Lucid Air Spotting on Road Trip

[hmp10]

We just finished a 1961-mile road trip in our Air through Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. This is entirely anecdotal, but our impression was that Lucid's aggressive lease and sales deals might finally really be getting these cars on the road and visible to the driving public.

There were way too many Teslas even to try to count, of course. But here was the surprise in sighting numbers:

Rivian - 2 (1 R1T and 1 R1S)
MB EQS - 2 (1 sedan and 1 SUV)
Porsche Taycan - 0

-- and --

Lucid Air - 8!

We had several people ask us about the car, including one who flagged us down in a parking lot and one who tailgated us on I-75 then pulled alongside and lowered his window to shout questions at us. (That was a bit hairy.)

 

[Buffalo Bob]

Wow! AND Yikes!

 

[DeaneG]

I'm starting to see them on a regular basis in my hometown too. No longer a rare bird. It does seem that the lease deals made a huge difference, as well as just the passing of time to accumulate delivered vehicles to customers.

 

[sxates]

Interesting how different areas see different counts of vehicles like this. I'm in the Bay Area and see a dozen Rivians per day. Lots of MB's and even a fair number of Taycans. I probably average 0-1 Lucids per day, driving about 50 miles.

 

[HC_79]

Interesting how different areas see different counts of vehicles like this. I'm in the Bay Area and see a dozen Rivians per day. Lots of MB's and even a fair number of Taycans. I probably average 0-1 Lucids per day, driving about 50 miles.

Yeah, the Bay Area seems to have Rivians everywhere. More are about to show up as they’re offering a discount to Google Employees at the moment.

 

[Neurio]

I saw 2 Airs today, which ties a record for me locally. One was parked on the street and the other I saw at EA when I made a brief charge tonight. Turns out the 2nd one lives about 5-10 minutes from me. Small world.

 

[xponents]

I saw 2 Airs today, which ties a record for me locally. One was parked on the street and the other I saw at EA when I made a brief charge tonight. Turns out the 2nd one lives about 5-10 minutes from me. Small world.

My experience almost mirrors yours. My record for Air's in one day is three, and there are two in a 2 mile radius from me (a SW GT and a ZR Pure). However, I'd say I see only 1 Air every month. On the contrary, Rivian's are relatively common, with me seeing 1 a day at least. Considering that even Fiskers (which is hilarious to me) and Hummers are more common than Lucid's here, I'm inclined to say that my community prefers SUVs by far (although strangely enough, we've only seen one EV9 here in the past 6 months).

When Gravity comes, things will get really interesting. I'm curious to see whether it becomes common in my town, and I also wonder if it will be more popular than the R1S (yes, the Gravity is far better for a family, but some might sadly be drawn to the more truck-ish appearance of the Rivian)!

 

[hmp10]

My experience almost mirrors yours. My record for Air's in one day is three, and there are two in a 2 mile radius from me (a SW GT and a ZR Pure). However, I'd say I see only 1 Air every month. On the contrary, Rivian's are relatively common, with me seeing 1 a day at least. Considering that even Fiskers (which is hilarious to me) and Hummers are more common than Lucid's here, I'm inclined to say that my community prefers SUVs by far (although strangely enough, we've only seen one EV9 here in the past 6 months).

When Gravity comes, things will get really interesting. I'm curious to see whether it becomes common in my town, and I also wonder if it will be more popular than the R1S (yes, the Gravity is far better for a family, but some might sadly be drawn to the more truck-ish appearance of the Rivian)!

There's a lot of regionality to this.

My partner and I have been having a running argument. When I told him that Lucid Airs were outselling EQS's and Porsche Taycans in the U.S., he argued that could not be true because he was seeing more EQS's in Naples than Airs. While that is not my experience, EQS sightings do happen around here often enough. (So do Rivian sightings and even some Taycans.)

So, when we were beginning our road trip, he offered me a bet that we would see more EQS's on the road than Airs. I took him up on it . . . and you saw the results. (He hasn't yet paid, though.)

 

[hmp10]

Interesting how different areas see different counts of vehicles like this.

Yes, it is.

One of the things I found interesting is that our Lucid count was over four states (although all in the southeast). One should also consider that these Lucid sightings were mostly on interstate highways and charging stations along interstates, which means seeing a goodly number of out-of-region vehicles.

I'm wondering if the Lucid's range means relatively more owners attempt long road trips in them than do owners of Rivians and other shorter-range EVs?

We have long since quit worrying about how we drive on long trips. We drive the Lucid just like any ICE vehicle we have owned, which means cruising around 80-85 mph with occasional bursts higher to break out of traffic clusters. And we can do this for three hours on pretty much any road without using more than 70% of the battery. (We usually charge up to 95% on a highway trip and always plan a charging stop somewhere around 25% charge remaining to minimize the risk of an out-of-service station.)

 

[Buffalo Bob]

Yes, it is.

One of the things I found interesting is that our Lucid count was over four states (although all in the southeast). One should also consider that these Lucid sightings were mostly on interstate highways and charging stations along interstates, which means seeing a goodly number of out-of-region vehicles.

I'm wondering if the Lucid's range means relatively more owners attempt long road trips in them than do owners of Rivians and other shorter-range EVs?

We have long since quit worrying about how we drive on long trips. We drive the Lucid just like any ICE vehicle we have owned, which means cruising around 80-85 mph with occasional bursts higher to break out of traffic clusters. And we can do this for three hours on pretty much any road without using more than 70% of the battery. (We usually charge up to 95% on a highway trip and always plan a charging stop somewhere around 25% charge remaining to minimize the risk of an out-of-service station.)

I think you hit the nail on the head. This being our first EV, we never contemplated that we would be taking one on a 3,000+ mile road trip, but it was a blast! Now, we are coming to realize the benefits that come with just taking our time. We drove around 125 miles from north of Seattle to Olympia earlier this week, which is fairly flat given that it hugs Puget Sound, and keeping our speed to a max of 65 MPH got us 4.5 miles/kWh. It was a temperate day, but with the A/C on, and the extra driving time would have been pretty much offset by the reduced charging time... but of course we didn't have to charge at all. Fun to get to get to that level of performance.

 

[dcr33313]

To add to the regionality, here is South Florida I see more Taycans than any of these other models, followed by Rivians, then EQS’s. And I see about 3-4x as many Taycans as E-Tron GTs. The most Lucids I’ve seen in a day is 3, with 2 of them being 30 seconds apart near the same intersection. I just went on a work trip and a white Air with stealth and a glass roof was parked right across from me at the airport garage. A nice coincidence in a huge garage.

 

[DeaneG]

In the Bay Area south of San Francisco, it's Rivian first with a dozen or more per day, EQS and Taycan second with several per day, then Lucid with 0-2 per day.