Ground clearance?

[SDHacker]

Now that some deliveries are being made to forum members, can we get someone to measure ground clearance? I live on a lot cut into the slope of a hill so my driveway entrance has a hump. My neighbor had to have his driveway ground down so his BMW wouldn't scrape. Too low and it would be a deal breaker for me and I'd have to wait for either a sedan with air suspension that allows raising the ride height or a SUV. While I find the Air attractive, I don't feel the same with Project Gravity. Thanks.

 

[hmp10]

If your slope continues beyond the hump, you might also need to find out attack angle. This is something that a Lucid sales rep might be able to give you . . . if you can wait several weeks for the answer.

 

[St Bernard]

Now that some deliveries are being made to forum members, can we get someone to measure ground clearance? I live on a lot cut into the slope of a hill so my driveway entrance has a hump. My neighbor had to have his driveway ground down so his BMW wouldn't scrape. Too low and it would be a deal breaker for me and I'd have to wait for either a sedan with air suspension that allows raising the ride height or a SUV. While I find the Air attractive, I don't feel the same with Project Gravity. Thanks.
I have been trying for a year to get the ground height measurement. RIVIAN will not release that number. I cancelled my original 9/20 reservation after not being able to get the info. I called again this week and was told they don’t have the info. I asked the person on the phone if he could measure a car and call me back. He said he cannot do that. No publication has the info. Very strange! I have moved on now and purchased a Porsche Taycan.

 

[Ovfitbob]

Lucid is not being forthcoming with their information which is a downer for me. I’m also considering the Tycan cross turismo 4.
At least on the Porsche website, I can configure whatever options I want and it’ll show me the total price on the summary page

 

[Lucken]

Our community has multiple speed humps and this too is of interest to me. When you look at the front clearance, at least as presented in pictures, it does look quite minimal. Of course here in the NE we also get snow which could be problematic too.

 

[dawktah LucidGT]

Now that some deliveries are being made to forum members, can we get someone to measure ground clearance? I live on a lot cut into the slope of a hill so my driveway entrance has a hump. My neighbor had to have his driveway ground down so his BMW wouldn't scrape. Too low and it would be a deal breaker for me and I'd have to wait for either a sedan with air suspension that allows raising the ride height or a SUV. While I find the Air attractive, I don't feel the same with Project Gravity. Thanks.

Keep in mind that's a prototype. I think the final version will be very nice.

Lucid is not being forthcoming with their information which is a downer for me. I’m also considering the Tycan cross turismo 4.
At least on the Porsche website, I can configure whatever options I want and it’ll show me the total price on the summary page

I have been amazed at how poorly their website has been constructed from the beginning. A Splash Page?
C'mon

 

[DJ@SJ]

I had a chat with a gentleman named Travis Johnson at Valley Fair Mall. He sent me a follow up email with an answer on ground clearance. As he seemed to indicate that ground clearance was related to the type of wheels, I specifically asked about AGT with 19" wheels.

Q: What is the ground clearance for the sedan with 19” wheels?
A: 4.9” ground clearance with 19” wheels

 

[FirstEV]

I had a chat with a gentleman named Travis Johnson at Valley Fair Mall. He sent me a follow up email with an answer on ground clearance. As he seemed to indicate that ground clearance was related to the type of wheels, I specifically asked about AGT with 19" wheels.

Q: What is the ground clearance for the sedan with 19” wheels?
A: 4.9” ground clearance with 19” wheels

I was told the 21" gives you 1/2" more clearance.

 

[DJ@SJ]

I was told the 21" gives you 1/2" more clearance.

Hmm, now I wonder how this difference comes about? I hope the answer is that suspension is adjusted to extend 1/2" lower for 21" wheels. Otherwise, it implies that mounting a 21" wheel would produce an overall tire diameter that is 1" greater than a 19" wheel. And it opens up all kinds of questions on odometer readings, and by extension, battery range. Does the car know what type of wheels are present?

 

[Bill55]

That's accurate for the 21's it's about 5.5".
My driveway I had to approach at an angle for a 911Turbo (no lift) to avoid scraping a little. The Lucid has no issues.
The Lucid overhangs are pretty short so that helps. Driving around San Diego where there are lots of hills and speed bumps, I've not had any issues.
M5 is a good compare. 5" clearance, except I think the M5 overhang is longer.

 

[Alex]

Hmm, now I wonder how this difference comes about? I hope the answer is that suspension is adjusted to extend 1/2" lower for 21" wheels. Otherwise, it implies that mounting a 21" wheel would produce an overall tire diameter that is 1" greater than a 19" wheel. And it opens up all kinds of questions on odometer readings, and by extension, battery range. Does the car know what type of wheels are present?

