cars even when they are brand new have TONS of issues, and buying a salvage probably isn't going to end well.

 

[ZenithRed]

I'm in this boat also, so I'm commenting to add to the chorus. (Even joined this forum to do so!)
My car works perfectly but has a salvage brand, so Lucid wants ~20,000 USD to get the service mode removed because they want to disassemble the car and reassemble it.

I'm in the US and would honestly rather put that money into litigation so that other people don't have to go through these insane hoops like I do.

 

[SaaSManKS]

I'm in this boat also, so I'm commenting to add to the chorus. (Even joined this forum to do so!)
My car works perfectly but has a salvage brand, so Lucid wants ~20,000 USD to get the service mode removed because they want to disassemble the car and reassemble it.

I'm in the US and would honestly rather put that money into litigation so that other people don't have to go through these insane hoops like I do.

This sounds horrendous and will only further drive down values in the secondary market…smh

 

[Bobby]

Honestly, you’re probably best parting these cars out.

 

[ZenithRed]

This sounds horrendous and will only further drive down values in the secondary market…smh

I honestly think it will drive down value. But beyond that, this kind of pricing is essentially guaranteeing that when the car gets under 30-40k in value (which it's quickly getting there for many trim levels/years), the car will immediately become e-waste after ANY accident/theft that leaves it with a salvage brand. After talking to Lucid support, they don't delineate between accidents and theft/hail/etc. for salvage branding.

All requires extremely expensive inspection. There's no sliding scale in the year/value of the car either. It's the same inspection with the same 190 billable hours.
I have been a staunch used car/EV buyer in order to leave a better impact on this world. This is leading to so much more ewaste in the guise of "safety".

 

[socktucker]

Honestly, you’re probably best parting these cars out.

Yeah. These are not gonna good flipper salvage cars.

 

[SaaSManKS]

Kinda crazy that a car that has 40% less parts requires that many hours to evaluate it…but I’m aware those are round figures, however I think secondary markets can continue to fall, I had zero damage to my pure awd and couldn’t get anyone to offer over $40k and that’s with a clean single owner title…ya that’s bad not only for owners but the company.

 

[Pragmatic]

Honestly, you’re probably best parting these cars out.

Who will buy used parts if Lucid restricts access to repair information and software?
If my local shop can't reprogram modules to work with my VIN, there is no market for used modules. Same for body parts. All these repair restrictions raise price of repairs, limit choice and ultimately drive up insurance costs.

 

[ZenithRed]

but I’m aware those are round figures

You're right, those are rounded numbers. Depressingly, the number is actually 187.2 hours just to check over the car.

 

[gaskiller]

Kinda crazy that a car that has 40% less parts requires that many hours to evaluate it…but I’m aware those are round figures, however I think secondary markets can continue to fall, I had zero damage to my pure awd and couldn’t get anyone to offer over $40k and that’s with a clean single owner title…ya that’s bad not only for owners but the company.

You buy these cars and keep a decade, the constant software updates make sure they continue to improve. Unless you lease of course.

 

[gaskiller]

I honestly think it will drive down value. But beyond that, this kind of pricing is essentially guaranteeing that when the car gets under 30-40k in value (which it's quickly getting there for many trim levels/years), the car will immediately become e-waste after ANY accident/theft that leaves it with a salvage brand. After talking to Lucid support, they don't delineate between accidents and theft/hail/etc. for salvage branding.

All requires extremely expensive inspection. There's no sliding scale in the year/value of the car either. It's the same inspection with the same 190 billable hours.
I have been a staunch used car/EV buyer in order to leave a better impact on this world. This is leading to so much more ewaste in the guise of "safety".

Just say Lucid does allow you to mess around with the software/battery and later the car catches on fire or has an failure and kills someone? These cars are not like your typical ICE cars.

 

[Truthlesshunter]

You buy these cars and keep a decade, the constant software updates make sure they continue to improve. Unless you lease of course.

if the cars work as they are supposed to, this is absolutely the best bet. We are aware what they are worth for the performance, capabilities, etc...especially versus other cars out there. The issue is that they are not as well known and the software issues are persistent. I wouldn't mind keeping my car (and I change cars *often*) for a long period of time, if it worked like it was supposed to (it isn't...but only one thing for me: dreamdrive pro doesn't work at all...which is an expensive shame)