Sapphire Reveal

[SunnySide]

Well hotgiggity but something smells fishy. What are they going to do with all those used airs?

My guess is they are gonna try and either sell them as a slight markdown or use them at loner vehicles and upgrade the test drive vehicles

 

[hydbob]

I just talked to a lucid REP and they said they are offering very generous trade ins for the lucid sapphire 95%+ of what you paid as long you don’t have any problems. Any of y’all planning on trading in?

That seems highly suspect. Don't you think they would be reaching out to current owners then?

 

[SunnySide]

That seems highly suspect. Don't you think they would be reaching out to current owners then?

Yea but I don’t think there are that many people looking to upgrade to the new one

 

[dawktah LucidGT]

Well hotgiggity but something smells fishy. What are they going to do with all those used airs?

Hardware Autopsy?

 

[HC_79]

So one of my colleagues got to go to Monterey Car Week. He saw the Sapphire and like what he saw. The first comment that came out of his mouth "that software is as laggy as shit!". Not a good first impression for Lucid when trying to justify $250K for a car.

 

[MoniputerLM]

So one of my colleagues got to go to Monterey Car Week. He saw the Sapphire and like what he saw. The first comment that came out of his mouth "that software is as laggy as shit!". Not a good first impression for Lucid when trying to justify $250K for a car.

Not a good impression for my lowly $169,000 Lucid!

 

[Kai Noi]

Oh yes.. Lucid developed an entire new trim at $250,000, months and months in the making, to distract from the production woes of their lowest margin trims.

I kind of think that it’s part shortages, and they’re just trying to get the maximum return on the parts that they have. One Sapphire is probably more profit than building 3 Pures. Building products to short is a drag, and expensive.

 

[Overcharged]

So one of my colleagues got to go to Monterey Car Week. He saw the Sapphire and like what he saw. The first comment that came out of his mouth "that software is as laggy as shit!". Not a good first impression for Lucid when trying to justify $250K for a car.

One might ask, why does someone buy a Sapphire, for the tech on the screen or for the mind bending performance?

Yes, the tech should be good, reliable and fun but this car is about spanking and it will spank

 

[changinator]

One might ask, why does someone buy a Sapphire, for the tech on the screen or for the mind bending performance?

Yes, the tech should be good, reliable and fun but this car is about spanking and it will spank

for the limited edition exclusivity and paint

on a separate note, anyone know how I can get that sapphire blue paint code?

so I can do a fuax-sapphire stealth wrap on my pure when it arrives

 

[CraZ8]

for the limited edition exclusivity and paint

on a separate note, anyone know how I can get that sapphire blue paint code?

so I can do a fuax-sapphire stealth wrap on my pure when it arrives

You will also have to get an aftermarket spoiler and those wheel arch blisters. Then some wider faux center lug wheels. This upgrade is Much more involved than those fellows slapping an AMG or M badge on their lowly Merc or Bimmer

 

[Bunnylebowski]

One might ask, why does someone buy a Sapphire, for the tech on the screen or for the mind bending performance?

Yes, the tech should be good, reliable and fun but this car is about spanking and it will spank

Exactly, I’m glad you said this. It’s kind of amazing how Lucid could build a car that cures cancer and someone will chime in with “yeah but what about the software”. The software is updatable, and is been being updated, and is a point of focus with Lucid that it has problems, and multiple sources have confirmed they’re actively working on boot times and a lot of other aspects of the software. We all (should) know this. I thought one selling point of the car was OTA, which means it’s not gonna be perfect on day 1 but that issues get fixed and features get added.

Just yesterday I was zipping along crazy steep mountain roads in New Hampshire getting amazing regen and seeing incredible landscape out of the glass canopy. Tidal cut out cuz there was no phone service period, and my navigation glitched out too. And I didn’t care at all because I knew if I stayed on route 302 I’d get to my destination and just enjoyed the amazing ride knowing that a reboot would fix it when I arrived, and it did. I was happy. I’d wager that if in that situation all you can think about is how disappointed you are that spent $139-250k on the car, maybe the problem isn’t with the car as much as it is with the owner?

 

[dawktah LucidGT]

Exactly, I’m glad you said this. It’s kind of amazing how Lucid could build a car that cures cancer and someone will chime in with “yeah but what about the software”. The software is updatable, and is been being updated, and is a point of focus with Lucid that it has problems, and multiple sources have confirmed they’re actively working on boot times and a lot of other aspects of the software. We all (should) know this. I thought one selling point of the car was OTA, which means it’s not gonna be perfect on day 1 but that issues get fixed and features get added.

Just yesterday I was zipping along crazy steep mountain roads in New Hampshire getting amazing regen and seeing incredible landscape out of the glass canopy. Tidal cut out cuz there was no phone service period, and my navigation glitched out too. And I didn’t care at all because I knew if I stayed on route 302 I’d get to my destination and just enjoyed the amazing ride knowing that a reboot would fix it when I arrived, and it did. I was happy. I’d wager that if in that situation all you can think about is how disappointed you are that spent $139-250k on the car, maybe the problem isn’t with the car as much as it is with the owner?

Well said, I point out software issues as I have them as we all in order to get them addressed. Basically we're beta testing.

Oddly, there were people suggesting yesterday that the Sapphire shouldn't have happened because of production issues? It's a totally different department within the company.

However, the car is top notch! I've never driven anything like it. I put 3,100 miles on it the day after taking delivery. That's confidence in the HARDWARE.

 

[hmp10]

I just talked to a lucid REP and they said they are offering very generous trade ins for the lucid sapphire 95%+ of what you paid as long you don’t have any problems. Any of y’all planning on trading in?

I called the main Sales number at Lucid the day the reservations for the Sapphire opened up to inquire about trading my Dream Edition. I was told there is no trade-in program and, at least right now, no plans for one.

