Gravity Delivery Discussion

[Adnillien]

That supports that this is a tariff rather than production issue, since the KSA/UAE final build is done in KSA. If so, that also means it's not necessarily a long wait in the US, as the tariff situation is changing daily and there is a lot of economic pressure to end this madness (without turning this into a political topic). I have friends who manufacture low-volume consumer electronics in China and they basically have had no sleep the past few weeks... it's hard to explain how disastrous this has all been to small American technology businesses. There's been a lot of rushing to get onto the last boat/plane out. It's wild, and sad.

Of course, I also can't imagine there are a huge number of preorders in region. I was in Abu Dhabi two months ago on vacation and the charging infrastructure is... not good. On the other hand, these countries are so small that there's honestly no need for anything more than home charging. We did have several electric Ubers, so I imagine there is some fast charging somewhere. We were matched with WeRide robotaxis (with safety drivers) that were fun -- they were on the GAC Aion LX Plus platform. The self-driving was a bit janky, but the spec on the vehicle is 1000km (623 mi) per charge, and they were very comfortable. If the US ever drops the 100% tariffs on Chinese vehicles, Tesla is _dead_. Everything budget being made by GAC, BYD, etc is far better.

BTW, if you find yourself in AD, I totally recommend a visit to the Emirates National Auto Museum. It's basically Sheikh Hamdan's personal collection and is one of the most eclectic but awesome car collections I've ever seen. It's in a pyramid in the middle of the desert and you'll have to hire a car to take you, but you'll have hours basically alone with the collection. The only thing more awesome is if you could actually sit in the vehicles. It's extremely weird but a lot of fun: https://visitabudhabi.ae/en/what-to...ral-attractions/emirates-national-auto-museum

I seriously doubt that it is a tariff issue. Besides being too early for tariffs to change current production, there are many explanations other than tariffs. I am not sure how demand for HUD there is in the KSA market, maybe it is low and Lucid can meet demand. Lucid is already building Touring trim Gravity for KSA so KSA cars may not be as fully loaded as US cars. It could be the wiring harness being different between KSA and US and the wiring harness is the bottleneck and not the HUD display unit. Nick said the wiring harness without HUD did not support dynamic ambient light so we know the harness is somewhat involved. Lucid could have terminated the HUD connection of the harness and allowed installation later and kept dynamic ambient lighting. I am not sure that would allow a low cost HUD installation later or if there were technical limitations that prevented that choice by Lucid. If the wiring harness is the limitation, terminating the HUD prtion of the harness would not have been an option.

I am with @hmp10 on this. I have met Nick and trust him as a straight shooter. If he says supply issue, I am going to go with that. He is not going to try to hide behind tariff is a trade issue type semantics.

 

[jered]

Supply caused by tarriffs still a supply issue.

Yeah; this was implicit in my message. I don't think it's untruthful to say that's it's a "supply issue" if current economic factors would require that you increase the price of the feature by, say, $5k. Supply issue could very well mean "they're sitting on the dock in Shenzen and we can't get them here at a practical price" -- not that the supplier keeps breaking the optics or some other production-related challenge. As I mentioned in another thread, I have friends who do small electronics design/manufacturing and they've had to hold stock they've already paid for because parcel shipping to their customers would incur too high a cost.

 

[Kevmark58]

I've got a friend who lives down the street and he owns a board game company. He and his small team design board games and then as the owner, he has to curate the items that all go in the box; get the board printed, all of the player pieces designed, molded and formed, dice, boxing, all of it and it all comes from China. So he's in a pickle right now as is anyone that gets anything from China. He's pretty frantic and working 18 hour days trying to work through all of this.

 

[msaunders9430]

Well, this is interesting. After widespread panic yesterday, followed by hours of speculation and complaints that Lucid was not being candid about the HUD situation, Nick Twork took time from his vacation to explain the situation in a statement answering all the questions that were raised.

