My Dad just celebrated his 80th birthday, and I treated him and his wife (he's remarried) to a ride on the Verde Canyon Railroad last Monday. The ride was delightful-- highly recommended to anyone in Arizona, to enjoy the beautiful landscape. Not a lot of wildlife to be seen on this trip, though, beyond a few deer sightings.
Anyway, this being a Lucid forum-- I'm posting because bookending the railroad trip was the drive. Their first time experiencing a road trip in an EV, and a good chance to show off the amazing ride, good sound system, and remarkable range of the Lucid Air. It didn't disappoint them on any front. Our round-trip was just over 300 miles, climbing up and over a few mountains along the way. Throw in road construction and rain coming down the mountains back into town while driving in the dark, and they were still perfectly relaxed.
Should I have needed it, there was an opportunity along the way to charge in Anthem, but I aimed to make the trip without the need for a charging stop. I charged my car to 100% (which reads 404 miles, not the 425 miles I would have expected 15K miles ago) for the first-- and last-- time ever. I discovered two interesting consequences. The first, you probably already know: there was zero regen available for the first mile. After that, regen slowly built back up. It was probably close to full regen already by 98% SOC. The second: the car did not back out of my driveway smoothly-- it felt like it was switching between wanting to roll and wanting to stop. So, I would recommend if you really need max range, don't go beyond 99%.
Beyond that, it was a reassuring drive-- I can't imagine a car being more comfortable for the trip than this was. We arrived in Clarkdale with 208 miles of range indicated remaining, which was consistent with what the nav predicted most of the way. Since the drive there had almost 2500 feet of net elevation gain, I knew that unless the wind was uncooperative, I should easily make the return trip-- and I still had Anthem along the way if there were any surprises. There were not. I made it back with 52 miles of range remaining-- again, pretty much what the nav predicted.
The efficiency numbers came out a bit different than I expected. I figured that if the drive took me down from 404 miles of range to 52 miles of range, that used up 87% of the available battery capacity, which for an Air Touring, is 92kWh... so, 80kWh. Dividing 302.5 miles traveled by that yields 3.77mi/kWh, which I'd think reasonable for the terrain. But the car said my consumption was quite a bit less (see picture). Any ideas why?
Anyway, this being a Lucid forum-- I'm posting because bookending the railroad trip was the drive. Their first time experiencing a road trip in an EV, and a good chance to show off the amazing ride, good sound system, and remarkable range of the Lucid Air. It didn't disappoint them on any front. Our round-trip was just over 300 miles, climbing up and over a few mountains along the way. Throw in road construction and rain coming down the mountains back into town while driving in the dark, and they were still perfectly relaxed.
Should I have needed it, there was an opportunity along the way to charge in Anthem, but I aimed to make the trip without the need for a charging stop. I charged my car to 100% (which reads 404 miles, not the 425 miles I would have expected 15K miles ago) for the first-- and last-- time ever. I discovered two interesting consequences. The first, you probably already know: there was zero regen available for the first mile. After that, regen slowly built back up. It was probably close to full regen already by 98% SOC. The second: the car did not back out of my driveway smoothly-- it felt like it was switching between wanting to roll and wanting to stop. So, I would recommend if you really need max range, don't go beyond 99%.
Beyond that, it was a reassuring drive-- I can't imagine a car being more comfortable for the trip than this was. We arrived in Clarkdale with 208 miles of range indicated remaining, which was consistent with what the nav predicted most of the way. Since the drive there had almost 2500 feet of net elevation gain, I knew that unless the wind was uncooperative, I should easily make the return trip-- and I still had Anthem along the way if there were any surprises. There were not. I made it back with 52 miles of range remaining-- again, pretty much what the nav predicted.
The efficiency numbers came out a bit different than I expected. I figured that if the drive took me down from 404 miles of range to 52 miles of range, that used up 87% of the available battery capacity, which for an Air Touring, is 92kWh... so, 80kWh. Dividing 302.5 miles traveled by that yields 3.77mi/kWh, which I'd think reasonable for the terrain. But the car said my consumption was quite a bit less (see picture). Any ideas why?
