How long before all GDEs are delivered?

[Ron_Burgundy]

The DE has no real differentiating factor except the HP which, as @borski mentioned is kind of hard to justify for most folks when it’s already insanely fast. That HP effectively costs $14,500 +/- more. Badging is worthless and you don’t really get it earlier.

It doesn’t even have the “get it first” premium as they’re making GTs at the same time, per the Lucid folks who are from CA HQ and were in Tysons yesterday. As long as you are good without he HUD, there’s probably a 50/50 chance you could get a “regular” GT before the majority of the DEs are delivered.

 

[hmp10]

The DE has no real differentiating factor except the HP which, as @borski mentioned is kind of hard to justify for most folks when it’s already insanely fast. That HP effectively costs $14,500 +/- more. Badging is worthless and you don’t really get it earlier.

You're right that the main difference in the DE and the GT lies in the 242hp bump. In fairness, though, that's a smaller premium to get that much more power (if it were even available) than you would pay in moving to an AMG, M Series, or RS version of competing German brands.

Also, the DE will come with more than just special badging (which I also agree is worthless). There will at least be a $650 charge cable thrown in. An interesting question is whether the Gravity DE will come with free periodic maintenance as did the Air DE. (I'm guessing not, but here's hoping.)

That aside, though, don't be too quick to discount the value to many drivers of that extra horsepower. Of course, there's no added torque offered, but even the GT torque is almost certainly beyond the traction limits of the tires, so there's no real advantage to having more. Nick Twork has already admitted that the DE's added power will only really be noticeable at higher speeds. But that's the point, at least for me.

I have driven Air GTs as loaners during a couple of stints while our Air Dream Performance was in the shop. No one could argue that the GT is underpowered by any sane standard. Nevertheless, the added power of the DE-P imparted a "friskiness" to the Air's throttle response from speed like nothing I have ever experienced in any other car -- and I have owned MB AMGs, a Corvette, and three Audi R8s (two of them V10s). Even our Tesla Model S Plaid did not have quite the high-end punch of the Air DE-P. So I, for one, view the $14,500 DE premium as worth every penny -- especially in a 6,000-pound car. I have no desire to drive 100 or even 90 miles per hour. But I have a lot of fun in cars playing around below that when conditions permit.

 

[Ron_Burgundy]

You're right that the main difference in the DE and the GT lies in the 242hp bump. In fairness, though, that's a smaller premium to get that much more power (if it were even available) than you would pay in moving to an AMG, M Series, or RS version of competing German brands.

Also, the DE will come with more than just special badging (which I also agree is worthless). There will at least be a $650 charge cable thrown in. An interesting question is whether the Gravity DE will come with free periodic maintenance as did the Air DE. (I'm guessing not, but here's hoping.)

That aside, though, don't be too quick to discount the value to many drivers of that extra horsepower. Of course, there's no added torque offered, but even the GT torque is almost certainly beyond the traction limits of the tires, so there's no real advantage to having more. Nick Twork has already admitted that the DE's added power will only really be noticeable at higher speeds. But that's the point, at least for me.

I have driven Air GTs as loaners during a couple of stints while our Air Dream Performance was in the shop. No one could argue that the GT is underpowered by any sane standard. Nevertheless, the added power of the DE-P imparted a "friskiness" to the Air's throttle response from speed like nothing I have ever experienced in any other car -- and I have owned MB AMGs, a Corvette, and three Audi R8s (two of them V10s). Even our Tesla Model S Plaid did not have quite the high-end punch of the Air DE-P. So I, for one, view the $14,500 DE premium as worth every penny -- especially in a 6,000-pound car. I have no desire to drive 100 or even 90 miles per hour. But I have a lot of fun in cars playing around below that when conditions permit.

I guess my “biggest” issue with the DE, and I do have an order for one, so I am arguing against myself, is it doesn’t get priority delivery.

I had VIN 475 of the P90D model X and we got priority for the premium. That’s actually all I wanted. That was my hope when I placed my DE order.

Horsepower is whatever. If other drivers valued it, you wouldn’t be able to get a DE seven months after they started trying to sell them. I am really surprised they couldn’t sell 450 of them in that timeframe. To your point, the tires can’t handle the torque at the “lower” GT level. But I get your point about higher speeds. I DO think some folks value it, but clearly not enough.

 

[hmp10]

I am really surprised they couldn’t sell 450 of them in that timeframe.

I was, too. However, I'm probably something of an outlier use case. A lifelong fan of performance cars, I'm now at a time of life where the compromises they have brought in terms of ingress/egress, long-distance seating comfort with a need to shift positions frequently, and the leisure time to do a lot of day-tripping with similarly-situated friends have reset my priorities.

