Road Trip: The Good, the Bad, and the . . . ugh

[hmp10]

I probably wasn't clear enough in my post. My question was whether you'd consider replacing the Lucid with another Lucid.

Oh, sorry.

I mentioned in another post that I was considering a Sapphire, although the loss of range would bother me. However, given the return of software issues with recent 2.0 updates, I'm worried that the software problems that seemed finally to be melting away are returning in a different guise.

Then there is the GT Performance. However, it costs $10,000 more than our Dream and does not have the Santa Monica interior which I love. Also, I'd be losing the $13,000 investment I put in ceramic coating and the radar/laser installation on our Dream.

In the weeks after the UX 2.0 rollout, I really thought we were home free. A car I absolutely loved otherwise seemed finally to have vanquished the software gremlins that were the only blot on its appeal. The car acquired the satellite maps I most missed from our Tesla, the screen freezes and blackouts ceased, the white noise blasts were no more, response speed issues disappeared. The car just got niftier and niftier.

Then came the 2.0.35 update which was plagued with reports of software malfunctions by other owners, which were supposedly addressed by 2.0.36. Also, since 2.0.45 was followed so quickly by 2.0.47, which I assume means another debugging exercise, I'm not sure that any new Lucid I get won't continue to have software problems.

If I'm going to live with software problems as the price of the stellar driving dynamics of the Air, then I'd rather do it with the car I've got than with a replacement I like less.

 

[DeaneG]

I'm still a little reluctant to take a long trip road in my AGT. Even left it at home last night for a 2am shuttle pick up of a friend. I was afraid that somehting would go wrong on our 1.5 hour drive in the middle of the night and he'd miss his flight. Turns out the flight was canceled, along with the next few. And in the light of the morning I now believe our Air would've done fine.

 

[hmp10]

I'm still a little reluctant to take a long trip road in my AGT. Even left it at home last night for a 2am shuttle pick up of a friend. I was afraid that somehting would go wrong on our 1.5 hour drive in the middle of the night and he'd miss his flight. Turns out the flight was canceled, along with the next few. And in the light of the morning I now believe our Air would've done fine.

Understandable, especially after reading about some of these problems.

Despite all the earlier software woes, in the year and 14,000 miles we've had the Air, yesterday morning was the first time we couldn't actually drive the car without getting help from Lucid.

 

[LUCI GT]

Hey there! It was me at the Brunswick EA, and while I didn't have quite the Lucid issues described above, EA is not quite ready for prime time. I too will probably not take a long road trip in my beloved Lucid. The car drives like a dream. I'm kicking myself because I totally forgot I had massage seats. Never used them in my 1,200 mile trip!
After my first charge at Emporia, VA EA station (no issues there whatsoever), I got onto I-95 only to discover there was no sound at all. No radio, no turn signal sound, nada! I exited the highway at Skippers, VA and did a hard reboot on the side of the exit ramp. I specifically asked my DA how to do a reboot, and he said the only way was to exit the car until full shutdown. Didn't know about the procedure hmp10 described above. Other than that the car behaved itself. Still wish I could use music and nav screens at the same time. Became quite annoying having to switch back and forth.
As for my final EA experience at Port St. Lucie, FL it took a while even though I was the only car charging. Session started off okay at 153 kwh. I arrived with less than 100 miles of range after manually preconditioning the battery (totally not necessary to do on my Tesla, was automatic). 5 minutes in the power dropped to 2 miles of charge per minute. Said I had over an hour to charge if I wanted 80%. I gave up after reaching 238 miles of range. EA should be faster than this, especially since nobody else was charging. Also the charger setup doesn't make sense to me. Each charger has 2 cords and connectors, but there's no way 2 cars can charge. Whole setup is ridiculous. Enough of my ranting...

 

[HC_79]

After getting so many basic problems cleared up with the start of the 2.0 upgrades, I'm now wondering if Lucid is rushing the more minor updates and thus inviting too many bugs along for the ride?

