My First Impressions of the Dream P

hydbob

Referral Code - R0YBCKIJ
Admin
Verified Owner
Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2021
Messages
10,245
Location
Los Angeles, CA, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Cars
Dream P
DE Number
33
Referral Code
R0YBCKIJ
Posting here thanks to Neurio

Just brought home the baby from the Beverly Hills Delivery Event.

I'm sure we will see some IG/Twitter responses from this event, but it was only for 2 vehicle deliveries. After signing some paperwork, our wonderful delivery-day-concierge walked us through pretty much every feature available at the time of delivery.

Just a couple quick notes on a few items with the vehicle.

There were 2 blemishes in the finish, 1 was on the aluminum finish for the top of the car and another was on the rear spoiler. Both will be taken care of in the future, but if it were not for our concierge pointing it out, I probably would have not noticed for a VERY LONG time. Other than that, car was immaculate, inside and out. All parts were there, including all the USB charging ports.

In the pictures below, important point was being able to fit 3 car seats across the back row. Success! The only other car I've been able to do this in was my Honda Odyssey, not in our Porsche Cayene, S55 AMG, or 740 Li, so interior space is amazing.

I took a quick picture of charging, this was plugged into my Chargepoint Home Flex on a 60 amp breaker. The Chargepoint can only support 50 amp charging. At the time, the car was at 83% SOC so take the charge speed as you will. The purple/reddish dots underneath the screen is the facial recognition camera.

When you set up your driver profile, you can have facial recognition saved to your driver profile and automatically adjust when you get in to you preferred settings for seat position, steering wheel, and mirrors (haven't tested anything past that yet).

With regards to the old video of Kyle and Tom trying to trigger the driver warning system, it seemed to only trigger AFTER I had set up a driving profile WITH facial recognition. Before that, I drove the car home with no profile setup and it never once warned me on the drive home. AFTER I set up my profile, it would give me an audible ding and visual warning on the front screen whenever I would turn away for more than a second or two.

I did not have a change to test any DreamDrive settings or functionality yet. I tried testing the auto-park in an empty parking lot, but the lines were faded and it did not pick them up well enough to pull into a space. Unsure if you need clear lines or actual cars in order to trigger that function. Will be testing that in the future.

Driving modes: Smooth, Swift, Sprint

Smooth and Swift are close, but subtle difference between the 2. Swift gives a better throttle response and stiffer suspension.

Sprint, obviously, gives the best throttle response, acceleration, and the stiffest suspension. I wish I could drive in that mode all the time, however, the heat pump which is activated to draw heat from the batteries is quite loud and would get tiring after a while, though, I would never foresee myself driving in sprint mode for any sort of distance driving.

NVH: I was able to both drive and sit in the back on our way back home and the NVH is more noticeable in the rear seats, however, coming from ICE vehicles, I don't find it any louder, in fact, it was quieter in the rear than it was in our Cayenne S. I am not missing the air suspension in any way, which we had on the Porsche.

We also had the pleasure of speaking with Derek Jenkins during our delivery event and he was super accommodating and great to speak with answering all our questions. He did tell us that if you did drive through standing water, up to 18" would be no issue.
 

Attachments

  • 20211114_105105.jpg
    20211114_105105.jpg
    847.5 KB · Views: 298
  • 20211114_105123.jpg
    20211114_105123.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 283
  • 20211114_132235.jpg
    20211114_132235.jpg
    1.4 MB · Views: 311
  • 20211114_132402.jpg
    20211114_132402.jpg
    1.4 MB · Views: 286
  • 20211114_141830.jpg
    20211114_141830.jpg
    831.1 KB · Views: 283
  • 20211114_141756.jpg
    20211114_141756.jpg
    904.7 KB · Views: 290
Thanks for the impressions, after seeing the recent barrage of deliveries, here's the things I'm looking forward for Lucid owners to test

(I understand all this testing would take atleast a couple weeks accounting for life's responsibilities)
  1. Real world DreamDrive (Pro?) Review
  2. Do you get the full rated range? (Particularly interested for the Dream Range owners on this)
  3. Can it charge at 350kwh
  4. 300 miles of range in 20 minutes?
  5. Road Noise? Comfort? Especially compared to Luxury competitors and Tesla
  6. Anything you wish to improve?
In the meanwhile, enjoy your car!! Congratulations!
 
Congratulations!

I just added my name to the Dream waitlist, but my guess is I'll have to settle for a Grand Touring. ;)

Have you driven any sports cars or true sport sedans? Maybe a Panamera, Taycan, RS7 or BMW M5? I'm curious how the handling compares. I'll be coming from a Porsche Taycan, and I hope the Lucid is closer to the handling of the Taycan versus a Mercedes S Class.

I'm glad to hear the rear seats have plenty of room. We have three kids as well, and this was an important factor.
 
