Range Experiences

[Halodde]

Do not charge over 80% too often. The battery will degrade faster. If you use lucid navigation the soc and range it estimates seem to be conservative since .55 software update

Sadly, due to the amount of mileage I have to cover for work, I have to. This is also compounded by current unreliability of EA charging. So, when I find one that charges relatively quickly, I need to juice up because I don't know when/if I'll find another

 

[HariK]

This is generally true. But I would add three things to consider.

First, much of the damage from full charging comes from the buildup of dendrites. But they don't form instantly, so a lot of the degradation from full charging can be avoided by charging up to that level only when you're going to start driving immediately, such as on a road trip.

Second, DC fast charging is more stressful for the battery pack than Level 2 charging at home. Even though Lucid buyers get a period of free DC fast charging, it would be better to use that only on road trips if you have the ability to charge at home.

Third -- and this one is really opaque -- a Lucid engineer said in an interview that the 118-kWh battery pack has no buffer, as the pack is robust enough to take full charging. This squares with earlier press releases from Lucid which said that the Samsung batteries used in the 118-kWh pack were developed in consultation with Lucid to enable them to tolerate repeated DC fast charging and full charging. (No such claims were made about the LG Chem batteries used in the 112-kWh pack.) Exactly what is different about the Samsung batteries was left unclear, and I have difficulty imagining that a battery chemistry or structure that would bring such advantages would not spread to other battery lines, especially within Samsung.

I used the publicly available Charging curve for the Dream Edition and extrapolated for Pure AWD which is close enough for touring.

 

[hmp10]

Sadly, due to the amount of mileage I have to cover for work, I have to. This is also compounded by current unreliability of EA charging. So, when I find one that charges relatively quickly, I need to juice up because I don't know when/if I'll find another

You do seem to be a relatively extreme use case, but I still wouldn't worry about this if I were you.

If you saw my post about the Tesla fleet at the Amsterdam Airport, those were early-generation Model S's. Even though being constantly given DC fast charges to 100%, they were still hitting 200,000 km with less than 10% loss in battery capacity. And those cars were built using batteries and pack technology from a decade ago, which is a lifetime in this business.

Take a look at Peter Rawlinson again.

There's something of a myth out and about that all Lotus contributed to the original Tesla Roadster was a body shell and suspension. In fact, Tesla turn to Lotus because they had hit a dead end with powertrain development, and Lotus became heavily involved in the powertrain development as well. And Peter Rawlinson was Lotus' head of Advanced Engineering at the time.

Then Rawlinson was hired as Chief Engineer by Tesla, where he was given only a body shell design that had to have the entire powertrain, including the battery pack and associated electronics, engineered from the ground up. (And it was those packs that were in the cars that have turned out to be so robust in Amsterdam taxi service.)

From there, Rawlinson went to Atieva, which had pioneered the first battery pack that could last for an entire Formula E race and which became the sole supplier to Formula E racing. Those packs racked up more than 2 million race miles without a single failure.

I doubt if there's anybody in this business who knows more about how to build a robust battery pack than Peter Rawlinson.

 

[Mawashi Geri]

I think my car is broken. Just kidding. I have never seen numbers like this. Might be the much warmer NW temps. Might be that I never went over 55mph. Too many people out enjoying the spring like weather kept me from going much faster. I normally get about 3.1m/kWh. I am very pleased to see the 4.4m/kWh. Yee ha!

 

[nevadagame]

I would like to point out that there has been an update since the original post and range is accurately calculated or underestimated if you input your destination in the navigation. The remaining range on the main screen when navigation is not activated is the EPA range. If you would like your Air to match EPA range please follow the instructions below which all EV manufacturers are required to follow. There is no Lucid trickery here on stated range but they could do better at conveying actual range when navigation is not engaged.

Range Testing for Electric Vehicles​

An all-electric vehicle (EV) produces no smog-forming or greenhouse gas emissions from its tailpipe. For EVs, vehicle testing provides important label information, such as fuel economy and range.

For EV range testing:

1. A vehicle with a fully charged battery is driven continuously over the EPA city cycle until the battery is depleted and the vehicle can drive no further. The distance driven is recorded. This is repeated, again starting with a full charge, over the EPA highway cycle, again recording the distance driven when the battery is depleted. This “single cycle” test consists of multiple repeat drives of the city or highway cycle.
2. Automakers also have the option of doing a multi-cycle test, which consists of four city cycles, two highway cycles, and two constant speed cycles.*
3. All testing is done in a laboratory on a dynamometer.
4. The city and highway driving ranges determined from this testing are adjusted to account for real-world factors that are not represented on the laboratory test procedures. These factors include such things the impact of air conditioning, of cold temperatures, and of high speed and aggressive driving behavior. Although the regulations allow some optional approaches, the most common approach is to use a factor of 0.7 to adjust all the test parameters, including range. For example: An EV achieves 200 miles on the highway laboratory test. Real-world highway driving range → 200 x 0.7 = 140 miles to account for aggressive driving and HVAC use.
5. The adjusted city and highway range values are weighted together by 55% and 45%, respectively, to determine the combined city and highway driving range that appears on the EPA fuel economy label. For example: Assume an adjusted city range of 168 miles and an adjusted highway range of 140 (from example above). The official combined range value → (0.55 x 168) + (0.45 x 140) = 155 miles (values are rounded to the nearest whole number)."

More details can be found here on testing procedures:

Federal Register :: Request Access

…or you can just use the range figures accurately if you convert them to km. Then it becomes fairly accurate. That even allows for a slight safety buffer zone. 500 reading =310
100=62. 200=125. It’s easy.