You're not alone on this thinking as i'm wondering the exact same thing. 2.0 was a blessing with so many things resolved and a vastly improved experience. Now as more updates come out I just see things coming back that had gone when 2.0 was released. The last 3 or 4 updates i've had to valet reboot the car multiple times to try and flush out the quirks that have come back.

 

[Lucken]

Kenny B, we must have been there at different times since I didn’t see a Lucid. In fact I’ve yet to see one in the wild.

 

[DeaneG]

Understandable, especially after reading about some of these problems.

Despite all the earlier software woes, in the year and 14,000 miles we've had the Air, yesterday morning was the first time we couldn't actually drive the car without getting help from Lucid.

I do think that problems tend to be magnified in car forums in general. I'm looking forward to trying our car on a 1000 mile trip in January and hoping to get my mojo back.

 

[DeaneG]

...Also the charger setup doesn't make sense to me. Each charger has 2 cords and connectors, but there's no way 2 cars can charge. Whole setup is ridiculous. Enough of my ranting...

EA has fixed this on their newest charging stations, which are slated to replace most of their older stations: - one long cord with better cable handling. These are the new 350kW 'balanced' units.

 

[hmp10]

Kenny B, we must have been there at different times since I didn’t see a Lucid. In fact I’ve yet to see one in the wild.

On this trip we met two other Lucids at EA stations (including KennyB's), both Zenith Red like ours. At home in Naples, we've seen a white Air and a black Air several times (probably repeat sightings of the same cars), and a friend has seen another red Air. In fact, he thought it was me in the car and phoned to see where I was. I was home buried in Netflix. My detailer told me he's heard of a gold Air in Naples, but we haven't encountered it.

 

[Neurio]

This might the time for a reminder:

@Firstto520 said to NOT do the button reset described above. I'm guessing @hmp10 was instructed to do so by Lucid CS, which is fine, I guess, but the reset could supposedly brick the hardware if done too many times.

 

[Volund]

I do think that problems tend to be magnified in car forums in general. I'm looking forward to trying our car on a 1000 mile trip in January and hoping to get my mojo back.

Yeah after reading this thread I am in utter shock.
My road trip went as flawless as one could expect and it convinced me to have 100% trust in EA.

I wonder if something changed recently on one or both sides.

I did go to an EA here recently that was jam packed and it said my charging was limited and I had like 50 kw, I went home lol

 

[Bill55]

I’ll rant here that I am tired of NYC automotive journalists writing EVs are awful because of infrastructure. With the current charging infrastructure EVs are best suited to those who can charge over night at home. Road trips require planning, which can be difficult. EA is the most prevalent Level 3 other than Tesla. EA is a mess. Step one is for regulators to require EV charging stations to be able to charge via CSS. I know Tesla spent a lot of money on charging stations and they should be compensated to add CSS. Imagine if gas stations were built out by GM, Ford, and Chrysler, and gas stations were brand specific, or if electrical outlets were different in each state……. Tesla can charge me what they want, but we can not have an EV charging infrastructure that is brand specific. I would be in favor of banning free charging and require all chargers to charge everyone the same price, regardless of brand.

 

[hmp10]

This might the time for a reminder:

@Firstto520 said to NOT do the button reset described above. I'm guessing @hmp10 was instructed to do so by Lucid CS, which is fine, I guess, but the reset could supposedly brick the hardware if done too many times.

Yes, I was instructed to do this reset by Customer Service I had never heard about it before this incident. However, they didn't warn me not to do it again should the problem recur.

 

[nevadagame]

is this EA issue specific to Lucid? Are other EVs with free charging having the same issues?

I own two other cars and won’t have my Agt for one more week, so I can’t compare, but I have some problems with ea, lots of broken or shut down charger hardware, plug and play works 50% of the time, but if it doesn’t, I can usually initiate a charge by turning on the charger in my ea app, they’re all slower than advertised , they’re far from smooth or easy or reliable, but I’m guessing most of these horror stories are because Ea”s problems are compounded by Lucid’s software gremlins, and that’s where the real problems gets out of hand. It’s the combination of both companies not having a smooth well designed product yet.

