Lucid cold weather performance as bad as Tesla

[tmilone103]

Sunday night I charged to 100% = 469 MIles displayed on my AGT with 21" wheels.

Weather has been roughly 15-40 degrees over the past several days. My normal daily drive is only around 35 miles total. I ran the defrost approximately 15 minutes a day to clear the frost and kept cabin at 72 when travelling

Thursday evening my vehicle showed 62 miles left. Miles since my full charge displayed 180.1 miles so essentially I drove 180 miles and lost 407 miles.

Is everyone else in the cold weather seeing similar results? With my Tesla Model S my 35 mile trip would cost me roughly 72 miles when it was below freezing and I was hoping the Lucid would perform better.

 

[Ampere]

Don't forget to keep tires inflated to a bit above specification. In cold weather you lose 1 pound pressure for every ten degrees of temperature decrease. I just checked the tires on my Accord, which were last checked a couple of weeks ago when the temperature was 45. They are all down three-four pounds as the temperature is now zero. This makes a big difference in mileage on all cars. I'm not disputing that batteries lose capacity in cold weather and that makes the greatest difference, but always check tire pressure.

 

[joec]

Sunday night I charged to 100% = 469 MIles displayed on my AGT with 21" wheels.

Weather has been roughly 15-40 degrees over the past several days. My normal daily drive is only around 35 miles total. I ran the defrost approximately 15 minutes a day to clear the frost and kept cabin at 72 when travelling

Thursday evening my vehicle showed 62 miles left. Miles since my full charge displayed 180.1 miles so essentially I drove 180 miles and lost 407 miles.

Is everyone else in the cold weather seeing similar results? With my Tesla Model S my 35 mile trip would cost me roughly 72 miles when it was below freezing and I was hoping the Lucid would perform better.

I drove my Tesla to the airport and back yesterday. About 35 miles each way. And the car lost almost 200 "miles" of range on the trip.

But it was -25, so I'm not surprised. Three seats cranked at full heat. Climate set to 75. Not going to complain.

I wouldn't expect the Lucid to be any better at fighting the laws of physics.

 

[DeaneG]

All EVs have similar cold-weather characteristics. Heat is free in an ICE, not so in an EV. Every short trip in a cold car means heating the car's interior and ~1700 lb battery to a comfortable temperature and you don't get that energy back later.

 

[Bobby]

I'm looking forward to the day the Lucid makes the remaining mileage indicator more real-world accurate based on conditions, driving habits, etc.

 

[idiot900]

It bears mentioning that ICE vehicles also experience efficiency loss in cold weather, although not as much as in EVs.

Fuel Economy in Cold Weather

Cold weather and winter driving conditions can significantly reduce fuel economy.

www.energy.gov

 

[Michman]

I have a Tesla MS and a Lucid AGT, and I live in Michigan. So far, I’d say winter range degradation is similar in the two cars. I expected this, because it’s just the physics of batteries. But it’s also a key reason I bought the AGT. Up here it isn’t unusual for winter range to be half of summer range. I don’t need 500 miles of range, but I really appreciate having 250. That’s a lot more than the MS gets in winter.

 

[victoryroad]

I'm looking forward to the day the Lucid makes the remaining mileage indicator more real-world accurate based on conditions, driving habits, etc.

Definitely. How difficult can it be to use miles/kWh over a car's life to calculate the estimated battery distance remaining? No doubt, most who have had their Lucid for a month or so are already calculating the distance remaining using their actual mi/kWh and SOC indicated. Of course, this assumes that the SOC number is accurate. In any event, it would be much closer to reality than using the EPA mileage efficiency number. If I missed something about SOC please advise.

 

[Bobby]

Definitely. How difficult can it be to use miles/kWh over a car's life to calculate the estimated battery distance remaining? No doubt, most who have had their Lucid for a month or so are already calculating the distance remaining using their actual mi/kWh and SOC indicated. Of course, this assumes that the SOC number is accurate. In any event, it would be much closer to reality than using the EPA mileage efficiency number. If I missed something about SOC please advise.

As has been stated by others on the forum, many of us are using the percentage indicator and multiplying the remaining percentage by our average miles. My average lifetime in the car is 3.2, so I just multiply by 3. Of course this is nowhere near the EPA, but it doesn’t really matter what the EPA says. San Diego is pretty hilly, average speed is probably 80+, and I have the air conditioner on 100% of the time.

 

[joec]

As has been stated by others on the form, many of us are using the percentage indicator and multiplying the remaining percentage by our average miles. My average lifetime in the car is 3.2, so I just multiply by 3.

This is common practice amongst Tesla and other EV owners. You are never going to get perfectly accurate milage calculations in the car, because the car doesn't measure whether you are headed into a wind, elevation changes, weight of the current passengers and cargo, PSI of your tires, and on an on. I don't even see how it could factor in all the many constantly changing things that are dragging down your efficiency. It could be closer, sure. But it's never going to be great.

The best thing the car can do is adjust its estimate based on the past 10-20 minutes or so of the current trip's efficiency. That's still not perfect, as wind, speed, stop and go, etc. change a lot over the course of a trip. But it would be better, at least.

Many find it far more useful to just look at battery percentage and go from there. Multiplying by your lifetime efficiency is not a bad rough calculation if you want to figure out when you'll need a charge. Just remember to adjust your expectations downward in adverse conditions, and always leave yourself with a buffer.