Thus far I've dealt with it by the schizophrenic vehicle purchases that now sit in the garage: an Air Dream Performance at one end and a Honda Odyssey minivan at the other. I never expected to see a vehicle such as the Gravity come down the pike -- something with the handling and performance prowess of a top-flight sports sedan (Jason Cammisa would even say a pure sports car) and the room and comfort of a minivan.

For the more typical SUV buyer, the Gravity Dream Edition probably just seems to be pointless excess. For me, it's a dream come true.

 

[borski]

You're right that the main difference in the DE and the GT lies in the 242hp bump. In fairness, though, that's a smaller premium to get that much more power (if it were even available) than you would pay in moving to an AMG, M Series, or RS version of competing German brands.

Also, the DE will come with more than just special badging (which I also agree is worthless). There will at least be a $650 charge cable thrown in. An interesting question is whether the Gravity DE will come with free periodic maintenance as did the Air DE. (I'm guessing not, but here's hoping.)

That aside, though, don't be too quick to discount the value to many drivers of that extra horsepower. Of course, there's no added torque offered, but even the GT torque is almost certainly beyond the traction limits of the tires, so there's no real advantage to having more. Nick Twork has already admitted that the DE's added power will only really be noticeable at higher speeds. But that's the point, at least for me.

I have driven Air GTs as loaners during a couple of stints while our Air Dream Performance was in the shop. No one could argue that the GT is underpowered by any sane standard. Nevertheless, the added power of the DE-P imparted a "friskiness" to the Air's throttle response from speed like nothing I have ever experienced in any other car -- and I have owned MB AMGs, a Corvette, and three Audi R8s (two of them V10s). Even our Tesla Model S Plaid did not have quite the high-end punch of the Air DE-P. So I, for one, view the $14,500 DE premium as worth every penny -- especially in a 6,000-pound car. I have no desire to drive 100 or even 90 miles per hour. But I have a lot of fun in cars playing around below that when conditions permit.

What he said. Couldn’t have written it better myself.

 

[Californias Best]

You're right that the main difference in the DE and the GT lies in the 242hp bump. In fairness, though, that's a smaller premium to get that much more power (if it were even available) than you would pay in moving to an AMG, M Series, or RS version of competing German brands.

Also, the DE will come with more than just special badging (which I also agree is worthless). There will at least be a $650 charge cable thrown in. An interesting question is whether the Gravity DE will come with free periodic maintenance as did the Air DE. (I'm guessing not, but here's hoping.)

That aside, though, don't be too quick to discount the value to many drivers of that extra horsepower. Of course, there's no added torque offered, but even the GT torque is almost certainly beyond the traction limits of the tires, so there's no real advantage to having more. Nick Twork has already admitted that the DE's added power will only really be noticeable at higher speeds. But that's the point, at least for me.

I have driven Air GTs as loaners during a couple of stints while our Air Dream Performance was in the shop. No one could argue that the GT is underpowered by any sane standard. Nevertheless, the added power of the DE-P imparted a "friskiness" to the Air's throttle response from speed like nothing I have ever experienced in any other car -- and I have owned MB AMGs, a Corvette, and three Audi R8s (two of them V10s). Even our Tesla Model S Plaid did not have quite the high-end punch of the Air DE-P. So I, for one, view the $14,500 DE premium as worth every penny -- especially in a 6,000-pound car. I have no desire to drive 100 or even 90 miles per hour. But I have a lot of fun in cars playing around below that when conditions permit.

As an Air DE-P owner, I agree with this. There’s definitely a very very noticeable difference having the dream performance compared the GT. It was a no brainer for me to get the Gravity DE once I knew that was an option.

 

[boydracing]

between the comments of 'hmp10' and 'Californias Best' - take my money!
The only challenge, if anyone has advice or resolved it, is getting someone to validate the VIN in Arizona before or during the delivery in Scottsdale, AZ to be registered in Utah. The TC-661 is the magic form. This might help someone else as well.
I now sit back down waiting for the simple things in life - my oatmeal in the morning and my VIN to my Gravity DE. The waiting game.

 

[TahoeMichael]

You're right that the main difference in the DE and the GT lies in the 242hp bump. In fairness, though, that's a smaller premium to get that much more power (if it were even available) than you would pay in moving to an AMG, M Series, or RS version of competing German brands.

Also, the DE will come with more than just special badging (which I also agree is worthless). There will at least be a $650 charge cable thrown in. An interesting question is whether the Gravity DE will come with free periodic maintenance as did the Air DE. (I'm guessing not, but here's hoping.)

