Opinion - ICE and EV

[Sid432]

Hey guys - My Touring has left the factory and en route to Chicago for PDI and I am in the middle of securing financing/leasing option.

As an early adopter, I hope that I don't encounter any major problem that will take the car out of service especially when the SC is ~ 3 hours (NY) from my place as King of Prussia SC is due to be open (not sure when). Also, to set my expectation from beginning, I would probably encounter few issues here and there that leads me to wonder if I should keep my ICE as well (just in case) as a backup.

I was planning to sell my Audi Q5 and take that equity towards my goal of putting 50% in cash and 50% in financing. However, given the unexpected, would it make sense to keep ICE (keep in mind that I still owe ~16K on the ICE) or I should be fine with Air (First time EV owner). I don't want to have two car payments either. In an event, if I decide to keep ICE, then I will just pay the car out and will be left with Air car payments

If you guys want more details, feel free to ask and I will happily respond. So, should I keep my ICE or sell it?

 

[DeaneG]

Make sure you set up a capable level 2 charging station at home on a 50-amp circuit or higher. It makes all the difference in EV ownership.

This is of course a judgement call, but personally I'd sell the ICE. I imagine that Lucid can put you in a rental loaner car that's not too far away in the event of trouble. You could always call the service center now to check on options.

We're an all-EV household now with the Air and a Volvo. Neither one had been on the market very long when we bought them, and both have had minor software issues. But they're so much better to drive, and more convenient to own, than our previous ICE vehicles.

 

[Bobby]

Hey guys - My Touring has left the factory and en route to Chicago for PDI and I am in the middle of securing financing/leasing option.

As an early adopter, I hope that I don't encounter any major problem that will take the car out of service especially when the SC is ~ 3 hours (NY) from my place as King of Prussia SC is due to be open (not sure when). Also, to set my expectation from beginning, I would probably encounter few issues here and there that leads me to wonder if I should keep my ICE as well (just in case) as a backup.

I was planning to sell my Audi Q5 and take that equity towards my goal of putting 50% in cash and 50% in financing. However, given the unexpected, would it make sense to keep ICE (keep in mind that I still owe ~16K on the ICE) or I should be fine with Air (First time EV owner). I don't want to have two car payments either. In an event, if I decide to keep ICE, then I will just pay the car out and will be left with Air car payments

If you guys want more details, feel free to ask and I will happily respond. So, should I keep my ICE or sell it?

It depends.

It depends on your driving habits. How far do you drive in a typical day? If it’s a lot or you love long road trips, I personally feel the chagring infrastructure is not quite ready for prime time.

It depends on charging. I would never own an EV if I couldn’t charge at home. Especially true since I have solar.

It depends on your location. Is there a service center or good mobile team in your area? My Lucid has been generally reliable but I have had service at my house twice for minor stuff. 3 hours away is a lot.

It depends on your weather. The Lucid is very low and may not behave as well as your Q5 does in accumulated snow.

It depends on your family and cargo needs. The back seat legroom is excellent and the storage is great for a sedan, but you will have a hard time fitting things that an SUV can easily hold.

It depends on your tech tolerance. The Lucid is like driving a crazy fast laptop. Are you ok with tech? I love it!

Hope it helps and good luck. My wife and I each have EVs as daily drivers (her I Pace, my Lucid) but we kept the Explorer as our beater/tow vehicle/Home Depot runner/big box hauler.

 

[Mkatz]

Hey guys - My Touring has left the factory and en route to Chicago for PDI and I am in the middle of securing financing/leasing option.

As an early adopter, I hope that I don't encounter any major problem that will take the car out of service especially when the SC is ~ 3 hours (NY) from my place as King of Prussia SC is due to be open (not sure when). Also, to set my expectation from beginning, I would probably encounter few issues here and there that leads me to wonder if I should keep my ICE as well (just in case) as a backup.

I was planning to sell my Audi Q5 and take that equity towards my goal of putting 50% in cash and 50% in financing. However, given the unexpected, would it make sense to keep ICE (keep in mind that I still owe ~16K on the ICE) or I should be fine with Air (First time EV owner). I don't want to have two car payments either. In an event, if I decide to keep ICE, then I will just pay the car out and will be left with Air car payments

If you guys want more details, feel free to ask and I will happily respond. So, should I keep my ICE or sell it?

