Lucid Party @ Gravity Reveal-LA AutoShow November, 2023?

[xponents]

I agree, a lot is riding on this thing.

Speaking of which, will this thing have over a 6000 GVWR for the 179 deduction?

 

[hydbob]

Speaking of which, will this thing have over a 6000 GVWR for the 179 deduction?

As much as I love speculating, can we just wait 24 hrs before we post more questions no one has answers to?

 

[Sid432]

Also, price tag will be very crucial. I hope they can appeal consumers with affordable pricing as well. I am sure design, comfort, etc. has been checked and I trust Lucid engineers on that.

 

[xponents]

As much as I love speculating, can we just wait 24 hrs before we post more questions no one has answers to?

I do assume it will, since the Air has close to that.

I was judging the height of the vehicle by James Engelsman, who is 5'9" tall. Even with the car apparently set at a fairly high ride height (based on wheel opening), it's still a very low vehicle by SUV or minivan standards.

As far as I'm concerned, that's great. The more the bullet train and the less the lumbering SUV, the better as long as the interior room is there.

Yes. I am 5'10 and I can barely stand over many similarly sized vehicles such as the lincoln aviator. In this picture however, he is much taller than the car in a relatively high suspension setting, which is very nice. I also noticed that the gravity has more of a sloping roofline than I thought, so now I think it may have the same drag CD as the model x.

 

[manitou202]

I was judging the height of the vehicle by James Engelsman, who is 5'9" tall. Even with the car apparently set at a fairly high ride height (based on wheel opening), it's still a very low vehicle by SUV or minivan standards.

As far as I'm concerned, that's great. The more the bullet train and the less the lumbering SUV, the better as long as the interior room is there.

I'm 5'10" and can put my arm in a similar position as James on our EQS SUV. So they are probably very similar in height.

 

[off]

The stock ride height should be as high as a Bentayga or Cayenne, critical for those "I want to be at the same level as a truck" people. Air suspension in Swift and Sprint will satify us accustomed to the ride and handling dynamics of the Air. I can't wait, this will be another watershed vehicle...

 

[Neurio]

For those in the Telegram group, some people apparently accidentally got kicked out. Not sure how. So sorry. Please rejoin

LA Auto Show

t.me

 

[Knucklehead]

Well, I am very excited about this reveal, and I am really looking forward to hearing what you guys think about it.

This week has been an especially painful from a public charging perspective, and I am hoping the Gravity will be able to provide at least 350 miles of highway range. The onslaught of BEVs on our charging infrastructure is causing it to break, IMO, and I want to avoid it as much as possible. I am worried, however, that the 350 highway mile range Gravity will be the $170k model, and I am not paying $170k for a vehicle. Really, I don't want to go beyond $100k.

Can we speed up time?

 

[xponents]

Well, I am very excited about this reveal, and I am really looking forward to hearing what you guys think about it.

This week has been an especially painful from a public charging perspective, and I am hoping the Gravity will be able to provide at least 350 miles of highway range. The onslaught of BEVs on our charging infrastructure is causing it to break, IMO, and I want to avoid it as much as possible. I am worried, however, that the 350 highway mile range Gravity will be the $170k model, and I am not paying $170k for a vehicle. Really, I don't want to go beyond $100k.

Can we speed up time?

The base model has more range than any other ev(except lucid) so i'd expect around 350 for the base model.

 

[Knucklehead]

The base model has more range than any other ev(except lucid) so i'd expect around 350 for the base model.

When I say "highway range", I mean range at 80 mph. Not EPA range. I am sure the base model will have an EPA range in the 300s.

It comes down to efficiency and battery size. At 80 mph, will the Gravity be able to maintain 3 mi/kWh? If so, that requires 117 kWh of usable capacity. If not, the battery will need to be bigger.

 

[Neurio]

When I say "highway range", I mean range at 80 mph. Not EPA range. I am sure the base model will have an EPA range in the 300s.

It comes down to efficiency and battery size. At 80 mph, will the Gravity be able to maintain 3 mi/kWh? If so, that requires 117 kWh of usable capacity. If not, the battery will need to be bigger.

At 80mph, the Air barely gets 3 mi/kWh, at least on the 20s and 21s. Gravity with AS tires may get 3, but that's asking a lot of an SUV at 80 mph.

 

[Knucklehead]

At 80mph, the Air barely gets 3 mi/kWh, at least on the 20s and 21s. Gravity with AS tires may get 3, but that's asking a lot of an SUV at 80 mph.

I agree. A bigger battery is needed. Maybe they can add capacity like Rivian did with the Max Pack, simply by improving the batteries used but not increasing the number of cells.

 

[suchluke]

I agree. A bigger battery is needed. Maybe they can add capacity like Rivian did with the Max Pack, simply by improving the batteries used but not increasing the number of cells.

