Road Trip Disaster

[Rogue]

It turns out that my VIN was not part of the recall for the contactor issue. Yet that was exactly the problem my car had, faulty high voltage contactors as specified in the recall. The contactor issue for my car fell outside the parameters that Lucid set up to define the cars likely to have the issue with the faulty components. Which is unsettling because my car was in the Riviera Beach service center for 2 minor issues in April and inspected for known recall issues. My VIN only suggested the wiring harness issue to be investigated. Lucid will be looking into how this could have happened, according to Russell, the Mechanicsville service center manager. Car is being shipped to me tonight, due to arrive at 10 am tomorrow. Less than one week, from Florence, SC, to repairs in Mechanicsville, VA, and back to NJ, is pretty impressive. Excellent handling of a tough situation, which could have been much worse.

This was the eventual issue for my car as well. A single contactor did not open/close properly. A second recall may occur if enough of us have this issue.

 

[thegman82]

Sorry to hear it, @whywar . I had the same issue (I catalogued mine on @Halodde 's thread).
I took delivery of my AT in December and had my drive fault error in April after 3500 miles.
Since they fixed my issue I have put another 3100 miles on it, without a concern. I still love my car and I intend to push to take it to the inlaws on the next road trip. To my knowledge, all who have reported the issue on this forum did not experience it a second time to this point. That gives me some comfort.

 

[thegman82]

But it sure was frustrating.

 

[ggrooms]

I was excited to drive my Lucid from Florida to NJ, as I would enjoy the ability to maneuver the car through trucks on the two lane portions of I 95. I was only concerned about the DCFC situation as my car has recently experienced charging errors at EA locations. The car would charge for 1 minute then stop and display " charging error reconnect and try again" message. I contacted Lucid and was told that this was an EA issue. It happened often and at 5 different EA locations. EA resolved the issue by rebooting the chargers and comping the charging session, so I assumed it was a billing issue. I left Boca Raton FL and traveled to Ormand Beach, where I had 3 charging errors on 3 different chargers before I was able to connect and charge normally. 200 miles later, in Pooler, Ga., the first charger I used worked properly and I was able to charge from 27% to 87%, for the final leg of the day. On arrival at the hotel in Florence SC, all seemed to be fine with the vehicle. We unloaded our bags and checked into the hotel. Went back to move the car into a parking space and the dreaded fatal "drive fault error" appeared on the screen. Contacted customer care and a tow was arranged, at least that was what I was told. 90 minutes later the tow truck arrived, but it did not have the ability to move the now 100% dead Lucid (the battery had a 34% charge on arrival). The tow truck did not have skates or dollies to put under the wheels, nor did the driver have any tools to open the rear passenger wheel wheel to access the 12 volt battery. I waited for another tow truck, with skates to take the car away so Lucid can haul it to the Virginia service center. It took a total of 4 hours from the initial call to customer care before it was loaded onto a flat bed tow truck. Tomorrow I need to rent a car to continue my trip to NJ. In short, I own an expensive car that I can no longer rely on to use as a mode of transportation. In the past, when people asked me about the Lucid, I responded with "it is the best car I have owned, an awesome car to drive". No more. I cannot recommend this vehicle to anyone as it is not worth the risk of being stranded on the side of an interstate, many miles from home. I was fortunate that I was 5 miles from the highway, at my hotel, when the car bricked. As bad as this experience was, it could have been much worse.

I have had so many similar issues that my family will no longer allow the Lucid to be used on family trips. They literally have PTSD concerning the vehicle. I am now careful to not drive the car more than one hour from my house, charge at home and to keep myself safe. Two learning experiences I’ve had this past year. One, do not leave the trunk open for any longer than necessary, seems to freeze/mess up the software. Two, I left my mobile in the car momentarily in a parking lot, the car locked, luckily my wife has the app on her phone and was able to open remotely. If using your phone as your main key, then always keep w/ you. It all makes sense now, my fault, just an experience I do not wish for others.

 

[Halodde]

I have had so many similar issues that my family will no longer allow the Lucid to be used on family trips. They literally have PTSD concerning the vehicle. I am now careful to not drive the car more than one hour from my house, charge at home and to keep myself safe. Two learning experiences I’ve had this past year. One, do not leave the trunk open for any longer than necessary, seems to freeze/mess up the software. Two, I left my mobile in the car momentarily in a parking lot, the car locked, luckily my wife has the app on her phone and was able to open remotely. If using your phone as your main key, then always keep w/ you. It all makes sense now, my fault, just an experience I do not wish for others.

You can just keep the valet card in your wallet

 

[Bobby]

I have had so many similar issues that my family will no longer allow the Lucid to be used on family trips. They literally have PTSD concerning the vehicle. I am now careful to not drive the car more than one hour from my house, charge at home and to keep myself safe. Two learning experiences I’ve had this past year. One, do not leave the trunk open for any longer than necessary, seems to freeze/mess up the software. Two, I left my mobile in the car momentarily in a parking lot, the car locked, luckily my wife has the app on her phone and was able to open remotely. If using your phone as your main key, then always keep w/ you. It all makes sense now, my fault, just an experience I do not wish for others.