 

[borski]

I think my car is broken. Just kidding. I have never seen numbers like this. Might be the much warmer NW temps. Might be that I never went over 55mph. Too many people out enjoying the spring like weather kept me from going much faster. I normally get about 3.1m/kWh. I am very pleased to see the 4.4m/kWh. Yee ha!

Your overall odometer is nearing the 2000mi mark it seems, so it’s possible the oft-rumored break in period is contributing too.

 

[Bobby]

I think my car is broken. Just kidding. I have never seen numbers like this. Might be the much warmer NW temps. Might be that I never went over 55mph. Too many people out enjoying the spring like weather kept me from going much faster. I normally get about 3.1m/kWh. I am very pleased to see the 4.4m/kWh. Yee ha!

4.2 gives you EPA range.

 

[MoniputerLM]

You do seem to be a relatively extreme use case, but I still wouldn't worry about this if I were you.

If you saw my post about the Tesla fleet at the Amsterdam Airport, those were early-generation Model S's. Even though being constantly given DC fast charges to 100%, they were still hitting 200,000 km with less than 10% loss in battery capacity. And those cars were built using batteries and pack technology from a decade ago, which is a lifetime in this business.

Take a look at Peter Rawlinson again.

There's something of a myth out and about that all Lotus contributed to the original Tesla Roadster was a body shell and suspension. In fact, Tesla turn to Lotus because they had hit a dead end with powertrain development, and Lotus became heavily involved in the powertrain development as well. And Peter Rawlinson was Lotus' head of Advanced Engineering at the time.

Then Rawlinson was hired as Chief Engineer by Tesla, where he was given only a body shell design that had to have the entire powertrain, including the battery pack and associated electronics, engineered from the ground up. (And it was those packs that were in the cars that have turned out to be so robust in Amsterdam taxi service.)

From there, Rawlinson went to Atieva, which had pioneered the first battery pack that could last for an entire Formula E race and which became the sole supplier to Formula E racing. Those packs racked up more than 2 million race miles without a single failure.

I doubt if there's anybody in this business who knows more about how to build a robust battery pack than Peter Rawlinson.

So why is Lucid having HV issues?

 

[borski]

So why is Lucid having HV issues?

For the few cases in which it has occurred, it is likely because of multi-sourcing a component in either the HV battery or the Wunderbox, some portion of which cause some sort of interference and then fail. My understanding is it is a small percentage of vehicles with the v1 HV battery and Wunderbox, and any with the V2 will not have the problem.

In other words: because sometimes Lucid relies on suppliers and the pandemic made that very difficult for a low-volume brand new manufacturer. 🤷‍♂️

 

[MoniputerLM]

For the few cases in which it has occurred, it is likely because of multi-sourcing a component in either the HV battery or the Wunderbox, some portion of which cause some sort of interference and then fail. My understanding is it is a small percentage of vehicles with the v1 HV battery and Wunderbox, and any with the V2 will not have the problem.

In other words: because sometimes Lucid relies on suppliers and the pandemic made that very difficult for a low-volume brand new manufacturer. 🤷‍♂️

So, all of the DEs are at risk? It still seems to me that there are too many failure modes that are not caught before a catastrophic failure. IMHO.

 

[borski]

So, all of the DEs are at risk? It still seems to me that there are too many failure modes that are not caught before a catastrophic failure. IMHO.

No. A small percentage of them, from my understanding. And if it happens, it gets fixed and never happens again. But no, not every DE will have it happen.

 

[Mawashi Geri]

4.2 gives you EPA range.

I was very happy with the 4.4m/kWh. I never dipped below 4.1m/kWh during the 90 plus miles of driving. Very encouraging. Just wanted to put Lucid in positive light about the mileage. Seems like a lot of the comments show concern about the projected 516 miles per charge. This was very good. The driving was in city and back roads. A lot of stop and go driving. Very good performance.

 

[Mawashi Geri]

I considered the 2000 mile break in point for the performance. I am good with that. Regardless, no matter what…..it is possible to to achieve the projected EPA. Very encouraging. Not as much fun to drive like I did to get this performance but just wanted to put some positive comments about Lucids ability to out perform most other vehicles out there. I just hope that it is not a one time event for me.

 

[hmp10]

So why is Lucid having HV issues?

It would be very hard (as in impossible) to find an EV manufacturer that has not had some problems with it battery packs -- some rare (Lucid) and some widespread and systemic (Chevy, VW, Hyundai, etc.).

I said Rawlinson probably knows more about battery pack technology than anyone in the business. I never said Lucid would make a product that never saw a problem.

 

[Bus Driver]

I was very happy with the 4.4m/kWh. I never dipped below 4.1m/kWh during the 90 plus miles of driving. Very encouraging. Just wanted to put Lucid in positive light about the mileage. Seems like a lot of the comments show concern about the projected 516 miles per charge. This was very good. The driving was in city and back roads. A lot of stop and go driving. Very good performance.

If you were driving mainly on city streets and back roads, I would wager you didn’t drive much above 50 mph to get that kind of efficiency.

 

[1shah]

 

[Steveinarizona]

View attachment 10716

Where are you driving (i.e., what is the climate)? Was it flat or hilly and if the latter, were you going down hill or uphill or did it even out? Were you driving the speed limit?

 

[AmyS]

Regarding range calculations, we all know cold weather and speed affects the experience, however I have also observed that when driving long ranges in cold weather (~20 degrees) and with high or blustery winds, the range can be off by 70 - 100 miles in the calculation when using navigation system. Be overly cautious when driving in these conditions and don't get caught without access to a nearby (and working) charge station!

 

[1shah]

Where are you driving (i.e., what is the climate)? Was it flat or hilly and if the latter, were you going down hill or uphill or did it even out? Were you driving the speed limit?

it's a glitch.. miscalculation.

 

[1shah]

I don't know how is this possible --