Road Trip Report

[n8236]

The last Mercedes I owned was a 2004 SL55. I abandoned the brand due to the slew of unending problems with that car. Its interior fit and finish was fine, although the body structure was nowhere near as robust as the three Audi R8's that followed. (In fairness, the MB was a convertible.)

As for the Lucid interior, I'd put it on a par with the five Audis I've owned, which had the best interior materials and finish of any of the German cars I've owned. The Lucid interior is very "tailored", with crisp but swooping lines and firm surfaces as opposed to the slightly softer lines and surfaces of the luxury German cars. The leathers, wool blends, Alcantara panels, and the beautiful silvered eucalyptus wood in the Air are top drawer and meticulously installed. I've only had two issues with the Lucid interior: the functionality (not the materials or fit) of the center console is subpar, especially the wireless phone charging; and the driver-side floor mat will not stay anchored to the floor.

Compared to the misaligned panels and blunt lines of our 2021 Tesla Model S Plaid interior there is, well . . . no comparison.

Thanks for the detailed reply. Hearing it’s on par with Audis really eases my mind. It’s too bad about the center console.

 

[Jeanwoodie]

We’re wrapping up a ~2,000 mile road trip with our car, which turned 7,000 miles along the way. Part of the reason for this trip was to vet the car in conditions we don’t encounter in everyday local driving. So . . . .

Driving and Riding

This car is a superb sports / grand touring sedan. The balance of power, handling, suspension compliance, and body solidity is the best I have ever encountered, including the Mercedes, Audis, BMWs, and Tesla Model S’s I have owned and driven. The seating comfort, though inevitably compromised by the accommodation of the battery pack, is remarkable after hours on end, and the visual openness of the canopy makes one forget the thick roof rails and high belt line. Despite bright sunshine and temperatures reaching 108, the cabin never became uncomfortable.

Range and Charging

We averaged about 81% of EPA range in highway driving without cruise control and hovering around 80 mph, both frequently dropping below and accelerating quickly above that to avoid traffic snarls. In fact, our range was better than I had planned for, and we were able to skip a couple of charging stops I had planned, including one on the long climb from Columbia, SC into the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The Electrify America situation was spotty. While there were charging stations everywhere we needed them and we were never unable to charge, there were several episodes of authorization failures and other equipment malfunctions that required us to try a second charging spot and even a third spot on one occasion. While we were seldom alone at a charging station, there was always at least one functioning spot available. Another issue was that some of the EA stations are in the remote reaches of huge Walmart parking lots with no eating or bathroom venues nearby in the brutally hot, humid, and sometimes rainy weather. So several times we had to add eating and bathroom break times on top of the charging times, contributing to lengthy charging stops.

Software

This continues to be the Achilles heel of an otherwise phenomenal car. We had one occasion where the car failed to recognize that charging had been stopped and required us to use the emergency manual release to free the charging cable. We started the trip on software version 1.2.1 and ended up using our phones for navigation due to the comically bad (in a black comedy sort of way) performance of the Nav system and Alexa’s inability to locate chargers using the charger addresses on the EA website. Halfway through the trip we got the 1.2.6 update, and the Nav system began to operate better. But this morning it all went to hell in a hand basket. We started the morning with Alexa accepting the correct charge station address, plotting the route accurately, and tracking our progress properly. Then we made the mistake of taking a bathroom break. When we got back in the car, the Nav system had lost the route (an issue which was supposedly fixed with 1.2.6 and had functioned properly the prior day). When we tried to voice input the address again, we got all kinds of weird guesses from Alexa which kept trying to take us to, among other places, some bistro, none remotely like the address we were giving it. An attempt to input the address manually only worked after several tries. When we started moving, Alexa told us to drive 0.2 miles and then make a turn. (We had already joined an interstate from a state-run rest area, and there were no turns called for in over a hundred miles.). The Glass Cockpit was displaying an odd symbol in the Nav system that we had never seen before, and after a couple of miles we noticed that the position arrows were not moving and that the screens were frozen. A couple of minutes later, the right side of the Glass Cockpit and the Pilot Screen went black.

I called Lucid Customer Service and was told I would have to get off the highway, park the car, and leave it for at least 15 minutes while it went into sleep mode for a hard reset. So . . . a very annoying unplanned stop when we finally got to a convenient stopover point after miles of driving with two black control screens.

Conclusion

This is a car engineered and built by world-class automotive engineers with user-interfacing software apparently developed as a trade school project by the students who were sentenced to summer school.

Just back to WA state from Denver trip. We had the ‘black screen’ navigator first two days and was trying to navigate with iPhones. Twice got into “Low Batt” mode requiring Newark Customer Service to lead us by the hand to nearest charge stations. Later in second day Navigator became semi-functional in that when selecting a charge station; started the route and then reverted to the black screen again. Later on our trip it seemingly became totally functional, locating appropriately spaced EA charge stations on our route and directing us to them.
However we are now trying to plot a trip to Michigan from Wa. We input the Michigan destination, Navigator recognizes destination by giving miles, but when entering “Go” states “no data”.
Our problem now is trying to find a route -any route to get us there. We’ve been to Denver, so perhaps a route from Denver.
Sure hate to have to ‘eat crow’ and take our Subaru Ascent!