That statement clearly stated it was due to "a limited supply of HUD hardware". He concluded by saying "this is just a temporary supply issue" and "once we [Lucid] work through it, the HUD will be added back to the Grand Touring options list."

Yet the speculation has cranked right back up. Although Twork uttered not a word about tariffs, it must be tariffs because, well, they're out there . . . so it must be.

Since he's been head of global communications at Lucid I have not seen anything from Twork indicating he's anything other than candid and non-evasive. He said it was a supply issue, not a tariff issue. He also said it was temporary, something he would have no way of knowing if tariffs were an underlying cause of the supply issue.

Questions were asked yesterday, and both entirely logical answers and an apology for the confusion were given. I really don't see the point of pouring gas back on the cooling embers.

The lastest development with the HUD supply issue and the speculation here that followed, drives home the existence of a continuing challenge for Lucid that has been lamented here many times: communication. I think we can all agee on this.

The need for sufficient and timely communication. What is sufficient is debateable, but most of what we've received these last few months and especially this week has been insufficient and untimely, requiring follow-up and sometimes apologies. I'm definitely not criticizing Lucid. Running any kind of company is no small task and I give kudos to those who take on the task.

When people don't know what is going on in a situation, it's human nature to speculate and we here are champions at it. Myself included. Not a bad thing, for the most part. The speculation of supply chain issue and tariffs are reasonable. Now the talk of Lucid trying to milk extra money out of people was a bit much, but everyone has their opinion.

I'm mindful of the need to maintain investor confidence. I'm not expecting Lucid to disclose all the internal challenges they are facing, but a bit more information along the way wouldn't hurt. You can since it on the earnings calls. It will be present during the next call. Some is this is also part of being a company undertaking a monumental task that they've only been doing a few years relative to other carmakers. And yet, the need for good communication is not unique to the automotive industry.

I don't know who is on Nick Twork's staff and I'm not telling him how to do his job. I think he does a fine job, but if you can't take some time off without having to interrupt your vacation to put out fires, something is not right with that situation. This isn't the first time he has had to jump in and clarify communication released to the public. I'm pretty sure he is aware of exactly what I'm saying here and I wish nothing but success as he continues in the role.

So the embers of this latest fire continue to cool.
What would be nice, and perhaps this latest fire will lead to this; better communication from Lucid.

 

[msaunders9430]

I've got a friend who lives down the street and he owns a board game company. He and his small team design board games and then as the owner, he has to curate the items that all go in the box; get the board printed, all of the player pieces designed, molded and formed, dice, boxing, all of it and it all comes from China. So he's in a pickle right now as is anyone that gets anything from China. He's pretty frantic and working 18 hour days trying to work through all of this.

I was listening to this podcast the other day about exactly what you're talking about.

Tariffs against China threaten the booming board game industry

The Trump administration’s tariffs are strangling game designers, who warn that it’s not only prices that’ll go up. Plenty of games simply won’t get made.

www.wbur.org

 

[hmp10]

Yeah; this was implicit in my message. I don't think it's untruthful to say that's it's a "supply issue" if current economic factors would require that you increase the price of the feature by, say, $5k. Supply issue could very well mean "they're sitting on the dock in Shenzen and we can't get them here at a practical price" -- not that the supplier keeps breaking the optics or some other production-related challenge. As I mentioned in another thread, I have friends who do small electronics design/manufacturing and they've had to hold stock they've already paid for because parcel shipping to their customers would incur too high a cost.

I'm not saying tariff issues would be a far-fetched cause for a supply chain disruption. My point was more that Nick Twork has shown himself in prior communications to be a straight-shooter even if the message may be an "inconvenient truth" for Lucid or the recipient. I simply see no reason to think he would avoid mentioning tariffs in the equation if they were there.

