4 months of ownership, my thoughts

[Pishster]

Hi guys,

It was great to meet some of you guys at the OC meet up a few months ago.

We've had this GT since Oct 2022 and I just wanted to post a few of my thoughts.

The Positives.
1. Driving the car. What a great vehicle to drive. My other car is a Porsche 991.2 GTS and I look forward to driving the Lucid just as much. Yes, the Lucid is bigger, not as nimble but the acceleration is better and the handling isn't much worse.
2. The space. This car is extremely practical. Loads of room for people and stuff.
3. The looks. If you don't want to get noticed and complements on the car, don't drive the car.
4. The charging rate. If you properly precondition and you are lucky enough to have a working EA charger, the charging system works well and fast. But the working EA charger is a unicorn. Good luck.
5. The comfort. What a way to commute. The suspension tuning, the comfortable seats, the massaging seats, how well the heated seats and steering wheel works. It's very comfortable.


The Negatives.
1. Software. To Lucid's credit, the software is waaaay better now than when we first got the car. It's instant on, they added XM, moved a few buttons around to make things more usable. But, I hate being an expensive beta tester for them. Some issues we've had:
- Once after an update, the car would not shift into Drive or Reverse. Couldn't restore the function even after a reset. The fix was to tow the car to the service center and they disconnected all batteries, did a computer reset. Fortunately we were home and not stranded somewhere out.
- Random screens blacking out when starting the car. The car fixes itself by rebooting by itself. This isn't common, happens once a month or so.
- I hate the Homelink. I wish the GPS that initiates the drop down menu would allow the menu to linger a bit longer. I find myself going to press the button but the menu has already popped back up when I get home. And let's not talk about when we leave the house. So stupid that we have to click multiple buttons to close the garage door when backing out of the garage.
- The put hands of wheel/ pay attention gremlin. For some reason, it only happens with me and not my wife but the car keeps bugging me to keep my hands on the wheel or tells me to pay attention. Sometimes, while I'm turning the wheel!
- Detection of the mobile key. Sometimes it's too sensitive - the times when I don't want to get into the car. And of course, when I do want to get into the car, it does't quite detect my mobile key so I have to bring the phone out and then push on the door handle.
- Why can't Lucid figure out how to separate the two screens. I don't need both screens to show maps. Give me the radio stations on top and the map on the bottom!

2. Electrify America. If I had known how bad EA is before buying the car, I would seriously think about not buying the car. Now I maybe thinking this way because we never charge at home. I figure why if we have 3 years for free. The anxiety of driving up to a station, wondering if the app was correct in saying there's availability, wondering if the stations would work, it wears on you.

3. The AC is lacking. I don't know if it's the small vents or lack of blower power but I find it doesn't quite get cool fast enough.

My hope is that with time, the first 2 negatives will go away. I know that Lucid is constantly working on the software and I pray that EA will get its act together.

Overall, it's mainly my wife's car. As long as she's happy, I'm happy.

- Pish

 

[DBV]

Nice review. Appreciate people like you giving this type of feedback, especially to people like me who are seriously interested in getting the car. Also - some of those other negatives keep coming up. I travel a lot and there are no service centers in Ohio and could not imagine something not working and then having to wait to get it fixed. Lucid really needs to get their act together quickly on those negatives or the market place will not be forgiving. Too many competitors coming quickly.

Electrify America is one of the worst things about the car that scares me and that is not even Lucid!

 

[HC_79]

Electrify America is one of the worst things about the car that scares me and that is not even Lucid!

I much as I despise EA I have to push back on it being the worst thing about the car. Lucid has made it clear from the beginning they're a CAR company not a charging company so the fact that EA is so shit really isn't their fault. The best thing they could do is dump the free charging and disassociate themselves with EA as comments like this shows it hurts the brand when its something completely out of their control.

Lucid has its own issues to resolve when it comes to the software but EA isn't their issue to fix. Lucid could really benefit from building its own chargers on interstates. Heck, the car goes so far the advantage is they wouldn't need as many locations but it would cost millions with cash they simply don't have. Again, Peter made it clear that they're a car company not a charging company.

 

[DBV]

I much as I despise EA I have to push back on it being the worst thing about the car. Lucid has made it clear from the beginning they're a CAR company not a charging company so the fact that EA is so shit really isn't their fault. The best thing they could do is dump the free charging and disassociate themselves with EA as comments like this shows it hurts the brand when its something completely out of their control.

Lucid has its own issues to resolve when it comes to the software but EA isn't their issue to fix. Lucid could really benefit from building its own chargers on interstates. Heck, the car goes so far the advantage is they wouldn't need as many locations but it would cost millions with cash they simply don't have. Again, Peter made it clear that they're a car company not a charging company.