I was in a similar position when I took my GT in July. This is also my first EV. I decided to take the plunge and sell my ICE as well and the GT is my daily driver currently. I have needed a total of 6 repairs for a variety of trim issues. Five of them were done with mobile visits and one of them required the car to be taken to 3rd party service center for a week but I had a loaner during that time. As far as I know, the SC is not open yet in NY. I live in NJ and service is being done out of mobile service visits or using third party garage - there is one in Summit. Personally, I do not regret selling my ICE and only have the GT despite the multiple service issues. Lucid service seems to be getting better in our area and you will be able to get a loaner if the car needs to be taken in for any service. I personally would suggest selling the ICE considering that it will continue to depreciate further with time as well. Just my .02.

 

[Sid432]

Make sure you set up a capable level 2 charging station at home on a 50-amp circuit or higher. It makes all the difference in EV ownership.

This is of course a judgement call, but personally I'd sell the ICE. I imagine that Lucid can put you in a rental loaner car that's not too far away in the event of trouble. You could always call the service center now to check on options.

We're an all-EV household now with the Air and a Volvo. Neither one had been on the market very long when we bought them, and both have had minor software issues. But they're so much better to drive, and more convenient to own, than our previous ICE vehicles.

Thanks - Yes, I am in the middle of getting that straightened out as well. The dude cancelled the appointment on me, and I have to reschedule it.

It depends.

It depends on your driving habits. How far do you drive in a typical day? If it’s a lot or you love long road trips, I personally feel the chagring infrastructure is not quite ready for prime time.

It depends on charging. I would never own an EV if I couldn’t charge at home. Especially true since I have solar.

It depends on your location. Is there a service center or good mobile team in your area? My Lucid has been generally reliable but I have had service at my house twice for minor stuff. 3 hours away is a lot.

It depends on your weather. The Lucid is very low and may not behave as well as your Q5 does in accumulated snow.

It depends on your family and cargo needs. The back seat legroom is excellent and the storage is great for a sedan, but you will have a hard time fitting things that an SUV can easily hold.

It depends on your tech tolerance. The Lucid is like driving a crazy fast laptop. Are you ok with tech? I love it!

Hope it helps and good luck. My wife and I each have EVs as daily drivers (her I Pace, my Lucid) but we kept the Explorer as our beater/tow vehicle/Home Depot runner/big box hauler.

1. Driving habits - I love long road trips but that's rear (The farthest I have driven (2 times) from NJ -> FL). The rest is merely 9 hours trip to MI that I have done very often. Typically, in a day i drive about 50 miles as daily commuter
2. I am currently looking into getting L2 installed.
3. I am not sure. I am in Central NJ where I have either LongIsland, NY and King of Prussia, PA - both of them are not open yet (Thanks to @Mkatz). I thought NY one was open.
4. From this forum, I have had number of owners indicated that the car did very well in snow. Plus, in NJ, there may be 5 -10 snowy sessions the entire winter. Like this winter, it has yet to pour snow...
5. I am careful as to what I carry in vehicles for example, luggage, etc but nothing very heavy stuff. I do have Honda Pilot (my dad's that I can use it for heavy lifting stuff from time to time).
6. I love the tech and that's one of the selling points for Lucid as its future ready

 

[MoniputerLM]

Hey guys - My Touring has left the factory and en route to Chicago for PDI and I am in the middle of securing financing/leasing option.

As an early adopter, I hope that I don't encounter any major problem that will take the car out of service especially when the SC is ~ 3 hours (NY) from my place as King of Prussia SC is due to be open (not sure when). Also, to set my expectation from beginning, I would probably encounter few issues here and there that leads me to wonder if I should keep my ICE as well (just in case) as a backup.

I was planning to sell my Audi Q5 and take that equity towards my goal of putting 50% in cash and 50% in financing. However, given the unexpected, would it make sense to keep ICE (keep in mind that I still owe ~16K on the ICE) or I should be fine with Air (First time EV owner). I don't want to have two car payments either. In an event, if I decide to keep ICE, then I will just pay the car out and will be left with Air car payments

If you guys want more details, feel free to ask and I will happily respond. So, should I keep my ICE or sell it?

Keep it, for now.

 

[borski]

It depends.

It depends on your driving habits. How far do you drive in a typical day? If it’s a lot or you love long road trips, I personally feel the chagring infrastructure is not quite ready for prime time.

It depends on charging. I would never own an EV if I couldn’t charge at home. Especially true since I have solar.

It depends on your location. Is there a service center or good mobile team in your area? My Lucid has been generally reliable but I have had service at my house twice for minor stuff. 3 hours away is a lot.

It depends on your weather. The Lucid is very low and may not behave as well as your Q5 does in accumulated snow.

It depends on your family and cargo needs. The back seat legroom is excellent and the storage is great for a sedan, but you will have a hard time fitting things that an SUV can easily hold.

It depends on your tech tolerance. The Lucid is like driving a crazy fast laptop. Are you ok with tech? I love it!