There is no mechanism currently in the car to specify the type of wheels/tires that are installed. If the tire diameter is different between 19" and 21" tires, then there should be a way to specify it. Also, there is no mechanism currently to adjust the suspension hight. So if someone wanted to switch tire size, then this would have to be done at a service center where they could possibly do these adjustments. I can see that when approaching a sloped driveway at an angle, there would be more "clearance" with the wider 21" tires, since they would engage the driveway sooner, but otherwise I don't know how they could have more clearance.

Given all that, the Vehicle Manual lists ground clearance as 126mm for 19" and 136mm for 21" and correspondingly the departure angles are different too (see attached file)

 

[SaratogaLefty]

There is no mechanism currently in the car to specify the type of wheels/tires that are installed. If the tire diameter is different between 19" and 21" tires, then there should be a way to specify it. Also, there is no mechanism currently to adjust the suspension hight. So if someone wanted to switch tire size, then this would have to be done at a service center where they could possibly do these adjustments. I can see that when approaching a sloped driveway at an angle, there would be more "clearance" with the wider 21" tires, since they would engage the driveway sooner, but otherwise I don't know how they could have more clearance.

Given all that, the Vehicle Manual lists ground clearance as 126mm for 19" and 136mm for 21" and correspondingly the departure angles are different too (see attached file)

So that implies that the car's instruments (odometer, speedometer, etc.) are all calibrated for the difference.

 

[Bill55]

Yes. Open the driver door there will be a sticker with the tires and reccomended pressures for the tires shipped on the car.

 

[Alex]

So that implies that the car's instruments (odometer, speedometer, etc.) are all calibrated for the difference.

I have the 19" wheels and since my car was in the service center, I asked to purchase the 21" Dream wheels. They proceeded to tell me they could install them for me, but I really just wanted the wheels for the summer season and didn't want them installed now. The way they were talking almost made me feel like it was something special they had to do – or maybe they were just trying to be helpful. They also told me that currently the 21" DE wheels were missing the aero caps and they would check into when those would be available (or they could mail them to me). They did offer the 21" GT wheels, which were available now.

 

[SaratogaLefty]

I have the 19" wheels and since my car was in the service center, I asked to purchase the 21" Dream wheels. They proceeded to tell me they could install them for me, but I really just wanted the wheels to for the summer season and didn't want them installed now. The way they were talking almost made me feel like it was something special they had to do – or maybe they were just trying to be helpful. They also told me that currently the 21" DE wheels were missing the aero caps and they would check into when those would be available (or they could mail them to me). They did offer the 21" GT wheels, which were available now.

Well I hope the missing aero caps aren't the "fit and finish" item(s) that is holding up my Dream Edition!! I'm thinking I will remove them for most of my driving anyway as I think the car looks better without them.

 

[DJ@SJ]

I have the 19" wheels and since my car was in the service center, I asked to purchase the 21" Dream wheels. They proceeded to tell me they could install them for me, but I really just wanted the wheels for the summer season and didn't want them installed now. The way they were talking almost made me feel like it was something special they had to do – or maybe they were just trying to be helpful. They also told me that currently the 21" DE wheels were missing the aero caps and they would check into when those would be available (or they could mail them to me). They did offer the 21" GT wheels, which were available now.

I can imagine that due to less give by the low profile tire mounted on the 21" wheel in comparison with the 19" wheel version, they need to extend the suspension (or mount point) 10mm lower to compensate. If this interpretation is correct, then one implication is that one should not swap different wheels at home or with a random local workshop.

I suppose this 10mm difference in ground clearance could contribute to a non trivial portion of the battery range difference as well.

 

[Bill55]

We are talking about a 2% difference in rotations per mile. If you had 21' the 19' would indicate 1.2 MPH higher at 60mph. It's not that significant.

 

[DJ@SJ]

We are talking about a 2% difference in rotations per mile. If you had 21' the 19' would indicate 1.2 MPH higher at 60mph. It's not that significant.

It's actually about 3.3%. I was too lazy to look up the specific tire diameter, so I just assumed a 24" value, which is about 610mm. 10mm*2/610mm=0.033

My musing about battery range was because I didn't know there was a ground clearance difference depending on the wheel size. I always thought the range difference between 19" and 21" wheels to be a bit "significant". Given the 126mm vs 136mm difference, I imagine the higher ground clearance would lead to a higher drag and thus some meaningful range reduction.

 

[Bill55]

I used a tire size comparison tool and entered the 21" and the 19" OEM tire. https://www.discounttire.com/learn/tire-size-calculator.

We know the range is reduced on the 21. My point is if you want to switch back and forth it is not a problem.

 

[SaratogaLefty]

Not sure if this is relevant but when Tom did the Range test on the Dream with 19" wheels he did a speedometer check using multiple GPS readings. He found to actually drive at 70 mph he had to set the cruise to 72.