Lightship

[brianman]

I'm curious if the Lucid Gravity (DE) is viable for towing a Lightship.

Copilot has this to say to "can you tow with Rivian R1S?":

Yes! The Rivian R1S has a maximum towing capacity of 7,700 lbs when using a weight-distributing hitch. Without one, the towing limit drops to 5,000 lbs.

Since the Lightship AE.1 Cosmos Edition is designed for most EV trucks with an upgraded tow package, the R1S should be compatible, but it's always best to check your specific model's towing specs and requirements.

And then about "what about a Lucid Gravity?":

Yes! The Lucid Gravity has a towing capacity of up to 6,000 lbs2. This means it should be compatible with towing the Lightship AE.1 Cosmos Edition, but it's always best to check your specific model's towing specs and requirements.

The Gravity also features Tow Mode and vehicle-control software that helps manage trailer behavior. If you're considering towing with an EV, factors like range impact and charging accessibility are worth keeping in mind.

Thoughts, opinions, recommendations? Thanks.

 

[knewman]

I queried Copilot to draft a response to your post:

Great question! Given the Lucid Gravity’s towing capacity of up to 6,000 lbs, it appears viable for towing the Lightship AE.1 Cosmos Edition, which is designed for EV trucks with an upgraded tow package. Additionally, features like Tow Mode and vehicle-control software should help ensure a smoother towing experience.

That said, it's always worth checking your specific Gravity model’s towing specs and requirements to ensure compatibility. Another key consideration is how towing impacts range, especially on longer trips—factors like aerodynamics, terrain, and charging accessibility can all play a role.

Have you come across any firsthand experiences of towing with the Gravity? It’d be interesting to hear how real-world performance holds up!

 

[brianman]

Yeah, what Copilot told me was unsatisfying, hence asking here where informed people might have useful info.

 

[TahoeMichael]

No, the Lightship is too much for the Gravity to tow. The Lightship website lists the dry weight at 7450 lbs, and gross weight as 8300 lbs. That means even a completely empty trailer exceeds the Gravity's rated towing capacity by 1450 lbs, and by more than a ton once you've loaded it up. While there's always a little safety margin in the towing figures, I'd consider it incredibly reckless and dangerous to overload a vehicle's towing capacity by such a large amount.

The Lightship team seems to be explicitly targeting EV pickup trucks as tow vehicles, and is making little effort to target EV SUVs. The SUVs pose a real challenge for powered trailers like this, because adding the weight of a drive train and batteries to a trailer to get a long range boost is fundamentally also adding a lot of mass, and thus making it hard for smaller EVs to cope with the forces that towing puts onto the tow vehicle.