I agree, I did not mean or I don’t think I framed it as Lucid fault, as I said that is not even Lucid. It is a big problem though/negative, especially for people that are considering purchasing a Lucid or any non Tesla that may uses Electrify America. Are the non Electrify America chargers that can charge a non Tesla much better?

I could care less about free supercharging, as long as the supercharging is reliable and the network expansive enough. I would much rather pay for something that works, efficient and no that it will be available to fast charge my car when traveling.

 

[borski]

Why can't Lucid figure out how to separate the two screens. I don't need both screens to show maps. Give me the radio stations on top and the map on the bottom!

“Can’t figure it out” is inaccurate, most likely - it’s somewhere on their requested feature list and where it is in terms of priority is the likely answer as to why it hasn’t been separated yet.

Now I maybe thinking this way because we never charge at home. I figure why if we have 3 years for free. The anxiety of driving up to a station, wondering if the app was correct in saying there's availability, wondering if the stations would work, it wears on you.

You should be charging at home. EA charging should be used for road trips, not generic day to day charging. It’s harder on the battery (degrades it more) and contributes to stations being out as well - Tom Moloughney did a fantastic video on this recently. I wish that Lucid (and others) weren’t giving out years of free unlimited charging for this reason.

That might be an unpopular opinion, but you really should be charging at home. 99% of your charging woes and anxiety go away if you do.

The AC is lacking. I don't know if it's the small vents or lack of blower power but I find it doesn't quite get cool fast enough.

Have you tried pre-cooling the car?

 

[HC_79]

I agree, I did not mean or I don’t think I framed it as Lucid fault, as I said that is not even Lucid. It is a big problem though/negative, especially for people that are considering purchasing a Lucid or any non Tesla that may uses Electrify America. Are the non Electrify America chargers that can charge a non Tesla much better?

I could care less about free supercharging, as long as the supercharging is reliable and the network expansive enough. I would much rather pay for something that works, efficient and no that it will be available to fast charge my car when traveling.

It's a HUGE problem that's not helping any car company selling EV's at the moment. I tend to use EVGo when I can as i've had a much more reliable experience on them and have no issues just paying because it's more reliable. I've seen on Twitter and YouTube the past few weeks at least 4 owners of iX's wanting to sell them or take them back to the dealer solely because of the EA experience.

Per @borski - giving out free charging to all and sundry isn't helping the situation either.

 

[borski]

I agree, I did not mean or I don’t think I framed it as Lucid fault, as I said that is not even Lucid. It is a big problem though/negative, especially for people that are considering purchasing a Lucid or any non Tesla that may uses Electrify America. Are the non Electrify America chargers that can charge a non Tesla much better?

I could care less about free supercharging, as long as the supercharging is reliable and the network expansive enough. I would much rather pay for something that works, efficient and no that it will be available to fast charge my car when traveling.

I have found EVGo and Chargepoint to work very well, but I’ve also not had issues with EA, so I am perhaps not the best test case.

 

[idiot900]

@Pishster We know 1.x was not good but how long after the big 2.0 update did those software problems present for you?

I have an unsubstantiated theory that the first year cars were built with a variety of substitute components that didn’t get standardized until MY2023 production. Hence so many issues on some of the early cars - it’s difficult to write firmware that has to deal with so many possible permutations of chips.

 

[Pishster]

@Pishster We know 1.x was not good but how long after the big 2.0 update did those software problems present for you?

I have an unsubstantiated theory that the first year cars were built with a variety of substitute components that didn’t get standardized until MY2023 production. Hence so many issues on some of the early cars - it’s difficult to write firmware that has to deal with so many possible permutations of chips.

The not being able to shift out of Park happened in the 2.55 version (I think, need to double check in the car. It's my current version. The service tech said a 2.58 is coming?).

 

[idiot900]

The not being able to shift out of Park happened in the 2.55 version (I think, need to double check in the car. It's my current version. The service tech said a 2.58 is coming?).

To my knowledge the latest version as I type this is 2.0.50. Thanks for replying.

If the same glitch is happening with similar incidence across the newer fleet...more likely software issue. If primarily on MY2022 cars, more likely hardware in origin. Anyway, after some more time we'll have an idea whether the glitch rate on the MY2023 cars is lower than that of MY2022.

 

[Sandvinsd]

I have found EVGo and Chargepoint to work very well, but I’ve also not had issues with EA, so I am perhaps not the best test case.