Look closely at the last two lines of his message. They talk about "good news" that the issue is temporary and that the HUD option will be back once Lucid works through it. The tariff situation is so confused and utterly uncertain of eventual outcomes -- especially outcomes about which Lucid can do anything -- that I just don't believe Twork would have been so upbeat in implying that this issue won't be of indefinite duration. He would have been much more likely to say something such as, "unfortunately, as the uncertain tariff situation is contributing to this supply chain problem, Lucid is not in a position to speculate on when it may be resolved."

 

[msaunders9430]

@hmp10 now I know your trigger word, the button to push to get you to the keyboard/phone: tariffs.

It's right there with "minivan" for @borski.
His is a bit more complicated.
You have to mention the word in a thread he really likes.

 

[Kevmark58]

The lastest development with the HUD supply issue and the speculation here that followed, drives home the existence of a continuing challenge for Lucid that has been lamented here many times: communication. I think we can all agee on this.

The need for sufficient and timely communication. What is sufficient is debateable, but most of what we've received these last few months and especially this week has been insufficient and untimely, requiring follow-up and sometimes apologies. I'm definitely not criticizing Lucid. Running any kind of company is no small task and I give kudos to those who take on the task.

When people don't know what is going on in a situation, it's human nature to speculate and we here are champions at it. Myself included. Not a bad thing, for the most part. The speculation of supply chain issue and tariffs are reasonable. Now the talk of Lucid trying to milk extra money out of people was a bit much, but everyone has their opinion.

I'm mindful of the need to maintain investor confidence. I'm not expecting Lucid to disclose all the internal challenges they are facing, but a bit more information along the way wouldn't hurt. You can since it on the earnings calls. It will be present during the next call. Some is this is also part of being a company undertaking a monumental task that they've only been doing a few years relative to other carmakers. And yet, the need for good communication is not unique to the automotive industry.

I don't know who is on Nick Twork's staff and I'm not telling him how to do his job. I think he does a fine job, but if you can't take some time off without having to interrupt your vacation to put out fires, something is not right with that situation. This isn't the first time he has had to jump in and clarify communication released to the public. I'm pretty sure he is aware of exactly what I'm saying here and I wish nothing but success as he continues in the role.

So the embers of this latest fire continue to cool.
What would be nice, and perhaps this latest fire will lead to this; better communication from Lucid.

That's all we ask.....clarity, being succinct, truthful, and open. No one can then speculate or infer. As an investor, as a person who has a GGT on order, it's the least we receive and the positive response from the public will pay dividends in goodwill and excitement. Mr. Twork just has to get a handle on who puts this stuff out, how it's vetted, and its transparency. A bit of work when he gets back from vacation, but will pay off in the end.

 

[hmp10]

I don't know who is on Nick Twork's staff and I'm not telling him how to do his job. I think he does a fine job, but if you can't take some time off without having to interrupt your vacation to put out fires, something is not right with that situation. This isn't the first time he has had to jump in and clarify communication released to the public.

Going back to my early days of waiting for Air deliveries I have seen signs of some organizational dysfunction at Lucid in terms of how different functions coordinate (or don't) with each other. As I came to understand just how intensely focused Lucid was on engineering, almost to the point of tunnel vision, it began to feel like a kind of charming indication of the absent-minded professor syndrome at the top leadership tier -- the guy who can decode the universe can't find the cafeteria.

The most pronounced incidents that suggested this dysfunction on the non-engineering side of the house have been the marketing events that have found the sales people on site at those events often woefully uninformed about what is going on around them. That, coupled with some really ham-fisted marketing communications I have seen from Lucid, leads me to suspect the message that freaked so many people out yesterday came from a marketing group that didn't run anything by the global communications group that Twork runs. This is mere supposition, of course, but it would be of a piece with other things I've seen with Lucid.

 

[msaunders9430]

This forum is helpful to a lot of people; definitely me.
The forum is a digital representation of what happens IRL; people talk and respond in different ways.