That aside, though, don't be too quick to discount the value to many drivers of that extra horsepower. Of course, there's no added torque offered, but even the GT torque is almost certainly beyond the traction limits of the tires, so there's no real advantage to having more. Nick Twork has already admitted that the DE's added power will only really be noticeable at higher speeds. But that's the point, at least for me.

I have driven Air GTs as loaners during a couple of stints while our Air Dream Performance was in the shop. No one could argue that the GT is underpowered by any sane standard. Nevertheless, the added power of the DE-P imparted a "friskiness" to the Air's throttle response from speed like nothing I have ever experienced in any other car -- and I have owned MB AMGs, a Corvette, and three Audi R8s (two of them V10s). Even our Tesla Model S Plaid did not have quite the high-end punch of the Air DE-P. So I, for one, view the $14,500 DE premium as worth every penny -- especially in a 6,000-pound car. I have no desire to drive 100 or even 90 miles per hour. But I have a lot of fun in cars playing around below that when conditions permit.

Geeze, shut the heck up! You're talking me in to grabbing one of the remaining DE orders!

 

[Batteryman]

I talked to someone in corporate Sales yesterday who said only five GDE's have been delivered so far. He did tell me that one of our GDE orders now has a pre-VIN which he said meant it was scheduled for the next batch of builds. He did not know what that meant in terms of when it would enter production or what delivery windows might be. He also did not know when the pre-VIN notification was added to the account or why my SA had not let me know.

Are SA supposed to tell you pre-VIN as been assigned? I don’t think any manufacturer does that.

 

[Batteryman]

I suppose we have to agree to disagree on the OS/software. I’m not talking about design wise or how aesthetically it looks. I’m just saying it just works and without any lag time. I’ve owned plenty of EVs and ICE vehicles where they relied on screens and it’s just did not meet the smoothness, quickness and dependability as Teslas. I’m sure others will eventually get there. My test drive with the Gravity the other day proved my point to me. My CyberTruck was so much smoother and quicker. Now, the Gravity is leaps ahead of the Air that I had.

Yes I believe in competition. Unlike you, I think Tesla’s CEO has done an amazing job with the company in a sector that didn’t exist just 15 years ago. Now, I do believe after current events that Tesla needs to start associating themselves as company can survive without the CEO at the helm. They are too intertwined. Making customers and investors think one cannot survive without the other.

As for the VIN, you made a good point. The first few digits and letters are the same coming from the same manufacturer. So, what my SA mentioned was correct that I have a partial VIN number. I don’t blame him though. He’s doing his job to ease the impatience of eager customers wanting their Gravity. Just have to be patient and hope it’s here sooner than later.

Agree, Tesla software very responsive……even the app has no lag time…..wondering why other manufacturers, including Lucid, are struggling with this.

 

[hmp10]

Are SA supposed to tell you pre-VIN as been assigned? I don’t think any manufacturer does that.

I don't know what they're supposed to do. I just know what this one did. I have found that the information you get -- and its accuracy -- varies widely between SA's. An SA at corporate sales told me about the pre-VIN. When I later found the actual VIN on the Lucid website I happened to notice that the delivery address for my orders was incorrect. So I called the SA assigned to me to correct the address. He didn't even know a VIN had been issued and that the car was in production.

My impression is that there are very few "official" procedures at Lucid regarding order processing and communication. We have seen posts on this forum about pro formas arriving at varying stages of orders, about some people getting update calls from their SA's about VINs and others hearing nothing, wildly different takes on time between VIN assignment and delivery, etc.

 

[TahoeMichael]

Agree, Tesla software very responsive……even the app has no lag time…..wondering why other manufacturers, including Lucid, are struggling with this.

It's a problem of different expertise being required. Traditionally, car companies are good at producing real-time software that's highly reliable, but usually doesn't have a lot of features, nor is it easily modifiable. That works in part because each subsystem in a car usually had a small embedded controller just for that. But the market has shifted, and now people want software that's chock full of features and frequently updated. Plus the manufacturers are trying to save costs by moving to a single (or smaller number of) larger computer that does everything. That changes just about everything about the software architecture, even down to the language picked to program in and the operating system on the computer. Making the switch isn't exactly rocket science, but it requires senior managers (who typically don't understand why it's a problem) hiring a team with pretty different expertise. And often paying them a lot more than they're used to in labor costs. The industry now broadly understands that change is required, but it takes a while to do. From what I hear in my network, mass layoffs by traditional tech companies have lately eased the hiring process at auto companies, although embedded systems expertise isn't what most large tech companies are shedding.