I assume the EVgo chargers are better now, but they were not in the past. Have not used them in over 2 years, since the free charging on the Leaf ended. At that time, they were all 50 kW max units and we constantly had issues with them being broken. Everything that is being said about EA now, we experienced with the EVgo chargers back then. It was a constant source of frustration. That said, I have noticed that they are upgrading their chargers to 100 and 200 kW ones. Since I have not charged on one of those, I cannot say if they are any better than EA.

 

[Adnillien]

@Pishster We know 1.x was not good but how long after the big 2.0 update did those software problems present for you?

I have an unsubstantiated theory that the first year cars were built with a variety of substitute components that didn’t get standardized until MY2023 production. Hence so many issues on some of the early cars - it’s difficult to write firmware that has to deal with so many possible permutations of chips.

I doubt that the use of different chips is as widespread as many people think. Minimum order quantities for most semiconductors are 5k to 20k units. Many components are coming from tier 1 suppliers that may have different order quantities. Those tier 1 suppliers still have the same minimum order requirements. With Lucid's low production volume, unless there was a reliability or functional issue, I doubt there were many chip changes.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I doubt that the use of different chips is as widespread as many people think. Minimum order quantities for most semiconductors are 5k to 20k units. Many components are coming from tier 1 suppliers that may have different order quantities. Those tier 1 suppliers still have the same minimum order requirements. With Lucid's low production volume, unless there was a reliability or functional issue, I doubt there were many chip changes.

Well that makes sense. I had assumed that since production began with the Plague that the supply-chain failure forced Lucid to source circuits / chips from other than their vetted suppliers, to meet finished car targets. or that their suppliers had production issues themselves. both of my issues were faulty control modules, and disappeared when the faulty modules were replaced. I have never had a software issue, or even a glitch.

 

[Lucken]

I have found EVGo and Chargepoint to work very well, but I’ve also not had issues with EA, so I am perhaps not the best test case.

The problem with EVGo & ChargePoint, at least in the NY area, is the 50kW limitation that almost all of these have. It’s like watching water boil.

 

[HC_79]

The problem with EVGo & ChargePoint, at least in the NY area, is the 50kW limitation that almost all of these have. It’s like watching water boil.

EVGo is progressively updating the chargers right up to 350. They got funding from GM and also probably getting government funding now so you should expect to see higher speed ones soon.

 

[borski]

I doubt that the use of different chips is as widespread as many people think. Minimum order quantities for most semiconductors are 5k to 20k units. Many components are coming from tier 1 suppliers that may have different order quantities. Those tier 1 suppliers still have the same minimum order requirements. With Lucid's low production volume, unless there was a reliability or functional issue, I doubt there were many chip changes.

My understanding is there were a lot of multi-sourced chips and modules. That is, the same specs, but built by multiple manufacturers to satisfy timelines during COVID. There are definitely differences between vehicles built during the pandemic.

 

[BNL]

The not being able to shift out of Park happened in the 2.55 version (I think, need to double check in the car. It's my current version. The service tech said a 2.58 is coming?).

This ‘stuck in park’ happened to me too. Seemed related to car not recognizing me as the driver. All the lucid service people were very polite but they all said they never heard of the problem. They also said Lucid does not tell the service people what known problems are—they pretend there is no list. After a week of waiting I got the hard reset at service center that did not fix it. Eventually we removed a 3rd driver identity which appears to have fixed the problem.

 

[blueice89]

“Can’t figure it out” is inaccurate, most likely - it’s somewhere on their requested feature list and where it is in terms of priority is the likely answer as to why it hasn’t been separated yet.

You should be charging at home. EA charging should be used for road trips, not generic day to day charging. It’s harder on the battery (degrades it more) and contributes to stations being out as well - Tom Moloughney did a fantastic video on this recently. I wish that Lucid (and others) weren’t giving out years of free unlimited charging for this reason.

That might be an unpopular opinion, but you really should be charging at home. 99% of your charging woes and anxiety go away if you do.


Have you tried pre-cooling the car?

Isn’t the screen thing more s limitation of operating system vs lucid software. Last I checked they use some version of android.

 

[ellidc]

Totally with you on gremlin pay attention issues. I've had put both hands on wheel and TAKE CONTROL NOW come up while looking straight ahead with hands on wheel. I actually do just as well with hands off wheel and looking around then just nudging the wheel when prompted. One time even got the dramatic drowsy driver warning which incredibly came with directions to nearest coffee shop! I don't know how I triggered that one. Just recently started getting a "stop covering your face" message. Overall not really helpful as it triggers when I'm being good just as much if not more than when I'm deep into music selections or reading texts.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Try this voice command: " Luci ... WTF ! ? "