- Joined
- Jun 29, 2022
- Messages
- 281
- Reaction score
- 512
- Location
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Cars
- 2023 Lucid Air Touring
- Referral Code
- EZJAF0R7
For part 1 see:
My Tesla Takeover Adventure Part 1
Day 3 (7/30/23):
Day 2 of Tesla Takeover was much more mellow. Slept in a little bit and didn't make it to the event until noon and had the typical okay but not great charging session in Atascadero on the way down. It wasn't as crowded at the event and there wasn't much new I wanted to see, so I just had some lunch, chatted with some folks and @Tesla2Lucid, and left early to have dinner with family back up in Monterey. I decided not to charge up until the following morning to try out a different EA station when it was empty.
Day 4 (7/31/23):
The trek back home begins! Got up early and was on the road a little after 3 AM PST. Arrived at the EA station in Salinas, CA at 9% SOC and was limited to 160 kW by the station. Moved to a different charger and got better speeds with a peak of 205 kW. Only charged for about 15 minutes.
Next stop was EA in Pleasanton. Arrived at 22% SOC, peaked at 205 kW, and had good consistent speeds. Another quick stop to top up and have a pre-breakfast snack.
Next stop was the EA station in Auburn. The sun was finally coming up and I was out of the Sacramento traffic. I passed a white Lucid in the Sacramento area, but they were focused on driving and didn't wave back. Plugged in at 13% SOC and was treated to the expected Signet Surge. Walked over to Taco Bell, grabbed some breakfast, and headed out around 65% SOC.
Decided to make a quick pit stop in Truckee just to stretch my legs and enjoy the cool, fresh air. Plugged in at 40% SOC and only charged for about 10 minutes.
Had a lovely drive going over the Sierra Nevada's, past Tahoe, and past Reno. Not too hot and not a lot of traffic. Arrived at the EA Lovelock, NV and plugged into an open 150 kW charger as one 350 kW was unavailable and the other was limited to 50 kW. This is where things get interesting...
Plugged in at 22% SOC, peaked at 180 kW, and charging proceeded as normally for a minute or two. All of a sudden charging stops, climate control shuts off, and I get the dreaded "Drive System Fault" error message. I unplug the car, lock the car and let it reset, and try again. Same thing happens on attempt 2. For attempt 3 I decide to let it sit longer and go into the Safeway to look for a restroom and get some caffeine. This time charging proceeds without issues and I let out a huge sigh of relief. Each time the error would clear and the car appeared drivable, so I chalked it up to some kind of bug and continued on. Charging speeds start tapering off after 60%, so I unplug and head to the next charging stop.
Next stop is EA in Battle Mountain, and this time the real "fun" begins. Had the same error occur on all stations I could reach, but each station seemed to be outputting the appropriate speeds. At this point something was clearly wrong and I called Customer Care. A possibly unrelated thing I noticed was that the temperature listed on the glass cockpit was about 30 degrees warmer than the actual outside temperature. I know this is "normal" for Lucid's and usually corrects itself once the car is in motion, but it seemed excessive, and I thought that BMS fans should be on full blast if that car was that hot, which they weren't. My theory was that the battery pack was overheating and ending the charging session to protect itself, but it ultimately seems that wasn't the case. I pulled off into a shady spot to try and let the car cool off a bit in the meantime.
After explaining the situation to CC they decided to call EA and have them reset one of the chargers to see if that corrected the issue, which it did not. After a lot of waiting and talking on the phone we decided that I should try and make it to Elko, NV and try to charge there. Unfortunately EA was the only fast charging option for me, but there were at least a couple of level 2 chargers in the area I could try should EA fail again. Luckily, each time I would attempt to charge I would get between 1 and 2 kW into the battery, so I was at least slightly more charged up than when I had arrived. After 2.5 hours I got back on the road to try and make it to Elko.
In an attempt to make it to Elko with as much charge as possible, I turned on my hazard lights and cruised at 55 or 65 mph. Luckily traffic was still pretty light and I could stay out of the way of faster drivers for most of the way. After about 75 minutes and 70 miles of driving I arrived at the EA station in Elko, NV with about 20% SOC with an efficiency of 4.2 mi/kWh. Thankfully I had no issues charging up and the Drive System Fault was nowhere to be seen. At this point I decided to let the car charge to 100% so I could make it home without having to stop again. The charger was working well and it was not a busy station, so luckily I didn't cause anyone else any inconvenience. I grabbed some dinner, called the family to give them an update, and then hit the road for the last time after charging for 85 minutes.
Lucie held it together and we made it home after a mostly pleasant drive. Eastern Nevada is surprisingly beautiful and I was treated to a gorgeous sunset while cruising over the Bonneville Salt Flats. A semi truck's tire did explode and shower my car with rubber, but luckily I dodged the larger pieces and passed by unscathed. Made it home with 18% SOC and had no issues charging on by 40 Amp level 2 charger.