1. The trunk must be manually closed after 10 minutes. Not sure why, but this is by design.
2. Did you try to touch the handle? This is the solution to the key left in the car.
3. Keep the key card in your wallet in case your phone dies or is lost.
4. I just returned from a 1000 mile road trip. The car was a pleasure.

 

[whywar]

As an explanatory note, the contactor issue should not occur while driving, only when the vehicle stops and is parked. They act as on off switches for the high voltage battery, when the car parks the contactors disengage after 30 seconds or so. The problem is that they remain in the off position when trying to engage the drive system preventing the battery power from getting to the motors. Although, as explained in the recall notice, in some cases, it may occur while driving.

 

[Spin Doctor]

Very interesting - I wonder if the problem with my car was also the contractor issue?

 

[digiboxer]

I have had so many similar issues that my family will no longer allow the Lucid to be used on family trips. They literally have PTSD concerning the vehicle. I am now careful to not drive the car more than one hour from my house, charge at home and to keep myself safe. Two learning experiences I’ve had this past year. One, do not leave the trunk open for any longer than necessary, seems to freeze/mess up the software. Two, I left my mobile in the car momentarily in a parking lot, the car locked, luckily my wife has the app on her phone and was able to open remotely. If using your phone as your main key, then always keep w/ you. It all makes sense now, my fault, just an experience I do not wish for others.

For me this was the single big deterrent to buying the car. In the end I rationalized going ahead by convincing myself I can get away with only charging at home, and never driving very far from home. Being 20 miles from a major service center was important too.

For me the Lucid is a luxury/novelty that I love to drive, but don't have the confidence to depend on. Just bought a new BMW X5 which will be perfect for tailgating, the occasional road trip, snow storms, etc.

 

[Spin Doctor]

Indeed, I've been tailgated by a BMW X5 on many occasions

 

[whywar]

For me this was the single big deterrent to buying the car. In the end I rationalized going ahead by convincing myself I can get away with only charging at home, and never driving very far from home. Being 20 miles from a major service center was important too.

For me the Lucid is a luxury/novelty that I love to drive, but don't have the confidence to depend on. Just bought a new BMW X5 which will be perfect for tailgating, the occasional road trip, snow storms, etc.

I have full confidence in the vehicle post repair. If a major failure occurs in the future, I know that the customer care team will help get me to my destination, as painlessly as possible. It is like riding a bike, I will not let the fear of falling keep me from enjoying the ride. I will wear a helmet, however.

 

[hellolucid]

It turns out that my VIN was not part of the recall for the contactor issue. Yet that was exactly the problem my car had, faulty high voltage contactors as specified in the recall. The contactor issue for my car fell outside the parameters that Lucid set up to define the cars likely to have the issue with the faulty components. Which is unsettling because my car was in the Riviera Beach service center for 2 minor issues in April and inspected for known recall issues. My VIN only suggested the wiring harness issue to be investigated. Lucid will be looking into how this could have happened, according to Russell, the Mechanicsville service center manager. Car is being shipped to me tonight, due to arrive at 10 am tomorrow. Less than one week, from Florence, SC, to repairs in Mechanicsville, VA, and back to NJ, is pretty impressive. Excellent handling of a tough situation, which could have been much worse.

this is great for my anxiety. your car was not part of the official recall but you experienced the issue which Lucid narrowed down to a small set of owners with software updates. the fact that you experienced this after 9k miles is also concerning. sorry that you had to go through this. i thought my car was safe (not part of the recall) but seeing this and the comment in page 2, it seems like you are never safe safe.

 

[borski]

For me this was the single big deterrent to buying the car. In the end I rationalized going ahead by convincing myself I can get away with only charging at home, and never driving very far from home. Being 20 miles from a major service center was important too.

For me the Lucid is a luxury/novelty that I love to drive, but don't have the confidence to depend on. Just bought a new BMW X5 which will be perfect for tailgating, the occasional road trip, snow storms, etc.

To each their own, I suppose. I had the battery replacement at around 8k miles and I’m at almost 13k now and I still wouldn’t prefer to road trip with any other car.

 

[Bill55]

For me the Lucid is a luxury/novelty that I love to drive, but don't have the confidence to depend on. Just bought a new BMW X5 which will be perfect for tailgating, the occasional road trip, snow storms, etc.

I’m at 21,637 miles with the vast majority being road trip miles as I live only a couple miles from the shop. I just got back from a trip to the Smokies staying at an Airbnb that had a level 2 charger. It was great to be able to charge every night and never worry about range.