Welcome hydbob. Glad you made it over here. Thanks again for the in depth first impression. Looking forward to the revelations/insights to come.
 
Well, I haven't driven nearly as many cars as some of the other members on here but here's the list of cars I've had the pleasure of driving to compare with the Lucid..

2012 Model S
2019 Model 3 LR
2021 Model Y LR
2017 Porsche Cayman S
2015 Porsche Cayenne S
2008 Lexus 460
and for years I can't remember
Mercedes S55 AMG
Mercedes S500
Mercedes CLK 320
BMW 740Li

In my opinion, Lucid would be in the top 2 competing with the Cayman. The Lucid just feels grounded and solid, both in it's acceleration and it's maneuvering. The Cayman also felt this way, but it feels much lighter and more nimble. There is very little body roll with the Lucid, I'm assuming because of the active dampers, but the team in charge of fine tuning the driving I think did a bang up job.

The only thing I would personally improve, SO FAR, with regards to driving is the throttle response. It's a bit lighter than I'm used to, BUT that's not necessarily a bad thing. I appreciated the lower throttle response as I was navigating on city streets after delivery as it was easier to just cruise around rather than have to worry about being light footed on more responsive accelerator pedals.

With regards to road noise, I was able to sit in the front and rear and while the rear has more road noise, it's not unbearably loud and I would say it's quieter than the normal ICE vehicles that we are accustomed to driving or being passengers inside the cabin. The front of the vehicle is definitely quieter, but I was driving with no music and no talking with passengers so we could assess the road noise. Later, I turned on the radio with the amazing sound system and road noise was just replaced with great music. I expect this to be my normal driving experience so all the reviews that mention road noise are just LOOKING for road noise instead of testing the car like a daily driver with music, podcasts, phone conversations, etc.
 
Well, I haven't driven nearly as many cars as some of the other members on here but here's the list of cars I've had the pleasure of driving to compare with the Lucid..

2012 Model S
2019 Model 3 LR
2021 Model Y LR
2017 Porsche Cayman S
2015 Porsche Cayenne S
2008 Lexus 460
and for years I can't remember
Mercedes S55 AMG
Mercedes S500
Mercedes CLK 320
BMW 740Li

In my opinion, Lucid would be in the top 2 competing with the Cayman. The Lucid just feels grounded and solid, both in it's acceleration and it's maneuvering. The Cayman also felt this way, but it feels much lighter and more nimble. There is very little body roll with the Lucid, I'm assuming because of the active dampers, but the team in charge of fine tuning the driving I think did a bang up job.

The only thing I would personally improve, SO FAR, with regards to driving is the throttle response. It's a bit lighter than I'm used to, BUT that's not necessarily a bad thing. I appreciated the lower throttle response as I was navigating on city streets after delivery as it was easier to just cruise around rather than have to worry about being light footed on more responsive accelerator pedals.

With regards to road noise, I was able to sit in the front and rear and while the rear has more road noise, it's not unbearably loud and I would say it's quieter than the normal ICE vehicles that we are accustomed to driving or being passengers inside the cabin. The front of the vehicle is definitely quieter, but I was driving with no music and no talking with passengers so we could assess the road noise. Later, I turned on the radio with the amazing sound system and road noise was just replaced with great music. I expect this to be my normal driving experience so all the reviews that mention road noise are just LOOKING for road noise instead of testing the car like a daily driver with music, podcasts, phone conversations, etc.

Music has been playing in my car(s) 99.9% of the time, since 1983
 
I have a GT reservation and was recently contacted to configure the car for production. I told them I need to see and drive the car before I make a decision on moving forward. I visited the new Lucid sales gallery in Tysons Corner Center outside Washington, DC yesterday for a private tour of the car. They have a black pre-production Dream Edition car on display. Several features were not working properly, which they attributed to it being a pre-production car (e.g., the frunk and trunk would not open normally). To me the car is more attractive in person than in pictures. It looks more like a luxury car than a sporty car, and has some overtones of older model Buicks/Oldsmobiles and French Citroens and the current Honda Accord from the front.

I look forward to a test drive soon.

Some observations based on the very short overview:
-spacious and attractive interior with loads of storage
-tech looks impressive
-fit and finish was high end
-loads of leg room in rear seat, but floor is high, so knees are bent at an awkward angle, may be uncomfortable on longer drive for taller passengers, should be less of a problem in Touring or Pure, but with loss of 100 miles range
-A pillars are very large and may create a blind spot when cornering in cities (this is a problem for our Tesla Model 3 P)
-massage seats were great, and move the bottom of the seat, not just the back of the seat as in my Taycan
-extended windshield and visors seems to be better managed than in the Tesla Model X, but no additional screening available for rear of windshield and rear glass roof
-nice large storage space under trunk floor
-I was told there are no plans for a roof rack or tow hitch to accommodate bicycles
-Lucid wall charging system requires 100 amp service
-models below GT may not have ventilated/massage seats as an option
-models below GT without panoramic roof get body colored metal roof
-no Sirius satellite radio, but advisor said “they were working on it”
-advisor claimed there was Apple CarPlay, but I’m not sure that is correct

It will be a hard decision on whether to move from my Taycan 4S to a Lucid Air GT. Very different cars, both with their pros and cons. The range with the Lucid GT would be about double my 4S, but I don’t tend to do long driving trips, so not as much of an issue as it may seem on the surface. The tech in the Lucid may be more reliable and easier to use than in the Taycan, but it stands to be determined if the Lucid will drive/handle like the Taycan.