After following up with Lucid to see if my car would need to be shipped off for service, they explained that according to the charging team this is a known issue with ABB EA units. I'm glad that nothing appears to be wrong with my car specifically, but I am a little concerned about this happening again on another road trip. Despite all the craziness and difficulties, I had an amazing time, and my Lucid is mostly to thank for that. It got me there and back safely and was a joy to drive at every step. Minus the Drive System Fault I had no other errors or software bugs.
To wrap up I'll include some feedback specific to the car, both positive and negative:
-After over 2600 miles of driving in 4 days I had almost no soreness in my lower back or butt like I usually do with other cars. I think this speaks highly of how comfortable the seats are and how well the car drives. I still really, really wish I could have optioned massage seats, but they're still pretty great without them.
-The native navigation system did a really good job at predicting time of arrival and SOC. For most of the trip I drove around 80 mph and the system seemed to account for changes in speed and efficiency pretty well. The option to select alternate routs on the navigation screen was helpful a couple of times. My only gripe is not being able to remove a charging stop if I want to arrive at a lower SOC at the next available stop.
-Highway Assist is still a bit of a hassle to use for me, unfortunately. I feel like I end up having to apply more steering input in HA mode over Adaptive Cruise, which defeats the purpose, in my opinion. I noticed some ping-ponging in a few places while using HA, as well.
-It seems like the placement of the temperature sensor needs to be rethought for future vehicles. My guess is the sensor is placed somewhere next to a BMS fan and contributes to the artificially elevated temperature readings. When I was charging in Soledad the first night the outdoor temperature was 67 F (according to weather.com) with some pretty good winds and my car was saying it was 106 F.
- We all know EA is a mess, but I just want to note that almost every single EA station has at least one noticeable issue. The only stop I had with 0 issues was in Baker, CA. Every other stop had some combination of unavailable stations, limited/derated speeds, overcrowded and poorly laid out stalls, and lack of idle fees encouraging poor charging behavior. Many stations in CA had all of these issues combined. I'm a bit worried that EV road tripping is going to get even worse before it gets better, but I'm hopeful it'll improve someday. Supercharger access cannot come fast enough!
Thank you for reading! I hope that it's clear that I still love my Lucid very much, despite the charging issues. I'm very seriously considering going to Tesla Takeover next year and I hope some other owners and some folks from Lucid will make it.
My Tesla Takeover Adventure Part 1
Day 3 (7/30/23):
Day 2 of Tesla Takeover was much more mellow. Slept in a little bit and didn't make it to the event until noon and had the typical okay but not great charging session in Atascadero on the way down. It wasn't as crowded at the event and there wasn't much new I wanted to see, so I just had some lunch, chatted with some folks and @Tesla2Lucid, and left early to have dinner with family back up in Monterey. I decided not to charge up until the following morning to try out a different EA station when it was empty.
Day 4 (7/31/23):
The trek back home begins! Got up early and was on the road a little after 3 AM PST. Arrived at the EA station in Salinas, CA at 9% SOC and was limited to 160 kW by the station. Moved to a different charger and got better speeds with a peak of 205 kW. Only charged for about 15 minutes.
Next stop was EA in Pleasanton. Arrived at 22% SOC, peaked at 205 kW, and had good consistent speeds. Another quick stop to top up and have a pre-breakfast snack.
Next stop was the EA station in Auburn. The sun was finally coming up and I was out of the Sacramento traffic. I passed a white Lucid in the Sacramento area, but they were focused on driving and didn't wave back. Plugged in at 13% SOC and was treated to the expected Signet Surge. Walked over to Taco Bell, grabbed some breakfast, and headed out around 65% SOC.
Decided to make a quick pit stop in Truckee just to stretch my legs and enjoy the cool, fresh air. Plugged in at 40% SOC and only charged for about 10 minutes.
Had a lovely drive going over the Sierra Nevada's, past Tahoe, and past Reno. Not too hot and not a lot of traffic. Arrived at the EA Lovelock, NV and plugged into an open 150 kW charger as one 350 kW was unavailable and the other was limited to 50 kW. This is where things get interesting...
Plugged in at 22% SOC, peaked at 180 kW, and charging proceeded as normally for a minute or two. All of a sudden charging stops, climate control shuts off, and I get the dreaded "Drive System Fault" error message. I unplug the car, lock the car and let it reset, and try again. Same thing happens on attempt 2. For attempt 3 I decide to let it sit longer and go into the Safeway to look for a restroom and get some caffeine. This time charging proceeds without issues and I let out a huge sigh of relief. Each time the error would clear and the car appeared drivable, so I chalked it up to some kind of bug and continued on. Charging speeds start tapering off after 60%, so I unplug and head to the next charging stop.