 

[Bill55]

I can say I have been at EA stations that worked for other EVs, but not Lucid. No idea if Rivian or Mach-e or others have same issues as Lucid owners.

 

[joec]

I own two other cars and won’t have my Agt for one more week, so I can’t compare, but I have some problems with ea, lots of broken or shut down charger hardware, plug and play works 50% of the time, but if it doesn’t, I can usually initiate a charge by turning on the charger in my ea app, they’re all slower than advertised , they’re far from smooth or easy or reliable, but I’m guessing most of these horror stories are because Ea”s problems are compounded by Lucid’s software gremlins, and that’s where the real problems gets out of hand. It’s the combination of both companies not having a smooth well designed product yet.

Yes. I suspect it’s the combination that is causing the biggest issues. While other EVs also have some trouble, it appears Lucid has more of a specific problem talking to EA’s software.

Worst kind of software failure. When two different companies could be at fault, and neither side wants to take the blame.

Time to lock a group of engineers from both companies in a room and not them them out until they get at least a 99% success rate.

 

[hmp10]

Kyle Conner of "Out of Spec Motoring" posted a video yesterday of his attempts to use the newest EA chargers in cold weather at multiple locations. All of them failed to connect even though the EA app was showing them as operational. His conclusion was that the new EA hardware that is replacing old chargers are even less reliable. As EA has the widest coverage of any CCS charging network, he says that most non-Tesla EV road trippers have to depend on it for at least some legs of their trips -- and they can't.

Electrify America problems go well beyond Lucid connectivity issues.

 

[Lucken]

As I said in another post, EA is deteriorating. Yet Kyle had no issues at a Tesla SC, ‘they just work’. His comment, although half kidding, ‘with gas now so cheap, why buy an electric?’, is sobering. Do we really think many prospective buyers won’t come to this same conclusion? Reports like Kyle’s might help Tesla sales, but it certainly won’t help other EV sales.

BTW, he is absolutely correct that EA reports stations as operative, but yet in many cases they’re not. Been there done that.

An optimist says things will get better. A realist (some will say a pessimist) says with no motivation to improve things, and anecdotal report after anecdotal report, on multiple forums corroborating this deterioration, why will things improve?

 

[Artemis]

I'm curious how well other country's DCFC networks compare to EA. I personally cant find articles about European charging networks like Ionity having this many issues. All the youtube videos I've watched about Ionity, they've had basically no issues. Maybe I'm not looking in the right spot. How can EA have gotten it so wrong???

 

[DBV]

As I said in another post, EA is deteriorating. Yet Kyle had no issues at a Tesla SC, ‘they just work’. His comment, although half kidding, ‘with gas now so cheap, why buy an electric?’, is sobering. Do we really think many prospective buyers won’t come to this same conclusion? Reports like Kyle’s might help Tesla sales, but it certainly won’t help other EV sales.

BTW, he is absolutely correct that EA reports stations as operative, but yet in many cases they’re not. Been there done that.

An optimist says things will get better. A realist (some will say a pessimist) says with no motivation to improve things, and anecdotal report after anecdotal report, on multiple forums corroborating this deterioration, why will things improve?

Most definitely if gas stays cheap, EV’s will not sell as well. Same with Hybrid cars. Prius sales always skyrocket when gas goes up, but when it goes down, they come back to earth with plenty of incentives.

Hopefully gas does stay cheap, while these non Tesla superchargers get their act together and are ready for public consumption. Definitely are not even close yet. If Tesla can get it right with their Supercharger Network, there is no reason why these other companies can not be as good or better. Actually an embarrassment, which will only get more published as the media reviews more and more people buy non Tesla EV’s in the US.