Hope it helps and good luck. My wife and I each have EVs as daily drivers (her I Pace, my Lucid) but we kept the Explorer as our beater/tow vehicle/Home Depot runner/big box hauler.

All good points!

Re: Home Depot, I hate owning SUVs (though we’re gonna buy a crossover, maybe the Ioniq5 if they stop with the insane $10k markups) so my solution is almost always to just rent the Home Depot pickup for $19

 

[borski]

From this forum, I have had number of owners indicated that the car did very well in snow. Plus, in NJ, there may be 5 -10 snowy sessions the entire winter.

It does do very well in snow, but it is still never going to be as good as an SUV in cold weather or serious snow. It sounds like you’d be fine with all seasons in NJ, though.

If you lived in Colorado, you’d want a “snow vehicle” or at least snow tires for the winter, for example.

Based on everything you said it sounds like you could easily get rid of the ICE and not miss it too much. That said, you also don’t *have* to make that choice today; you could keep both for 2-3 months and then decide?

For what it’s worth, after about 6 months of owning the Lucid I then sold both of our ICE cars (partially because the used market was insane, and partially because they were sitting unused). I’m looking for a crossover, but it’s going to be an EV. At this point, given the benefits and calm of not having to worry about filling up with gas or all of the routine maintenance of an ICE, I don’t know if I’ll ever buy another ICE vehicle.

I do miss the roar of a nice naturally aspirated V10 R8, but luckily my buddy has one, heh - of course now he’s looking at the sapphire so who knows

 

[stratus]

You are going to get several different opinions on this and all of them are valid and reasonable.

I kept my ICE car as a backup for multiple reasons. We live in a charging desert and in addition, there are some locations in the mountains that would be inaccessible with an EV. My ICE also provides me some added peace of mind as an early adopter of the Lucid. Thirdly, there are some days in the winter where I may need higher clearance.

All that being said, I use the Air for 90 percent of my driving and it performs extremely well in all conditions , including severe winter weather. It evens plows through deep snow!!

I love the car, have had very few issues ( minor software hiccups ), and drive it virtually every day. I get a little added peace of mind, knowing I have a back up.

 

[joec]

I will never go back to ICE, but my particular vehicle needs are rather simple compared to others.

I just can’t stomach the thought of using a gas station again, to be honest.

 

[Sandvinsd]

I have aging parents. The Lucid is too low for them to easily get in and out, even with assistance, if I have to take them for appointments. For that reason, we will likely keep the ICE Sienna for a while.

 

[Slam08]

As an early adopter, I hope that I don't encounter any major problem that will take the car out of service especially when the SC is ~ 3 hours (NY) from my place as King of Prussia SC is due to be open (not sure when). Also, to set my expectation from beginning, I would probably encounter few issues here and there that leads me to wonder if I should keep my ICE as well (just in case) as a backup.

The answer of course it is depends. I personally haven’t made the jump yet bc of reliability issues. I don’t plan on having a backup car. Lucid has been great with customer service when things go wrong. But sometimes I have to get to work or pick up the kids and can’t wait a couple of hours for a tow.

Such a situation is of course rare! But it depends upon how much on an inconvenience that would be for you. If you work from home and have easy access to alternate transportation, then maybe you don’t need one? Lucids dont break down very often, but I think it’s a safe bet to say the Lucid has a higher chance of issues than your Q5.

 

[Bobby]

The answer of course it is depends. I personally haven’t made the jump yet bc of reliability issues. I don’t plan on having a backup car. Lucid has been great with customer service when things go wrong. But sometimes I have to get to work or pick up the kids and can’t wait a couple of hours for a tow.

Such a situation is of course rare! But it depends upon how much on an inconvenience that would be for you. If you work from home and have easy access to alternate transportation, then maybe you don’t need one? Lucids dont break down very often, but I think it’s a safe bet to say the Lucid has a higher chance of issues than your Q5.

My Q5 was a nightmare and resulted in a manufacturer buyback (electronic issues). Audi reliability is well below average in the luxury SUV market. Of course I only represent one data point so a trend cannot be inferred.

How has your I Pace been? Mine has been ok except for the 12V failure (29k miles; required flatbed) and front drive unit failure (severe vibration in front wheels, was replaced at 32k miles, took 7 weeks for part to be sourced). I'd recommend having the 12V tested by the dealer at least yearly and also keeping a jump pack in the car. If you're interested, I created a document of what to do in case of a 12V failure in the I Pace. Let me know and I can send it if you'd like.