Next stop is EA in Battle Mountain, and this time the real "fun" begins. Had the same error occur on all stations I could reach, but each station seemed to be outputting the appropriate speeds. At this point something was clearly wrong and I called Customer Care. A possibly unrelated thing I noticed was that the temperature listed on the glass cockpit was about 30 degrees warmer than the actual outside temperature. I know this is "normal" for Lucid's and usually corrects itself once the car is in motion, but it seemed excessive, and I thought that BMS fans should be on full blast if that car was that hot, which they weren't. My theory was that the battery pack was overheating and ending the charging session to protect itself, but it ultimately seems that wasn't the case. I pulled off into a shady spot to try and let the car cool off a bit in the meantime.
After explaining the situation to CC they decided to call EA and have them reset one of the chargers to see if that corrected the issue, which it did not. After a lot of waiting and talking on the phone we decided that I should try and make it to Elko, NV and try to charge there. Unfortunately EA was the only fast charging option for me, but there were at least a couple of level 2 chargers in the area I could try should EA fail again. Luckily, each time I would attempt to charge I would get between 1 and 2 kW into the battery, so I was at least slightly more charged up than when I had arrived. After 2.5 hours I got back on the road to try and make it to Elko.
In an attempt to make it to Elko with as much charge as possible, I turned on my hazard lights and cruised at 55 or 65 mph. Luckily traffic was still pretty light and I could stay out of the way of faster drivers for most of the way. After about 75 minutes and 70 miles of driving I arrived at the EA station in Elko, NV with about 20% SOC with an efficiency of 4.2 mi/kWh. Thankfully I had no issues charging up and the Drive System Fault was nowhere to be seen. At this point I decided to let the car charge to 100% so I could make it home without having to stop again. The charger was working well and it was not a busy station, so luckily I didn't cause anyone else any inconvenience. I grabbed some dinner, called the family to give them an update, and then hit the road for the last time after charging for 85 minutes.
Lucie held it together and we made it home after a mostly pleasant drive. Eastern Nevada is surprisingly beautiful and I was treated to a gorgeous sunset while cruising over the Bonneville Salt Flats. A semi truck's tire did explode and shower my car with rubber, but luckily I dodged the larger pieces and passed by unscathed. Made it home with 18% SOC and had no issues charging on by 40 Amp level 2 charger.
After following up with Lucid to see if my car would need to be shipped off for service, they explained that according to the charging team this is a known issue with ABB EA units. I'm glad that nothing appears to be wrong with my car specifically, but I am a little concerned about this happening again on another road trip. Despite all the craziness and difficulties, I had an amazing time, and my Lucid is mostly to thank for that. It got me there and back safely and was a joy to drive at every step. Minus the Drive System Fault I had no other errors or software bugs.
To wrap up I'll include some feedback specific to the car, both positive and negative:
-After over 2600 miles of driving in 4 days I had almost no soreness in my lower back or butt like I usually do with other cars. I think this speaks highly of how comfortable the seats are and how well the car drives. I still really, really wish I could have optioned massage seats, but they're still pretty great without them.
-The native navigation system did a really good job at predicting time of arrival and SOC. For most of the trip I drove around 80 mph and the system seemed to account for changes in speed and efficiency pretty well. The option to select alternate routs on the navigation screen was helpful a couple of times. My only gripe is not being able to remove a charging stop if I want to arrive at a lower SOC at the next available stop.
-Highway Assist is still a bit of a hassle to use for me, unfortunately. I feel like I end up having to apply more steering input in HA mode over Adaptive Cruise, which defeats the purpose, in my opinion. I noticed some ping-ponging in a few places while using HA, as well.
-It seems like the placement of the temperature sensor needs to be rethought for future vehicles. My guess is the sensor is placed somewhere next to a BMS fan and contributes to the artificially elevated temperature readings. When I was charging in Soledad the first night the outdoor temperature was 67 F (according to weather.com) with some pretty good winds and my car was saying it was 106 F.
- We all know EA is a mess, but I just want to note that almost every single EA station has at least one noticeable issue. The only stop I had with 0 issues was in Baker, CA. Every other stop had some combination of unavailable stations, limited/derated speeds, overcrowded and poorly laid out stalls, and lack of idle fees encouraging poor charging behavior. Many stations in CA had all of these issues combined. I'm a bit worried that EV road tripping is going to get even worse before it gets better, but I'm hopeful it'll improve someday. Supercharger access cannot come fast enough!
Thank you for reading! I hope that it's clear that I still love my Lucid very much, despite the charging issues. I'm very seriously considering going to Tesla Takeover next year and I hope some other owners and some folks from Lucid will make it.
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