Lucid Air in Service Queue for 7 Weeks. What Does This Mean for Long-Term Ownership?

[gaskiller]

Lucid is making a big mistake by keeping a closed service center model without allowing independent shops to provide maintenance or repairs (e.g., access to parts). With their lack of investment into their ability to adequately service their vehicles, Lucid will be unsuccessful. In good conscience, I can’t recommend Lucid to anyone right now… and that’s sad given how early we were to champion the company and the Air.

I disagree, these are complex vehicles unfamiliar to a majority of car mechanics. You don’t trust such complex repairs to independent workshops. Body work, yes, but not battery/motor/software.

 

[gaskiller]

No way they triple their 2025 total sales in one year of Cosmos. If they do, the service delays of today will be looked back on fondly. Plus, the Rivian R2 has a likely 2 year head start and they will probably have the R3 out before Cosmos too.

R3 won’t come out for at least 3 more years. R2 ramp up will suck a lot of resources and they don’t want to cannibalize R2 sales .

 

[BS8899]

No way they triple their 2025 total sales in one year of Cosmos. If they do, the service delays of today will be looked back on fondly. Plus, the Rivian R2 has a likely 2 year head start and they will probably have the R3 out before Cosmos too.

I agree.

By the time Cosmos arrives in earnest, Lucid will be a couple of years behind Rivian and other $45,000 EVs. All the other competitors already have a much more extensive service infrastructure than Lucid.

 

[BS8899]

I disagree, these are complex vehicles unfamiliar to a majority of car mechanics. You don’t trust such complex repairs to independent workshops. Body work, yes, but not battery/motor/software.

Battery/motor/software, yes, Lucid should own those service items. But regular maintenance, fluids, wheel alignment, tires, 12V battery, tires, and many other mundane items can be serviced by Discount Tires. The current service backlog is a cancer to scaling Lucid's business.

 

[Aka-none]

I agree.

By the time Cosmos arrives in earnest, Lucid will be a couple of years behind Rivian and other $45,000 EVs. All the other competitors already have a much more extensive service infrastructure than Lucid.

That in itself doesn’t make them uncompetitive as first to market doesn’t mean first in sales.

 

[Northpointe]

I disagree, these are complex vehicles unfamiliar to a majority of car mechanics. You don’t trust such complex repairs to independent workshops. Body work, yes, but not battery/motor/software.

I generally agree. But it may be a matter of survival. If the goal is to attract new buyers to the brand it is a huge barrier. The service center I rely on (Scottsdale) supports 5 states. Fortunately I’m only 30 minutes away. But if I lived in any of those other states I would not buy a Lucid. And there’s ample evidence on this board and others of customers waiting inordinate amounts of time to have their vehicles serviced. You simply can’t pronounce the problem “fixed” and expect prospective buyers to roll the dice. My story has become a familiar one, love the car, can’t recommend the company. And that’s an endorsement Lucid can’t afford.

 

[Northpointe]

That in itself doesn’t make them uncompetitive as first to market doesn’t mean first in sales.

Correct. But it also means more choices for prospective buyers. And they’ll be comparing cars and companies.

 

[BS8899]

That in itself doesn’t make them uncompetitive as first to market doesn’t mean first in sales.

True, but a company that has a history of launching products that are "not-ready-for-prime-time", coupled with poor post-sales service, will have a tough sell.

Cosmos buyers are not your Lucid Air/Gravity buyers. Cosmos byers won't tolerate the kind of issues in Lucid's prior products and won't put up with the current service.

Can Napoli turn it around? Perhaps, but the clock is ticking. While I understand it takes Napoli et al to assess Lucid's ills and prescribe remedies, time is not on their side. I hope Napoli will come forth with clear action plans at his upcoming earnings call.

 

[pwelles]

I have a similar service disaster story, but piling on won’t be constructive at this point.

