Hey everyone, first post here. Lucid owner as of Feb this year. For background I've driven a Tesla Model S since 2017. Regularly drove Northern VA - Southern Ohio for family.
With the Model S I have always had to stop twice with the 90D (293 miles of range). I was looking to upgrade and probably would have gone to the 400 mile Model S, but, you know, Elon, desire for a new brand, better driving car, etc. Immediately fell in love with my 2025 Air Touring when I got it. Driving around home was amazing and just felt like a better car. This was my first long range road trip though and I wanted to share my experience for more data points on the brand. Ironically, the overall distance driven was less because I was able to bypass a required charge stop with a $5 toll in Pennsylvania.
Air temp on the outbound leg was around 60-70, but cloudy/overcast.
Air temp on return trip was 65-75 and sunny
Climate on both legs was set to 74 and auto with seat coolers on
Outbound leg I drove 317 miles to what used to be my SECOND stop in the Tesla. Got to the EA station at 9% and after a slight hiccup I hit 240 kW! I could have made it to the next charger, but on my first trip I didn't want to risk running out of charge when I was expected to have 3% per the Nav system. Only needed a 15 min charge and drove the last 161 miles and got to destination at 6%. Overall, 80% freeway driving and 20% country highway driving. Freeway cruise control set at 75 mph and country highway usually around 60 mph. 3.78 mi/kWh, overall 482 miles.
Return leg ended up being longer distance because of memorial day traffic (Accident on I-70 because of course there was
). The lack of chargers on the return trip had me driving 271 miles and stopping at 19%. I drove with the cruise control higher because I knew I couldn't extend the range to reach a different charger and figured I might as well get there faster. 20 min stop at EVgo (250 kW!), then on the road again. Hit terrible traffic and ended up going a completely different direction avoiding 70 completely. Arrived home at 9%. This time it was closer to 65-70% freeway and 30-35% country highways. 3.86 mi/kWh, overall 492 miles.
The good:
Love driving this car. Even my fiancé agreed the seats were nicer, she still wants me to get a gravity though. Probably will at the end of this lease.
Charging was really quick. So much nicer to only stop for 20 min or less. Wish it was as straight forward as Tesla, but it wasn't bad at all.
EVgo station was amazing. Covered like a gas station. Zero problems starting the charge.
The meh:
Took a try or two to start the EA station charge. I guess it was trying to charge my Lucid account (which I set up). I was trying to use the EA app (which I also set up) and somehow those were in conflict. I just put in my actual credit card instead of apple pay in the app and that seemed to work.
The ugly:
Navigation system and trip planning is not great with this car to put it mildly. I did a TON of research on plugshare, lots of math, and even a min elevation change trip planner. ABRP would have led me astray. The nav system would have SURELY led me astray. I was trying to have the destination station in the nav system for battery preconditioning and stuff, but it kept wanting me to stop for 5 min at 17% and would try and precondition the battery. I ended up having my fiancé calculate the miles we had remaining based on the odometer mi/kWh and just use google maps/carplay or (gasp) nothing at all because I know the route. After telling me multiple times to stop at 17%, the car suddenly told me to go to the NEXT charger and arrive at 3% which makes no sense based on its past behavior. Might try and reach that one in the future now that I have a trip under my belt. Avoiding tolls, removing charging stops, etc. would be really nice features to have.
The fact that there is not a single charger (that I can find) other than dealership blink chargers between freaking Pittsburg and central MD or Bedford PA really irks me.
Overall still love the car and enjoyed the trip. The bad stuff is pretty nitpicky, but I'd still expect better. I feel like this car overall is more of an engineering/science car where Tesla has basically become a computer only car. I enjoyed the challenge of extending the range, the comfort of the ride, the handling, calculating everything on the way and taking ownership of the drive. Looking forward to a winter test this year as well.
Hope this is helpful/interesting.
With the Model S I have always had to stop twice with the 90D (293 miles of range). I was looking to upgrade and probably would have gone to the 400 mile Model S, but, you know, Elon, desire for a new brand, better driving car, etc. Immediately fell in love with my 2025 Air Touring when I got it. Driving around home was amazing and just felt like a better car. This was my first long range road trip though and I wanted to share my experience for more data points on the brand. Ironically, the overall distance driven was less because I was able to bypass a required charge stop with a $5 toll in Pennsylvania.
Air temp on the outbound leg was around 60-70, but cloudy/overcast.
Air temp on return trip was 65-75 and sunny
Climate on both legs was set to 74 and auto with seat coolers on
Outbound leg I drove 317 miles to what used to be my SECOND stop in the Tesla. Got to the EA station at 9% and after a slight hiccup I hit 240 kW! I could have made it to the next charger, but on my first trip I didn't want to risk running out of charge when I was expected to have 3% per the Nav system. Only needed a 15 min charge and drove the last 161 miles and got to destination at 6%. Overall, 80% freeway driving and 20% country highway driving. Freeway cruise control set at 75 mph and country highway usually around 60 mph. 3.78 mi/kWh, overall 482 miles.
Return leg ended up being longer distance because of memorial day traffic (Accident on I-70 because of course there was
). The lack of chargers on the return trip had me driving 271 miles and stopping at 19%. I drove with the cruise control higher because I knew I couldn't extend the range to reach a different charger and figured I might as well get there faster. 20 min stop at EVgo (250 kW!), then on the road again. Hit terrible traffic and ended up going a completely different direction avoiding 70 completely. Arrived home at 9%. This time it was closer to 65-70% freeway and 30-35% country highways. 3.86 mi/kWh, overall 492 miles.The good:
Love driving this car. Even my fiancé agreed the seats were nicer, she still wants me to get a gravity though. Probably will at the end of this lease.
Charging was really quick. So much nicer to only stop for 20 min or less. Wish it was as straight forward as Tesla, but it wasn't bad at all.
EVgo station was amazing. Covered like a gas station. Zero problems starting the charge.
The meh:
Took a try or two to start the EA station charge. I guess it was trying to charge my Lucid account (which I set up). I was trying to use the EA app (which I also set up) and somehow those were in conflict. I just put in my actual credit card instead of apple pay in the app and that seemed to work.
The ugly:
Navigation system and trip planning is not great with this car to put it mildly. I did a TON of research on plugshare, lots of math, and even a min elevation change trip planner. ABRP would have led me astray. The nav system would have SURELY led me astray. I was trying to have the destination station in the nav system for battery preconditioning and stuff, but it kept wanting me to stop for 5 min at 17% and would try and precondition the battery. I ended up having my fiancé calculate the miles we had remaining based on the odometer mi/kWh and just use google maps/carplay or (gasp) nothing at all because I know the route. After telling me multiple times to stop at 17%, the car suddenly told me to go to the NEXT charger and arrive at 3% which makes no sense based on its past behavior. Might try and reach that one in the future now that I have a trip under my belt. Avoiding tolls, removing charging stops, etc. would be really nice features to have.
The fact that there is not a single charger (that I can find) other than dealership blink chargers between freaking Pittsburg and central MD or Bedford PA really irks me.
Overall still love the car and enjoyed the trip. The bad stuff is pretty nitpicky, but I'd still expect better. I feel like this car overall is more of an engineering/science car where Tesla has basically become a computer only car. I enjoyed the challenge of extending the range, the comfort of the ride, the handling, calculating everything on the way and taking ownership of the drive. Looking forward to a winter test this year as well.
Hope this is helpful/interesting.
