Like most EV makers, Lucid tends to be fairly opaque about its battery modules.
The original battery modules provided ~5 kWh each. There were some chemistry differences between the Samsung cells in the 118-kWh battery pack and the LG Chem cells in the 112- and 92-kWh packs. A Lucid engineer once let slip that the capacity difference between the large Samsung and LG packs -- both with 6600 cells -- was that the Samsung pack did not require an upper buffer due to its better resistance to full charging issues.
The situation has gotten even murkier since. Lucid is sourcing batteries for the Gravity and new Airs from Panasonic, but there is no word on whether they will continue to source from Samsung and LG Chem and, if so, which supplier will be used for which trim, or what the differences will be in cell chemistries. (Panasonic has been rapidly evolving cell chemistry in their 2170 form factor batteries -- the size Lucid uses -- since 2021.) The smaller Lucid pack has been coming down in capacity from 92 to 88 and now to 84 kWh, with no information about how. Those 4-kWh step-downs don't correlate to the average 5-kWh capacity of the original packs, so it doesn't suggest that modules are disappearing with the capacity reductions.
On the other hand, I don't really know what the point of reducing capacity would be if not to reduce cost or weight. In reducing capacity you also reduce range, which is Lucid's biggest claim to fame. And the only way to reduce weight with the battery packs is to reduce the number of modules, the number of cells, the weight of the cells, or some combination of that.
I really wish Lucid would do a new Tech Talk on the cell chemistries of their different batteries and how the packs are evolving. The original Tech Talk was on the battery packs, but a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since. Perhaps they don't want to bring attention to how much is happening on the battery cell front -- despite the stalled transition to solid state or other cell technologies -- as it the probably the part of the car that most closely courts obsolescence and makes owners feel their EVs are getting outdated.
)? Obviously it's a proof point for the industry that yes, you can use smaller batteries and still achieve something amazing. But I'm surprised they're not tooting their horn about what else they were able to accomplish with that reduction.