In one of my very many calls to Lucid service, a supervisor told me “90% of our owners have multiple vehicles”… well, I’m in the 10% club! I suspect that the 90% may have tolerated this disastrous situation to a degree, because they have another luxury car in their garage.

Cosmos buyers will likely fall into the single vehicle club, putting them out more if they run into the same issues as the Air/Gravity group.

2 more things, re: Rivian. I read that they studied the issues with service that Tesla had when their fleet expanded rapidly with the Model 3 introduction. Rivian apparently has made a big push to expand their service network to manage the R2 rollout.

I had another Lucid owner in my area comment to me “I heard all our local techs quit to go to work for Rivian because they pay a lot more, it’s a better work culture, and they have more confidence in the company”

The other point which has gone unmentioned here, is the amount of time I wasted trying to get a very benign, but Federally mandated safety issue, fixed on my car. The calls, the e-mails, calls with lawyers, etc. I have a friend who’s a corporate jet captain. He said to me once “the unglamorous part of my job is that for each hour I spend flying, I spend that much time if not more scheduling maintenance, inspections and dealing with FAA paperwork”. I didn’t lease a Citation jet, I leased a car.

 

[prgarg]

40k is a decent and a respectable number for Year 1. Still, it will take A LOT of discipline to get there without the kind of intro problems that the Air and Gravity encountered.

Unlike the Air/Gravity audience, the Cosmos buyers will be much less tolerant and forgiving, as they should be!

I actually estimated the total number of Lucids on the road to be 40k based on deliveries for the 5 years they have been selling the Air and the Gravity

 

[LucidPea]

it is a concern, the one in my area is very slow as well. I've just been lucky I've only had to visit the service center twice

 

[AZLucidGuy]

No way they triple their 2025 total sales in one year of Cosmos. If they do, the service delays of today will be looked back on fondly. Plus, the Rivian R2 has a likely 2 year head start and they will probably have the R3 out before Cosmos too.

Even if they sell 25K Cosmos in the first year, the current Lucid service infrastructure cannot handle it. While they are getting AMP-2 ready for Cosmos Lucid should be AGGRESSIVELY ramping up the number service centers and technicians to handle the current and anticipated additional cars in the fleet.

 

[Adnillien]

I believe that Lucid is trying to ramp up service quickly. I hear that there are many tech reqs that Lucid expects to fill soon. They are working to off load the lease return CPO cars from the service centers and add additional shifts at the service centers. We have heard of improvement in some service centers already and I expect that is being spread across the country. Silvio has been there nearly 6 months now so my patience wears thin as my car sits in service in Scottsdale. The current service situation is killing the Lucid brand and needs to be fixed quickly. Being and optimist, I believe that this is a top priority with Lucid.

 

[AZLucidGuy]

I believe that Lucid is trying to ramp up service quickly. I hear that there are many tech reqs that Lucid expects to fill soon. They are working to off load the lease return CPO cars from the service centers and add additional shifts at the service centers. We have heard of improvement in some service centers already and I expect that is being spread across the country. Silvio has been there nearly 6 months now so my patience wears thin as my car sits in service in Scottsdale. The current service situation is killing the Lucid brand and needs to be fixed quickly. Being and optimist, I believe that this is a top priority with Lucid.

I hope you are correct and I remain optimistic. I feel it is important to voice our stories here so that Lucid, if reading (which they should), are aware that the unacceptable Lucid service queue is top of mind from their customers. BTW, if your car is sitting in queue with mine at Scottsdale, I hope they are enjoying each others company.

 

[Adnillien]

I hope you are correct and I remain optimistic. I feel it is important to voice our stories here so that Lucid, if reading (which they should), are aware that the unacceptable Lucid service queue is top of mind from their customers. BTW, if your car is sitting in queue with mine at Scottsdale, I hope they are enjoying each others company.

After six weeks, my Gravity is being worked on. I did talk with some very senior people at Lucid about service so my optimism is based on their comments.