2nd Row seat motor issue

Defying154

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Hello all,

After discussing delivery delays and rumbles from supposed Lucid staff about issues with the 2nd row in the Gravity, etc on Reddit, I realized my Gravity (Dream we've had since late September and have about 5,000 miles on so far) may be part of the reason and wanted to see if anyone else here has had the same experience.

In mid January we had just been visited by mobile service who had come out to investigate a passenger door handle issue (handle needs to be replaced) and to check on our complaint about the high pitched whir sound in the driver's seat with the headlights on (Shop foreman is currently calling that "normal for the vehicle"). After he left, we were getting into the third row of the Gravity to clean the inside of the back window while it was still in the garage in preparation for a drive I had to make that evening. My partner pressed the little button on the 2nd row seatback like normal, the seat tilted and slid forward, nothing seemed unusual. We were talking about something while he was working, and I commented that whatever he was doing back there did not smell great. Within about a minute the car was filled with an acrid burning or melting plastic type smell and we realized something was amiss. There was no unusual noise from anywhere, the car itself was not on/ready at that point, and the smell very clearly was coming from inside the car. He got out of the third row, and it was about then we noticed smoke wisping up from under the second row. We immediately slid the seat back a little bit because my first thought was "stalled motor overheating" but we also rapidly got the car out of the garage juuuuuust in case the smoke coming up from under the seat was an omen of worse things to come. There was a light fog of smoke in the cabin at that point but it didn't seem to be coming more rapidly at least. Visions of a costly bonfire in my driveway briefly flashed through my head 😂. Fortunately, the smoke diminished and stopped shortly after moving the seat back and pulling the car out of the garage, but we reported it via text to the mobile service tech who had left less than an hour before. We did catch a brief video of the smoke as it was dying down, and we sent that to him too. He called back a few minutes later and said that he had been going to turn around and come back to investigate that right away, but said he had reported it to "corporate", and they said they were going to want to get the vehicle to the service hub ASAP so would need to send a transport vehicle anyway. Service advisor reached out promptly offering to set things up, and I had been swamped at work so took a few days to respond. When I reached back out, she responded with this:
"I did speak to our Shop Foreman and I might have some info that can help with this process. Lucid is working to provide us with a new motor system for the seating, so if you're ok hanging onto your car for now, we can bring it in later once we have parts in stock (which we don't have a timeline for so it might be a bit of a wait). The only replacement would have been the same parts, and we don't want to give you a replacement with the same potential issues.

Would that work for you? I can put you on a waiting list of sorts for the parts and reach out again once we have everything."
And of course that's what I agreed to do. We're about 6 weeks out from that incident now and haven't heard anything since, but I have had good luck with our service hub thus far so I assume they'll reach out when they have more information. Since that happened the button on that seat no longer functions for the easy access feature. The button itself is fine and will do the lower cushion release, but it won't tilt or move the seat forward. The seat controls themselves work fine and because the button won't tilt/slide the seat anymore we have not been able to recreate the issue or had any concerning issues. I will say right now I don't move that seat unless I have to, but even right after it had been smoking I couldn't clearly identify what had gotten hot enough to smoke/melt and there didn't seem to be any immediate risk to the seat igniting.

I have been absolutely swamped at work so had essentially thought nothing of all this until I started seeing the posts on reddits about orders not being delivered for the last few weeks, vague reasons on the delays, rumors about a second row issue, etc. I'm sure ours wasn't the "reason" per se, but I wonder if it was one of the nails in the coffin for that second row motor system at least. Anyone else have a similar issue with possible overheating/smoke?
 
were heated seats on lol
Lol! No, but if we'd given it much longer I bet they'd have gotten really toasty... 🔥

Other than the momentary concern I'm really not upset about it and think Lucid is doing a decent job of handling it as best they can. Just hoping that's not a common occurrence because I love this car and want the company to do well.
 
giphy.gif

A gif from the video of moving the seat back. Not the best and the smoke was more prominent before we had moved the vehicle out of the garage and opened the door, but for those doubting actual smoke...
 
giphy.gif

A gif from the video of moving the seat back. Not the best and the smoke was more prominent before we had moved the vehicle out of the garage and opened the door, but for those doubting actual smoke...
Lucid is such a joke of a company.
 
Lucid is such a joke of a company.
They have work to do. No doubt about that, but compared to any similar company I honestly still like Lucid a lot. I do think that some things were not well proofed on the Gravity though and they really were not in a position to have this launch and ramp up go anything other than great after the initial disruptions to production. Admittedly a lot of that was not in their control any more than the chip shortages during covid were GM/etc's fault, but the second row seat motor system does not seem like it should have ever made it to production.
 
Lucid is such a joke of a company.
Based on the fact that they produced a part with an issue and then fixed it?

Not sure what you’d want them to do other than that, aside from be perfect, and I wish you the best of luck finding your perfect car. :)
 
Based on the fact that they produced a part with an issue and then fixed it?