Competition is great in the EV field.
 
Most new BEVs on the market would offer me an increase in the range I'm currently getting with my Audi e-Tron Sportback. Despite the e-Tron being an incredibly solid & well built car, I've decided I'm not really an SUV kind of guy and would prefer a car. I probably should have realized that after my stint with the Jaguar I-Pace. IMO, the handling of these SUVs just can't match that of an even decent handling car. I know some love the elevated seating position of an SUV, but it has never been a big deal to me. I probably enjoyed driving my Tesla MS more than the Audi or the Jaguar, despite the niggling issues I frequently had with the Tesla.

I have a deposit for the Pure, but I suspect it will still be at least a year before I see that reservation turned into reality. So I also have a deposit on a BMW I4 which should arrive a good deal earlier than the Lucid. My wife, knowing my fickle nature with cars, wisely said I can always purchase the BMW and then go for the Lucid later on if you're not happy with the BMW. This would also give them a chance to work out the inevitable issues that will arise. There are things I like about both cars and each has its pros & cons.

The Lucid, even in the Pure iteration, still outdoes the BMW's range by 100 miles. Truth be told I don't take frequent long trips, so that shouldn't be an issue, but still. The BMW is smaller, which I might actually prefer, and does have at its release a fair bit more tech than the Lucid.

Not an easy decision, but I have time. So I know what you're going through in making the decision. The Taycan is a gorgeous car inside & out, with great handling, so it's not easy.
 
models below GT may not have ventilated/massage seats as an option
This would result in cancelling my Touring reservation. Not my idea of Lucid's description - "the Touring is a full-featured Lucid Air from start to finish". Don't mind deleting the massage but have to have the ventilated seats. I would have to look at the BMW i5/Audi A6 e-tron/maybe EQE and wait till 2023...maybe Genesis will have a longer range offering by then.
 
I have a GT reservation and was recently contacted to configure the car for production. I told them I need to see and drive the car before I make a decision on moving forward. I visited the new Lucid sales gallery in Tysons Corner Center outside Washington, DC yesterday for a private tour of the car. They have a black pre-production Dream Edition car on display. Several features were not working properly, which they attributed to it being a pre-production car (e.g., the frunk and trunk would not open normally). To me the car is more attractive in person than in pictures. It looks more like a luxury car than a sporty car, and has some overtones of older model Buicks/Oldsmobiles and French Citroens and the current Honda Accord from the front.

I look forward to a test drive soon.

Some observations based on the very short overview:
-spacious and attractive interior with loads of storage
-tech looks impressive
-fit and finish was high end
-loads of leg room in rear seat, but floor is high, so knees are bent at an awkward angle, may be uncomfortable on longer drive for taller passengers, should be less of a problem in Touring or Pure, but with loss of 100 miles range
-A pillars are very large and may create a blind spot when cornering in cities (this is a problem for our Tesla Model 3 P)
-massage seats were great, and move the bottom of the seat, not just the back of the seat as in my Taycan
-extended windshield and visors seems to be better managed than in the Tesla Model X, but no additional screening available for rear of windshield and rear glass roof
-nice large storage space under trunk floor
-I was told there are no plans for a roof rack or tow hitch to accommodate bicycles
-Lucid wall charging system requires 100 amp service
-models below GT may not have ventilated/massage seats as an option
-models below GT without panoramic roof get body colored metal roof
-no Sirius satellite radio, but advisor said “they were working on it”
-advisor claimed there was Apple CarPlay, but I’m not sure that is correct

It will be a hard decision on whether to move from my Taycan 4S to a Lucid Air GT. Very different cars, both with their pros and cons. The range with the Lucid GT would be about double my 4S, but I don’t tend to do long driving trips, so not as much of an issue as it may seem on the surface. The tech in the Lucid may be more reliable and easier to use than in the Taycan, but it stands to be determined if the Lucid will drive/handle like the Taycan.

Competition is great in the EV field.
When did you make your reservation? I am curious as to how far down the list they are.
 
When did you make your reservation? I am curious as to how far down the list they are.

Looks like I made an initial reservation in August 2020, then upgraded in September 2020 to a Dream, and then downgraded to a GT in October 2020.
 
Back
Top