Some wildly speculate.
I speculate some and then wait and listen as those much more experienced post.
After the dust settles I attempt to communicate my reaction and next steps usually in a post like I did over in the thread that is a more direct conversation about "HUDgate".
I posted it (link below) and then I saw the comment from @joec about reading existing posts before posting and thought he was talking to me.
However, after contacting him, he clarified my post wasn't the issue.
This "Road To Gravity" continues!

M

Post in thread 'Lucid will not offer heads-up display on Gravity GT (for now)'

Yesterday at 9:39 PM

I contacted my SA and let them know my preference is to wait for the HUD, depending on the length of the wait.
I requested they let me know the wait time when available to them.
The SA responded "I have notated that you most likely want to hold off on proceeding with production until the package is available. I will keep you posted on any updates as I receive them".

Based on my understanding of how Lucid handles orders and production (with the help of ChatGPT) and considering the latest supply issue involving the HUD, I see six types of Gravity customers divided among two groups:

Two...

• msaunders9430

• 

 

[hmp10]

Mr. Twork just has to get a handle on who puts this stuff out, how it's vetted, and its transparency. A bit of work when he gets back from vacation, but will pay off in the end.

If the situation we saw yesterday arises, as I suspect, from two different functions not being in sync, it is something for the CEO to resolve.

This is the rankest speculation on my part, but I have suspected that Rawlinson's departure might have been due in at least some part to the continuing lack of inter-disciplinary coordination at Lucid outside the engineering group.

 

[borski]

@hmp10 now I know your trigger word, the button to push to get you to the keyboard/phone: tariffs.

It's right there with "minivan" for @borski.
His is a bit more complicated.
You have to mention the word in a thread he really likes.

 

[msaunders9430]

Don't know how legit this is but ... first GDE delivery next Wednesday?

https://www.reddit.com/r/LUCID/s/n4VXqPnJuD

 

[hmp10]

First G Gream is slated to be delivered EOM

https://www.reddit.com/r/LUCID/s/VoPhaHgq2W

Don't know how legit this is but ...

https://www.reddit.com/r/LUCID/s/n4VXqPnJuD

I think it's legit, if for no other reason than this post on that thread sounds very much like a reprise of the December 30 delivery of nine Gravities:

"Yeah, there is a lot of pressure being applied to make this delivery happen. I had to take off work and stuff because they REALLY need it to happen before 5/1. I asked if we could do it Saturday 5/3 but they said no."

It was also interesting that this car was apparently not matched to a particular customer at the time of manufacture. They had to call someone with a Dream order to see if he would be willing to take it as part of a publicity event.

The most heartening thing I've seen posted lately is this flyover video from yesterday. It's clear that the factory is now pumping out Gravities in fair numbers and, much to my relief, the Gravity Dreams won't be the very first cars produced at volume.

It's interesting, though, that as one commenter on the video pointed out, the Gravities are all missing the doors on the charge ports. Weird.

 

[msaunders9430]

I think it's legit, if for no other reason than this post on that thread sounds very much like a reprise of the December 30 delivery of nine Gravities:

"Yeah, there is a lot of pressure being applied to make this delivery happen. I had to take off work and stuff because they REALLY need it to happen before 5/1. I asked if we could do it Saturday 5/3 but they said no."

It was also interesting that this car was apparently not matched to a particular customer at the time of manufacture. They had to call someone with a Dream order to see if he would be willing to take it as part of a publicity event.

The most heartening thing I've seen posted lately is this flyover video from yesterday. It's clear that the factory is now pumping out Gravities in fair numbers and, much to my relief, the Gravity Dreams won't be the very first cars produced at volume.

Oh my bad.
I remember seeing the text of that earlier post from you, but I never made it back to tap on the link you provided. Got busy doing stuff.

 

[hmp10]

Oh my bad.
I remember seeing the text of that earlier post from you, but I never made it back to tap on the link you provided. Got busy doing stuff.

No worries, but it wasn't me who first posted either the link or the flyover video. I just put them here to illustrate the points of my post.