Hold out for the Gravity, or get something else?

[MoneyPit]

Huh? All he said is that your idea wouldn't sell. And thats completely true. I like wagons, and would like an Air wagon (not that stupid CC wagon thing, like volvo CC models), but doing that as their first model would be a great business plan only if your goal as a company was to go bankrupt as fast as possible.

I apologize if I misread the tone and let it get to me - caught me at a bad moment.

To clarify I didn't mean that as their first model, I meant from a manufacturing efficiency standpoint I was surprised they didn't introduce an elevated Air wagon (that they can market to Americans who will only buy wagons if we call them crossovers or SUVs) as a model in-between the Air launch and Gravity launch since it would allow for parts/assembly sharing.

I agree that true wagons are better than the "cross country" style but any Volvo dealer will tell you that those are basically the only wagons that sell. There's sadly a reason they discontinued the non-CC V60 and V90 in the US, aside from the Polestar V60 which they sell in such low quantities that I think they only bring over to appeal to random enthusiasts like us (I tried to buy one for a year and just gave up and moved on). Porsche's US product line also demonstrates this, the Taycan Sport Turismo is available overseas in all trims vs in the USA only in the GTS trim - yet the Cross Turismo is available here in every trim. Hey at least the M5 touring is coming stateside for power wagon lovers, right?

 

[segbrk]

I just found an old Lucid press release from November 15, 2022 in which Lucid said that the Gravity would "land" in 2024 and that reservations would open up in "early 2023".

https://ir.lucidmotors.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lucid-gravity-luxury-electric-suv-breathtaking-performance-and

It thus appears that at one point Lucid was planning to open reservations at least a year ahead of production start. I wonder why that changed?

The press release also said that Lucid was "currently finalizing the vehicle design and specifications". This was 20 months ago, and it's pretty much the same thing that is now being said in some of the "Road to Gravity" videos.

I'm wondering it was shortly after the 2022 press release that Lucid decided to go with essentially a new platform for the Gravity instead of the Air platform?

I think it's telling that some of the footage in the "Road to Gravity" series is from 2022-ish, showing the car looking pretty much the same as it does today. The series isn't just a current status report, it's documenting the road leading up to where we are now. It seems like most of what they're saying now is that the production is in the final stages of design and development, rather than the car itself. It sounds like they're entering the stage of real world testing and efficiency/safety certifications for the car, which means only some minor tweaks are left, not really design. In the recent interview Peter said they have built 80 models now in order to do that testing, work out bumps in production, and train staff.

 

[joec]

I think it's telling that some of the footage in the "Road to Gravity" series is from 2022-ish, showing the car looking pretty much the same as it does today. The series isn't just a current status report, it's documenting the road leading up to where we are now. It seems like most of what they're saying now is that the production is in the final stages of design and development, rather than the car itself. It sounds like they're entering the stage of real world testing and efficiency/safety certifications for the car, which means only some minor tweaks are left, not really design. In the recent interview Peter said they have built 80 models now in order to do that testing, work out bumps in production, and train staff.

Yes. There's hand-building a car at the Newark studio. And then there's getting the car ready for production at the factory in Arizona. Many tweaks and changes happen in between, I'm sure, in order for production to run smoothly at scale.

They had years to build the first one by hand. They have mere hours to build each one at the factory.

The team at the factory can request small alterations that will make things run smoothly on the line. Things the design team doesn't necessarily think about while building a one-off. Most are imperceptible to us, but they can save a ton of time on the line.

I was told when there's a conflict between what design wants and what production wants, the production team often gets told to "work around" it. (The charging port on the Air is a perfect example. No sane production manager would have wanted a free-floating charge panel aligned perfectly between three other panels. But they lost that battle.) If design won't budge, they have to come up with a creative solution for how to do it at scale. That takes some time, and it's a constantly evolving process. This is why panel alignments on newer Airs are much better now than they were in the first year of production. They've learned a ton from the experience of building more and more cars.

With Gravity, I think production had a bit more say in the early stages about some decisions. (Note the charge port.) Hopefully that means production will go more smoothly out of the gate this time around.

But to get back to the main point. There are two different "finalizing" stages, I suppose. First for the design of the car to be revealed to the public, and second to make it production-ready. It's possible Peter was talking about the first back in November.

 

[Adnillien]

I don't think any major platform change occurred between 2022 and now. As @joec points out there is now an experienced manufacturing team to provide production and manufacturing reviews. During the factory tour in January I was told about some of these manufacturing reviews. This related to how parts attached to each other and what configuration achieves perfect alignment with minimal labor. Or what attach process is even feasible given the available access during assembly. I can assure you that Steven David and the Casa Grande manufacturing team have had a lot more influence on Gravity than on Air. In fact, Steven was not even a Lucid for Air initial production. Some of the design changes were significant for a vehicle planned for production 10 months later. I think this effort is setting the schedule for Gravity.