From what Peter Rawlinson was saying previously, Lucid focus is on efficiency not installing biggest battery possible. Bigger battery just means extra weight and cost. Hopefully Lucid engineers were able to figure out respective range numbers with similar batteries that Air has.

 

[St Bernard]

Also, price tag will be very crucial. I hope they can appeal consumers with affordable pricing as well. I am sure design, comfort, etc. has been checked and I trust Lucid engineers on that.

It’s reasonable to assume pricing will be $5-7500 more than the current models. The question is when will the lowest price Gravity be available? They need to be competitive with Tesla X and with EQS and the new Electric Range Rover on the high end. The Market above $125k is tiny.

 

[NoseyReporter]

Anyone know if there will be a live stream of the reveal?

 

[Adnillien]

From what Peter Rawlinson was saying previously, Lucid focus is on efficiency not installing biggest battery possible. Bigger battery just means extra weight and cost. Hopefully Lucid engineers were able to figure out respective range numbers with similar batteries that Air has.

Battery size is an interesting topic. I have been trying to guess if Lucid will use the same size batteries as the Air (118DE, 112GT, 92AT) or try to increase. They cannot add more cells in series without increasing voltage over 924 volts. It is possible but 1000V chargers have substantially lower voltage after losses through the dispenser and cable to the car. The inverters/wunderbox also need to withstand the battery voltage. Hence, there is not much room to increase maximum battery voltage. One additional module would add 42V. I am thinking Lucid is unlikely to increase voltage.

The parallel strings of battery cells are limited by the module width which is limited by the width of the car. If Gravity is the same width as Air, then the number of parallel strings cannot increase either. If Gravity is wider than Air, then another string of cells in parallel is possible. The Air modules use 10 groups of 3 cells in parallel or 30 strings of cells in parallel. It may be possible to add another group of three to increase battery size to 33 stings in parallel or an overall increase 10%. Lucid gains a lot of manufacturing efficiency if they re-use the Air modules. Again, I am thinking that Gravity is about the same width as Air and therefore will reuse the same modules.

That leaves battery chemistry as an option. Given that Lucid's history is batteries for Formula-E, I doubt there is much increase to be had.

My conclusion is the battery size will be very close to Air. I am guessing that there are further improvements to the drive units, wheels and brakes that improve efficiency so the same size battery gives good overall range in the larger SUV. We will see tomorrow how wrong I am.

 

[suchluke]

Battery size is an interesting topic. I have been trying to guess if Lucid will use the same size batteries as the Air (118DE, 112GT, 92AT) or try to increase. They cannot add more cells in series without increasing voltage over 924 volts. It is possible but 1000V chargers have substantially lower voltage after losses through the dispenser and cable to the car. The inverters/wunderbox also need to withstand the battery voltage. Hence, there is not much room to increase maximum battery voltage. One additional module would add 42V. I am thinking Lucid is unlikely to increase voltage.

The parallel strings of battery cells are limited by the module width which is limited by the width of the car. If Gravity is the same width as Air, then the number of parallel strings cannot increase either. If Gravity is wider than Air, then another string of cells in parallel is possible. The Air modules use 10 groups of 3 cells in parallel or 30 strings of cells in parallel. It may be possible to add another group of three to increase battery size to 33 stings in parallel or an overall increase 10%. Lucid gains a lot of manufacturing efficiency if they re-use the Air modules. Again, I am thinking that Gravity is about the same width as Air and therefore will reuse the same modules.

That leaves battery chemistry as an option. Given that Lucid's history is batteries for Formula-E, I doubt there is much increase to be had.

My conclusion is the battery size will be very close to Air. I am guessing that there are further improvements to the drive units, wheels and brakes that improve efficiency so the same size battery gives good overall range in the larger SUV. We will see tomorrow how wrong I am.

This is great analysis and I believe you are not wrong at all. Let me guess electrical engineering background?

 

[Adnillien]

This is great analysis and I believe you are not wrong at all. Let me guess electrical engineering background?

Absolutely electrical engineering. I think it adds to my attraction to EVs.

 

[Rob Stark]

That leaves battery chemistry as an option. Given that Lucid's history is batteries for Formula-E, I doubt there is much increase to be had.

Lucid isn't developing their own chemistries. Lucid-Atieva's core competency in Formula E is battery pack architecture and battery pack management software.

They are buying cells off the shelf.

I am sure LG and Samsung have higher energy density chemistry. At higher cost per kWh.

 

[NoseyReporter]

To me, it looks like it could either be a continuation of the interior trim or (more likely) it could be that all automotive windows have red lines in them for some reason.

Those lines are usually for the defroster.

Something is up here. If it was defroster lines, I imagine they'd just have someone edit that out in post. They left those lines intentionally for us to see.