Only issue with the car for this trip is on a hike we split up with one party taking the key fob and me with my iPhone. In an area with no cell service and the car refused to open with the iPhone when I got back first. I use this iPhone daily to open the car, not using the app, using the iPhone as a paired key. I of course had the card key in my wallet as I think the lock/unlock system on this car is very sub par from dependability, range consistency, battery life, and well documented issues like locking and unlocking repeatedly when you are 20 feet away and possibly even when the key is inside a building and the car is out of sight.

If I lost confidence to the point of not using it for road trips, I don‘t know if I would keep it around. Since it has depreciated so much, I would probably would and put some Michelins on it, tune the suspension for the track, and turn it into an HPDE demon. It’s just so damn fast, it needs a roll bar, race seats and a 6 point harness.

 

[emoylv]

When I made the decision to purchase a Lucid (2 years and 2 weeks to be exact), I pretty much signed up to be a long-term beta tester. I'm actually okay with that. I've learned a lot in the 6 months of ownership. The most important lesson is to pre-plan, as in finding the next charging station. I'm limiting my charging experience to EA so naturally this decreases charging availability by a lot but that's a personal choice until the 3-year freebie expires. The biggest adjustment is to understand that a refuel stop in an EV takes longer, sometimes quite a bit longer, than with an ICE vehicle. I look for any excuse to hit the road but I try and use the splash and dash strategy (i.e. add 200 miles or less of range) rather than trying to top off to 100%. That's if my wife and I are going somewhere by ourselves. If our 21-month old granddaughter is going, we take the Lexus RX450h. 20+ minutes of wait time isn't much, but it's an eternity for a toddler. Also, having an ICE vehicle in addition to an EV completely colors my view. If the Lucid was my only vehicle, I'm sure my anxiety level would be different. I'd like to take the Route 66 trip from Santa Monica to Chicago; my wife not only says No but HN! Will have to work on that a bit...

Only complaint that I have isn't with Lucid, it's with EA. Charger availability/reliability (in the Vegas area) leaves a lot of room for improvement.

 

[Bill55]

When I made the decision to purchase a Lucid (2 years and 2 weeks to be exact), I pretty much signed up to be a long-term beta tester. I'm actually okay with that. I've learned a lot in the 6 months of ownership. The most important lesson is to pre-plan, as in finding the next charging station. I'm limiting my charging experience to EA so naturally this decreases charging availability by a lot but that's a personal choice until the 3-year freebie expires. The biggest adjustment is to understand that a refuel stop in an EV takes longer, sometimes quite a bit longer, than with an ICE vehicle. I look for any excuse to hit the road but I try and use the splash and dash strategy (i.e. add 200 miles or less of range) rather than trying to top off to 100%. That's if my wife and I are going somewhere by ourselves. If our 21-month old granddaughter is going, we take the Lexus RX450h. 20+ minutes of wait time isn't much, but it's an eternity for a toddler. Also, having an ICE vehicle in addition to an EV completely colors my view. If the Lucid was my only vehicle, I'm sure my anxiety level would be different. I'd like to take the Route 66 trip from Santa Monica to Chicago; my wife not only says No but HN! Will have to work on that a bit...

Only complaint that I have isn't with Lucid, it's with EA. Charger availability/reliability (in the Vegas area) leaves a lot of room for improvement.

I make an effort to do a paradigm shift on charging, from something you do like getting gas, to something that happens while I am doing other things. At home of course it is easy as I ”refuel” while sleeping. When you want to go 500 or 600 miles or more in a day, Level 3 charging is of course required. I would really like to see more 75kW chargers at Restaurants vs a continued emphasis on 350kW chargers. Spending 45m to an hour having lunch or dinner and coming back to a full or nearly full car, far preferable to spending 20-30 minutes in a Walmart parking lot.
EA still has issues, but I have been able to charge at every EA station I have gone to with the exception of October 20, 2022 when an EA update broke Lucid charging and I had to track down an alternate while on a road trip.
EA Charging has not always been fast, and I frequently needed to try more than one charger, but, I have been able to charge.

 

[hydbob]

For me this was the single big deterrent to buying the car. In the end I rationalized going ahead by convincing myself I can get away with only charging at home, and never driving very far from home. Being 20 miles from a major service center was important too.

For me the Lucid is a luxury/novelty that I love to drive, but don't have the confidence to depend on. Just bought a new BMW X5 which will be perfect for tailgating, the occasional road trip, snow storms, etc.

So you've decided it's unreliable even though it's been completely reliable for you?

 

[DeaneG]

... with my iPhone. In an area with no cell service and the car refused to open with the iPhone when I got back first...

I could be wrong, but can't the phone also be used as an NFC key by holding it near the B pillar? Someone else can correct me.

 

[hydbob]

I could be wrong, but can't the phone also be used as an NFC key by holding it near the B pillar? Someone else can correct me.

Not the phone but the fob. The mobile key relies on BT and should have worked without cell service.

 

[borski]

Not the phone but the fob. The mobile key relies on BT and should have worked without cell service.

They could, theoretically, integrate it with Apple's Car Key feature in Wallet, but they haven't yet.