 

[Slam08]

My Q5 was a nightmare and resulted in a manufacturer buyback (electronic issues). Audi reliability is well below average in the luxury SUV market. Of course I only represent one data point so a trend cannot be inferred.

How has your I Pace been? Mine has been ok except for the 12V failure (29k miles; required flatbed) and front drive unit failure (severe vibration in front wheels, was replaced at 32k miles, took 7 weeks for part to be sourced). I'd recommend having the 12V tested by the dealer at least yearly and also keeping a jump pack in the car. If you're interested, I created a document of what to do in case of a 12V failure in the I Pace. Let me know and I can send it if you'd like.

I got lucky with a second generation Ipace that has been pretty solid. It had some annoying info my and software that I took it to the dealer for. And the just 2 weeks ago I got a traction battery fault while backing out of my driveway. It got stick at the bottom of my driveway, halfway into the road. And sat there for about 30 min and then decided to run fine ever since. Dunno what the glitch was. That was concerning. But it happened after 11 months of ownership so I do still trust the car (until it does it again).

Hopefully I’m a year out and won’t have to worry about 12V failures for a little bit. The second generation only have one 12V battery and hopefully better battery management!

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I have aging parents. The Lucid is too low for them to easily get in and out, even with assistance, if I have to take them for appointments. For that reason, we will likely keep the ICE Sienna for a while.

Thought I was going to use the Lucid to transport elderly / invalid as well but now not sure entry/egress will be possible. I've practiced this a few times: getting in/out the back. I too find the ducking awkward even for me...hummm. I could chuck them in like firewood...love the way the door opens but that roofline is low....so butt in, duck and swing ? Head first dive & roll ? I didn't think this through. However the cars I sold: SL600 and E63s wagon were unsuitable for limo duty as well. I should have looked at second-hand medical helicopters.

 

[Bobby]

Thought I was going to use the Lucid to transport elderly / invalid as well but now not sure entry/egress will be possible. I've practiced this a few times: getting in/out the back. I too find the ducking awkward even for me...hummm. I could chuck them in like firewood...love the way the door opens but that roofline is low....so butt in, duck and swing ? Head first dive & roll ? I didn't think this through. However the cars I sold: SL600 and E63s wagon were unsuitable for limo duty as well. I should have looked at second-hand medical helicopters.

The Gravity may be the ticket. I like low cars… the Lucid is a cinch to get in and out of after owning an Aston.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

All good points!

Re: Home Depot, I hate owning SUVs (though we’re gonna buy a crossover, maybe the Ioniq5 if they stop with the insane $10k markups) so my solution is almost always to just rent the Home Depot pickup for $19

Yea I had to come around to this: replace one vehicle with two.
Were there any hint Lucid had a sport wagon ... the sport estate is the perfect vehicle.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I can't believe I didn't notice this before, but how many times do you bonk your head getting in? I'm ~170cm and here's how it goes:
bonk swinging head in; bonk reaching out for door handle; bonk swinging head back in with door. I laugh when I do this. Now wife won't stop teasing me. I should say this doesn't bother me. This is, after all, a super car.

 

[borski]

I can't believe I didn't notice this before, but how many times do you bonk your head getting in? I'm ~170cm and here's how it goes:
bonk swinging head in; bonk reaching out for door handle; bonk swinging head back in with door. I laugh when I do this. Now wife won't stop teasing me. I should say this doesn't bother me. This is, after all, a super car.

Zero, lol. But I know others have mentioned doing it once or twice before they stop. Don't know of anyone that has gotten CTE from repetitive getting in and out; you may be the first.

 

[creair]

Hey guys - My Touring has left the factory and en route to Chicago for PDI and I am in the middle of securing financing/leasing option.

As an early adopter, I hope that I don't encounter any major problem that will take the car out of service especially when the SC is ~ 3 hours (NY) from my place as King of Prussia SC is due to be open (not sure when). Also, to set my expectation from beginning, I would probably encounter few issues here and there that leads me to wonder if I should keep my ICE as well (just in case) as a backup.

I was planning to sell my Audi Q5 and take that equity towards my goal of putting 50% in cash and 50% in financing. However, given the unexpected, would it make sense to keep ICE (keep in mind that I still owe ~16K on the ICE) or I should be fine with Air (First time EV owner). I don't want to have two car payments either. In an event, if I decide to keep ICE, then I will just pay the car out and will be left with Air car payments

If you guys want more details, feel free to ask and I will happily respond. So, should I keep my ICE or sell it?

On a typical day you will not out range the lucid. I have had 200+ mile days and come home with 30 miles remaining no issues at all. In case you are not comfortable with taking EV out just rent a nice car on turo. It will save you money in the long run. Financially it wouldn't make sense to keep oce