Not sure what you’d want them to do other than that, aside from be perfect, and I wish you the best of luck finding your perfect car. :)
No you don’t, but you are a fearless Lucid defender
 
Based on the fact that they produced a part with an issue and then fixed it?

Not sure what you’d want them to do other than that, aside from be perfect, and I wish you the best of luck finding your perfect car. :)
I doubt whether they actually produce the part (rear seat motor.). Shame on the buyer and the release engineer for allowing that part to be used in the car. I hope they’re part of the headcount reductions. They have cost the company people’s trust and that is easy to lose and difficult to keep, let alone regain.
 
I doubt whether they actually produce the part (rear seat motor.). Shame on the buyer and the release engineer for allowing that part to be used in the car...
When you're overwhelmed with tasks, it's easy to fall back and assume that established vendors will produce proven reliable parts.
 
I imagine a story where the motor they originally spec'ed for this was one of the parts they couldn't get in during their reported part shortages and they had to find a replacement part quickly, because release of the car was already months behind schedule. As long as they acknowledge that there's a problem and fix it as it needs fixing, I have problem calling foul on it. Every car has issues. If anything, we know Lucid is a company that tends to over-engineer things. I'm sure there's somebody at Lucid saying they should have designed their own motor for this instead of contracting it out.
 
I’m thankful Lucid is doing something about the 2nd row seats. Sure, it would have been nice to have the fix out of the gate, but at least the fix is coming.

What’s the saying? There is no rose without thorns. Enjoy the rose, ignore the thorns.

Lucid has fallen short in some areas with big thorns - no question - with the 2nd row seats being a particularly big thorn (as well as software). I just choose to enjoy the rose and give credit to Lucid for trying to prune the major thorns.

To add some perspective:

Video short: Germany just exposed Tesla’s build quality issues.

Key 2025–2026 Auto Recalls:
  • Ford (Feb 2026 - 4.4M vehicles): Software error in trailer control module impacts braking and signals.
  • General Motors (May 2025 - ~600k vehicles): Potential loss of propulsion in 6.2L V8 Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC vehicles.
  • Nissan (Feb 2026 - 640k+ vehicles): Engine bearing failures in Rogue models.
  • BMW (Feb 2026 - ~87k+ vehicles): Engine starter wear posing a fire risk.
  • Hyundai (Feb 2026): Ioniq 5/9 battery fire risk and Kona steering issues.
 
No you don’t, but you are a fearless Lucid defender
Excuse me?

Please do not question my intentions or integrity again. If I say something, I mean it. I have no desire to do anything but wish you well. I understand that you've had a poor experience, and I respect that. I cannot change your experience; I can only sympathize with it. But you do not get to impugn my character just because you're unhappy with your car.

And I defend Lucid when people seem to jump to conclusions. I also bitch about Lucid when they screw up, as they absolutely do, often enough.

 
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I doubt whether they actually produce the part (rear seat motor.). Shame on the buyer and the release engineer for allowing that part to be used in the car. I hope they’re part of the headcount reductions. They have cost the company people’s trust and that is easy to lose and difficult to keep, let alone regain.
Almost zero chance they produce the part. Agreed on the rest, although I do believe people are allowed to make mistakes and the result of this should be a blameless post-portem. But, if a pattern emerges, it emerges.
 
Excuse me?

Please do not question my intentions or integrity again. If I say something, I mean it. I have no desire to do anything but wish you well. I understand that you've had a poor experience, and I respect that. I cannot change your experience; I can only sympathize with it. But you do not get to impugn my character just because you're unhappy with your car.

And I defend Lucid when people seem to jump to conclusions. I also bitch about Lucid when they screw up, as they absolutely do, often enough.

I thought you were being sarcastic. There isn’t perfect car. Except the Buick Grand National.
 
I thought you were being sarcastic. There isn’t perfect car. Except the Buick Grand National.

Aways funny when people have autocorrect errors because that's an amusing way to say Buick Riviera (the '65 of course).
 
Aways funny when people have autocorrect errors because that's an amusing way to say Buick Riviera (the '65 of course).
I think it corrected from 1976 Eldorado Convertible, Anniversary Edition...
 
Aways funny when people have autocorrect errors because that's an amusing way to say Buick Riviera (the '65 of course).
Its an even funnier way of saying '85 Subura R/X Turbo. Fort Sill OK>Love Field, 190 miles, 2hrs
 
They have work to do. No doubt about that, but compared to any similar company I honestly still like Lucid a lot. I do think that some things were not well proofed on the Gravity though and they really were not in a position to have this launch and ramp up go anything other than great after the initial disruptions to production. Admittedly a lot of that was not in their control any more than the chip shortages during covid were GM/etc's fault, but the second row seat motor system does not seem like it should have ever made it to production.
Have you had this addressed yet? If so, what did they replace and does it seem better? I have an upcoming service appt and asked about this as I didn't want to have to immediately turn around and make yet another appointment. I was just told they they have a TSB and parts for the second row but didn't elaborate.
 
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