If they would guarantee me a trade-in price upon delivery of the Sapphire of 95% of what I paid for the Dream, I would have put down a deposit on the spot.

 

[hmp10]

Exactly, I’m glad you said this. It’s kind of amazing how Lucid could build a car that cures cancer and someone will chime in with “yeah but what about the software”. The software is updatable, and is been being updated, and is a point of focus with Lucid that it has problems, and multiple sources have confirmed they’re actively working on boot times and a lot of other aspects of the software. We all (should) know this. I thought one selling point of the car was OTA, which means it’s not gonna be perfect on day 1 but that issues get fixed and features get added.

I agree with the sentiment here. However, I have to point out that there are different levels of software problems.

It's one thing to have a slow boot up, a laggy backup camera, a balky Nav system, or Alexa's extreme mood swings. It's quite another to have to find a place to pull off the road so that you can get out of the car and try to reboot it because white noise is blasting from the rear speakers or the A/C has crapped out on a blistering south Florida day and the control screens are blacked out or frozen.

And when all of these things happen inside of three days and leave you reluctant to put the car on the road, it kind of erases the joy of driving the car.

 

[Bill55]

I just talked to a lucid REP and they said they are offering very generous trade ins for the lucid sapphire 95%+ of what you paid as long you don’t have any problems. Any of y’all planning on trading in?

Interesting. I’ll contact my Sapphire rep and see what info I can get.

 

[hmp10]

Oddly, there were people suggesting yesterday that the Sapphire shouldn't have happened because of production issues? It's a totally different department within the company.

I don't know that it's a totally different department. Engineering is a highly-compartmentalized field. People aren't generally transferrable between groups such as chassis engineering and drivetrain engineering, for example. My guess is that the same engineers who worked on the Air chassis tuning -- David Lickfold, for example -- are the ones doing the work on the Sapphire suspension, as their work on the original Air is mostly done.

It's important to understand that almost all the differences between the Sapphire and other Air models are in components that are already nailed down for the other Air models. Thus applying engineering effort to the Sapphire's brakes, suspension, chassis tuning, aerodynamics, front seat design, etc. is more likely to impact development times on models still in development (such as the Gravity SUV) than production times on the Airs.

I guess one could argue it increases sourcing and assembly complexity, but I think those impacts would be minimal. If it becomes difficult to get the unique Sapphire components from vendors, then very few cars (the Sapphires only) will be affected. As for the assembly line, I don't know that it makes any difference to an assembler whether he's installing a Sapphire sport seat or a Santa Monica or a Tahoe or a Santa Cruz seat in a standard Air, or whether he's mounting a Sapphire wheel or any of the several other Air wheel options. Most automotive production planning systems are designed to handle an array of option installations on the same line.

The biggest impact on production planning might actually be the blue paint, which will either require a separate paint line or the switchover of an existing paint line. But they probably do switchovers to batch the colors, anyway, and can run the panels for the whole Sapphire allotment in one batch.

 

[dawktah LucidGT]

I don't know that it's a totally different department. Engineering is a highly-compartmentalized field. People aren't generally transferrable between groups such as chassis engineering and drivetrain engineering, for example. My guess is that the same engineers who worked on the Air chassis tuning -- David Lickfold, for example -- are the ones doing the work on the Sapphire suspension, as their work on the original Air is mostly done.

It's important to understand that almost all the differences between the Sapphire and other Air models are in components that are already nailed down for the other Air models. Thus applying engineering effort to the Sapphire's brakes, suspension, chassis tuning, aerodynamics, front seat design, etc. is more likely to impact development times on models still in development (such as the Gravity SUV) than production times on the Airs.

I guess one could argue it increases sourcing and assembly complexity, but I think those impacts would be minimal. If it becomes difficult to get the unique Sapphire components from vendors, then very few cars (the Sapphires only) will be affected. As for the assembly line, I don't know that it makes any difference to an assembler whether he's installing a Sapphire sport seat or a Santa Monica or a Tahoe or a Santa Cruz seat in a standard Air, or whether he's mounting a Sapphire wheel or any of the several other Air wheel options. Most automotive production planning systems are designed to handle an array of option installations on the same line.

The biggest impact on production planning might actually be the blue paint, which will either require a separate paint line or the switchover of an existing paint line. But they probably do switchovers to batch the colors, anyway, and can run the panels for the whole Sapphire allotment in one batch.

I probably wasn't clear, on the podcast it was implied that the Sapphire shouldn't have been done/released since the company as a whole is having production issues. I was trying to say why should engineering department stop what they are doing because of the factory?

 

[HC_79]

I probably wasn't clear, on the podcast it was implied that the Sapphire shouldn't have been done/released since the company as a whole is having production issues. I was trying to say why should engineering department stop what they are doing because of the factory?

Well I know my car took days to get responses from the engineering department on both issues. Engineers needed to be sent out to actually perform the work at the Service Center so yes, if it’s the same group dealing with both they should be dealing with current problems in a timely manner and not working on new items.

 

[hmp10]

I probably wasn't clear, on the podcast it was implied that the Sapphire shouldn't have been done/released since the company as a whole is having production issues. I was trying to say why should engineering department stop what they are doing because of the factory?

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest your post was wrong. I just used it to tee up my response to the more general forerunning discussion about whether the Sapphire was an unnecessary or even harmful distraction to Air production.

 

[dawktah LucidGT]

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest your post was wrong. I just used it to tee up my response to the more general forerunning discussion about whether the Sapphire was an unnecessary or even harmful distraction to Air production.

No worries, it will be a heavy lift but maybe Lucid is changing target audience and going for higher end? Making Gravity more competitor to Cullinan?