Lucid Air Pure: The Real Tesla Fighter! - MKBHD - Auto Focus Review

[hmp10]

Although there are various arguments for charging above 80% (perhaps allowing for non local zip codes), there is no excuse for having completed your charge and letting your car sit while there is a line waiting. Recently, I waited over thirty minutes all the while noting a mini-cooper on idle. Even when the owner came back, he did not look apologetic or even sheepish - if anything he scowled at the people in line waiting for him to disconnect. Idle fees should be significant after 5 minutes…

Totally agree about idle fees. Even if you have a legitimate reason for charging to a high SOC, you should be diligent about not tying up chargers any longer than necessary.

 

[borski]

I still see people hitting the fill trigger on the gas hose again and again to "top-off the tank"

… but I need to make it end in .00

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

… but I need to make it end in .00

people who still pay with cash ... used to think "woe be to them"
Yesterday I found myself at the gas station with an empty mower tank and no valid cards.
I had to pre-pay with a sawbuck...(interact with a human)
... then watched as the counter slowed, slowed more, then stopped exactly at $10.00.

This kind of moment triggers flashbacks in men of a certain age.

 

[hmp10]

… but I need to make it end in .00

OCD sufferers of the world, UNITE!

 

[jbawden]

Not sure if you just worded your initial statement poorly because even when I read it I was surprised with the insinuation you made about the lack of charging infrastructure in the Bay Area. The Bay Area has ample charging locations but whether those chargers are available when you need them is a different story. My recent trip to the Bay Area was frustrating not due to the lack of charging locations but they were all full, even the 20 station EA location. On that front, yes... Tesla definitely hss the advantage on charger availability.

What even annoyed me more at that 20 station EA location was when I finally managed to get in to charge I took a walk around and 9 cars were sitting above 90% SoC and they were all in on going to 100%. This is the real problem and probably why a majority of the EA chargers everywhere are constantly full.

I live in the bay area, have a home charger, and my wife (primary Air driver) charges at work. We're 4 years into EV ownership, so not newbs and I'm NOT complaining about charging in the bay area metro. It's specifically on longer trips that it becomes a minor issue. I'm not saying its insurmountable, just in my experience characterizing the northbound drive on 5 or 101 on Sunday night as stop wherever/whenever is pure fallacy. Again, this is life in an EV, but it's important to me to be honest about the EV life and how its different than ICE, even in CA.

 

[Pragmatic]

Here in the southeast, where CCS chargers are more sparse than on the west coast and where EA chargers are often malfunctioning, one is well-advised to get as much margin on range as possible in case there are problems with the next planned charging stop and an alternative has to be sought.

How many chargers would be enough? There are over 40 non-EA CCS stations in FL alone each with more than 4 stalls rated at over 150kW per stall. Add in the over 40 EA stations also with over 4 stalls rated at 150kW or greater gives almost 100 stations. Georgia seems almost as dense.

If EA or any other supplier imposed an 80% charging limit in this part of the country, we would cease to use our Air for road trips.

Why would not drive what you want, just because electric charging is limited (likely not cut off just higher costs incurred) in order to lessen wait times at charging stations?

 

[borski]

I live in the bay area, have a home charger, and my wife (primary Air driver) charges at work. We're 4 years into EV ownership, so not newbs and I'm NOT complaining about charging in the bay area metro. It's specifically on longer trips that it becomes a minor issue. I'm not saying its insurmountable, just in my experience characterizing the northbound drive on 5 or 101 on Sunday night as stop wherever/whenever is pure fallacy. Again, this is life in an EV, but it's important to me to be honest about the EV life and how its different than ICE, even in CA.

I’m not trying to argue with you, I’m just honestly confused; “stop wherever/whenever” is literally how I travel up and down CA, which I do at least once a month or two.

If I search PlugShare and limit to only 150kW+, with a PlugScore of at least 7:

I’m not sure what you are specifically referring to as “bay area metro,” but I’m going to assume it’s anything north of Monterey/Salinas, as there is no shortage of chargers there.

Okay; so let’s go south. I don’t see a highway that doesn’t have a bunch of chargers.

The US-101 has 17 charging stations between Monterey and LA.
The I-5 has 12 charging stations between Stockton and LA.
The CA-99 has 7 charging stations between Fresno and LA.

And then of course once you’re in LA, you’re golden:

And as an important reminder: these are only stations with a score of 7 or above. So not only is there a lot of charging, there is a lot of good charging, specifically.