One question in all of this: Are we talking about driving with a set navigation destination? Or just driving to familiar places with no destination set? Because to my knowledge the Air (and Teslas, for that matter) do not make any attempt to get fancy about the estimated miles remaining when navigation is not engaged. It's just a straight up calculation based on how much battery is left. The algorithms only kick in when you are navigating somewhere, I believe.

If it still sucks while navigating, then yeah. Lucid has some more work to do in that arena. It'll never be perfect, though. Just too many variables the car can't see with its instruments.

 

[Adnillien]

If it still sucks while navigating, then yeah. Lucid has some more work to do in that arena. It'll never be perfect, though. Just too many variables the car can't see with its instruments.

It still sucks when navigating. I agree more work to do. I am not sure that it should be Lucid's highest priority but it should be on the list.

 

[hmp10]

I was disappointed that Lucid didn't follow Tesla's lead in using a heat pump instead of a resistance heater in newer Tesla models. (I think Lucid was planning to use a heat pump, as an option in the early days of their order configurator suggested such. It was later removed, so perhaps there were sourcing issues with the heat pump at the time?)

However, I wonder how much of a difference it really makes. When the Tesla heat pump first came out, some owners did claim less cold-weather range loss than with earlier models. But I never saw anything quantitative that removed other variables that might have come with the newer models.

 

[Volund]

As has been stated by others on the forum, many of us are using the percentage indicator and multiplying the remaining percentage by our average miles. My average lifetime in the car is 3.2, so I just multiply by 3. Of course this is nowhere near the EPA, but it doesn’t really matter what the EPA says. San Diego is pretty hilly, average speed is probably 80+, and I have the air conditioner on 100% of the time.

Could you elaborate on this further and give an example?

If I have 60% of battery, and my lifetime average on the car is 3.2

I multiply 60 with 3.2?

I guess there's no way to see how much kw you have in your battery at any given time, but if you take 60% of 118, you should be able to calculate 70 kw * 3.2 to get 224 miles remaining, right?

 

[Tâm]

...However, I wonder how much of a difference it really makes...

There's a winter test on heat pump EV:

EV Range Test Of Various Models Shows Up To 20% Drop In Cold Temps

Autocar range-tested Tesla's cars, and the Porsche Taycan, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Kia EV6, Audi Q4 e-tron, and more to address the impact of cold temperatures.

insideevs.com

Lost the least: Porsche Taycan: 21.8%
Next is Tesla Moel Y Long Range: 25.20%

 

[hmp10]

As has been stated by others on the forum, many of us are using the percentage indicator and multiplying the remaining percentage by our average miles. My average lifetime in the car is 3.2, so I just multiply by 3. Of course this is nowhere near the EPA, but it doesn’t really matter what the EPA says.

I do something similar. However, I really miss the m/kWh readout that displayed before the UX 2.0 upgrades removed it.

The new "miles remaining at arrival" display that shows while using the Nav system is kind of interesting but also requires an on-the-fly calculation to tell you anything meaningful. It does its calculation assuming you'll get the EPA estimated range. As that is almost never the case in highway driving, you see the readout constantly lower the remaining mileage. For example, we put in a destination upon leaving a charging station this week. The readout said we would have 202 miles of range remaining upon arrival at our destination. We arrived with the readout showing 146 miles remaining.

The old m/kWh metric was the easiest to use for on-the-fly calculations of whether I was consuming range at a rate that would get me into trouble.

 

[MoniputerLM]

It bears mentioning that ICE vehicles also experience efficiency loss in cold weather, although not as much as in EVs.

Fuel Economy in Cold Weather

Cold weather and winter driving conditions can significantly reduce fuel economy.

www.energy.gov

No, it doesn't. Easy to add gas and I have never had the milage in an ICE car drop as dramatically as my Lucid.

 

[idiot900]

No, it doesn't. Easy to add gas and I have never had the milage in an ICE car drop as dramatically as my Lucid.

But it apparently does drop some, but not as much as in an EV. Of course, as you imply, it doesn't really matter, as gas stations are plentiful and actually work.

 

[MoniputerLM]

But it apparently does drop some, but not as much as in an EV. Of course, as you imply, it doesn't really matter, as gas stations are plentiful and actually work.

When/if charging stations are plentiful and reliable, long trips will become less stressful. I have posted this before, my son drove a 6-year-old Model S from Houston to Tampa and had to charge often but never encountered a broken Tesla charger, yes, I know there are some. He did have to wait at a few but not for long.

 

[idiot900]

When/if charging stations are plentiful and reliable, long trips will become less stressful. I have posted this before, my son drove a 6-year-old Model S from Houston to Tampa and had to charge often but never encountered a broken Tesla charger, yes, I know there are some. He did have to wait at a few but not for long.

If I made a lot of long (>150 miles at once) road trips, I would not have a Lucid on order. Would stick with an ICE personally. But in the last five years I've done exactly one such trip and feel that my life will be made more convenient overall by a home-charged EV.

I'm assuming that the 425 mile EPA range for Touring will translate to at least 200 miles in the dead of winter (e.g. today). If so I'll be happy.

 

[DeaneG]

If I made a lot of long (>150 miles at once) road trips, I would not have a Lucid on order. Would stick with an ICE personally. But in the last five years I've done exactly one such trip and feel that my life will be made more convenient overall by a home-charged EV.

This is exactly why we've gone all-EV, and also non-Tesla. Some additional hassle charging on occasional long road trips is a worthwhile tradeoff in favor of driving a better, more convenient car (EV) every day. We took four 1000-mile road trips last year, three of them in an EV with only 200 miles EPA range. Still well worth it.