That’s why I’m confused. I have never had any issue finding a charger going up and down CA. If you lived in Kansas, sure, I’d not be debating. But CA? That I genuinely don’t understand.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

It’s only LA that the charging situation sucks as they’re usually either occupied or broken or both.

 

[borski]

It’s only LA that the charging situation sucks as they’re usually either occupied or broken or both.

There are so many chargers, surely it's not that hard to pick a highly-rated one on PlugShare, and if it is occupied just drive to another? But yeah, within a city I'm less concerned; there are so many chargers people will generally be fine.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Yeah I was fine there last year, found an EVGo at a gas station that actually worked and it was expensive and out of the way but it’s not like I got stranded (it was a Polestar 2 so not as easy to skip to the next charger, a MAJOR benefit of Lucid), but I did find that the DCFC that were working with a good PlugShare rating usually did have a wait. This just means that EVs are popular in LA, which is a good thing, but also means DCFC manufacturers aren’t able to keep up, and the city doesn’t have enough L2 options. Again maybe that’s due to popularity, but for comparison in Montreal you’d have to work hard to NOT find a place to charge, and EVs were just as ubiquitous there as LA. That’s an issue for governments and charger manufacturers though here, not the fault of any auto maker. I’m just glad I have a Lucid so don’t need to stress about charging as much as lower range EVs. Like yeah the new Taycan charges faster and can actually go further than Lucid if you only use the lower half of the battery pack and charge for 15 min, but if you drive that way then you can’t skip to another charger if you come across a bad site. So I still think Lucid beats everyone else.

 

[hmp10]

How many chargers would be enough? There are over 40 non-EA CCS stations in FL alone each with more than 4 stalls rated at over 150kW per stall. Add in the over 40 EA stations also with over 4 stalls rated at 150kW or greater gives almost 100 stations. Georgia seems almost as dense.

Leaving aside the question of whether stations are working, the great majority of these stations are along major routes, mostly interstates. One of the trips we sometimes make is from Florida to Auburn, Alabama. Once you leave I-75 to cut across the back country northwest to Alabama, charging stations all but disappear. We plan a charging stop at the point nearest our departure from I-75 in order to make it to Auburn o a single charge, and if that station is out of service we have to add hours to the trip to travel up to central Georgia and then cut over due west, meaning not only many more road miles but at least one additional charging stop.

A similar situation plays out on another route we frequent from Asheville to Blowing Rock in North Carolina. Same with my brother who owns a Tesla in Atlanta but finds weekend trips into the northwestern Georgia mountains where he used to live to be a dicey charging proposition even with the Supercharger network.

I wonder how much comfort ICE drivers would have about road tripping if they were told there are over 40 non-Mobil gas stations in Florida.

Why would not drive what you want, just because electric charging is limited (likely not cut off just higher costs incurred) in order to lessen wait times at charging stations?

As I've posted several times before, wait times don't particularly bother me on a road trip. I view them as a more than fair trade for all the gas fill-ups I avoid for the great bulk of my driving, which is local.

The issue is arriving at a station to find it either completely down (which has happened to us in Charleston, SC and near Savannah, GA with Electrify America and in Naples and Ft. Myers, FL with ChargePoint), or with the site open but failing to respond to logins, shutting down charging prematurely, or charging at Level 2 speeds.

 

[LucidDropkick]

I live in the bay area, have a home charger, and my wife (primary Air driver) charges at work. We're 4 years into EV ownership, so not newbs and I'm NOT complaining about charging in the bay area metro. It's specifically on longer trips that it becomes a minor issue. I'm not saying its insurmountable, just in my experience characterizing the northbound drive on 5 or 101 on Sunday night as stop wherever/whenever is pure fallacy. Again, this is life in an EV, but it's important to me to be honest about the EV life and how its different than ICE, even in CA.

I have lived in the Bay Area all my life, I own one of the first batch of the Grand Tourings made, have 30,000 miles racked up, and have made countless trips up and down California, including LA and San Diego. Not once have I been stressed by charging.

My dad also owns one of the first 10 Fathom Blue Pures ever made. He literally drove it across the country and back, and he said he only had one bad charging incident.

"Stop wherever/whenever" is absolutely a thing in 5 and 101. It sounds to me like you still have range anxiety despite how long you've been an EV owner and that's okay, but to call it a "fallacy" feels borderline like you projecting that range anxiety onto others.