Scottsdale Design Studio

Adnillien

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Location
Paradise Valley, AZ
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Lucid GT
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K9WIJHB0
I received an invitation to the opening of the Scottsdale Design Studio on Friday. It is a nice touch to get both a personal email and phone call. Since I have not seen a Lucid in person, I am very much looking forward to it.

Are there any questions that anyone would like me ask while I am there?
 
Are there any questions that anyone would like me ask while I am there?

Oh, where to begin . . . ?

1. Will the pilot screen display a Google satellite image?

2. Will the regenerative braking bring the car to a full stop on accelerator lift-off (i. e., one-pedal driving)?

3. Has the production delay given Lucid time to provide power-operated doors in the Dream Edition?

4. Will the 19" aero wheels have staggered tire sizes like the 21" wheels?

5. Will Pirelli LM1 tires also be available on the 19" wheels or only on the 21"?

6. What are the tinting specs on the glass canopy, the side windows, and the rear window?

7. Will the car have embedded apps for streaming services that provide Dolby Atmos-encoded music, such as Tidal, Apple Music, or Amazon HD? (Spotify doesn't offer Dolby Atmos encoding.)

Thanks, and enjoy your visit. I've seen two cars in Florida studios, but both were considerably short of final production versions. You're probably going to see a final version or something much closer to it.
 
I was told that they would have one "Pre-production" car to look at. I hope that it is a finalized version but it was not describes as a production quality validation car or anything like that. I am hoping that a few people from the factory will be there. I will find out what I can.
 
Probably the same generation of car in the new NYC studio. That one looked to be pretty much in production form although probably built during factory test-out. For instance, it had the extending front seat thigh supports, the fold down rear center armrest, the power-operated rear window sunshades -- none of which are on either of the cars in Florida.

It'll be interesting to hear what they tell you in Scottsdale. Thanks for keeping us updated.
 
The Event
The Friday evening event at the Scottsdale Design Studio was excellent, complete with drinks, hors d’oeuvres, Peter Rawlinson, Zak and a dozen or more associates from the design studio. The car was a “Pre-Production” Grand Touring with Tahoe interior and black exterior. Lucid may not have a car in production, but their marketing is top notch.


Overall Impression
I left feeling a lot more positive about the car and much more likely to complete my purchase. More importantly, my wife with a background in industrial design was also impressed the car. The exterior and interior show an attention to detail that is missing in many cars. The interior materials and color pallets are superb. They look great and feel comfortable and inviting. While not perfect, it is well thought and seems like it would be very intuitive to drive.


The Car
It was a bit too crowded to get any good pictures so I will go back in a couple of weeks when things settle down to spend more time in the car and also get some pictures.

I thought that the black color with aluminum accents looked terrific. My wife thinks that the aluminum will look better with a white exterior than a black exterior. That works for me since I want a white car anyway. The Tahoe interior is beautiful. I am set on interior and exterior colors.

The multi-screen driver display is well done. It is easy to see and seemed intuitive to use. I liked the design that was simple with high quality without being over the top. It fits with the Lucid’s post luxury marketing message.

Since it was a pre-production car, some things were still missing; no massage on passenger seat, no steering wheel adjustment and not all of the knobs were functional. I did try the center switches that Peter commented on in one video, they feel great now.

The roof rails are large as this forum has previously discussed. However, they are not obtrusive. I am 6 foot tall and think that I can easily live with them. They are not great but OK. I also found the sun visors to be a bit low, even with the seat adjusted as low as it would go. I will need to test drive the car to know if that is an issue or not.


The Back Seat
The roof rails are much more noticeable in the rear than in the front but still acceptable. The rear seat is low to give adequate headroom. The seat bottom has a large rearward slope that was unexpected but still comfortable. The distance between the back seat and front seat is very great. I do not know of another car of Lucid’s size with that much space between the seats. The Grand Touring has the battery taking up foot room in the rear. I sat with my knees pretty well jacked up. It would be OK for a short trip, but not for a long trip. Short passengers and kids will likely find it very comfortable. I think that the touring model with no battery in there rear foot wells will be a lot more comfortable for rear passengers. The battery mock up on display was over 3 inches high so removing that from the foot well should provide two to three more inches and a much lower knee position. I would like to sit in a touring version to verify this.


Trunk
I liked the clamshell opening. The two levels make sense. However, the upper level may be a bit short. Cargo has to slide fairly far under trunk opening to make full use of it. The shallow height may make it difficult to get stuff in and out. The frunk also has two levels and looks easy to use.


Questions and Answers
Either the associates still have a lot to learn or there are still a lot of unknowns. My gut feel is that it was a bit of both. The associates were enthusiastic and eager to help but were not a wealth of information. I was expecting more information for being this close to production.

- Test drives are coming soon but nobody knows how soon.
- Factory tours - Not likely to happen until next year.
- Option prices for touring model - I was told that the sales people in headquarters have this. The Scottsdale associates do not.
- Displaying satellite imagery - Nobody could answer this question.
- Roof and window tinting specs - They took my phone and email and said that they would get back to me
- One foot driving - I was told that the car should be able to come to a complete stop by taking your foot off of the accelerator but that they do not know if has been implemented yet.
- Embedded apps for music streaming - Nobody really knows but maybe Spotify will be included. The associates suggested using Apple Car Play.
- Questions on tire details also could not be answered.

- I forgot to ask if I could pick up my car at the factory and avoid the destination charge. With Casa Grande’s extremely high sales tax rate, this may not be a wise thing to do anyway.

I had a good time and look forward to visiting the design studio again.
 
Thanks for a very thorough and interesting review, Adnillien.

Regarding the rear seats, your guess was spot on. Zak Edson told me the battery modules raise the floorboard 3.15" with the larger pack. I've sat in the rear seats with both packs, and I agree with you completely. The front-to-back room is excellent. However, jacked up knees make the larger pack iffy for long hauls. The rear seats with the smaller pack are amazingly comfortable, though -- on a par with a BMW 7-Series (my favorite rear seat). It's astonishing just how much difference that 3 inches in vertical drop makes. Also, the lower floorboard with the smaller pack leaves a bit of room to slide your toes under the front seats, which you cannot do with the larger pack.

I'm looking forward to hearing your further take when you can visit the studio at a quieter time.
 
The Event
The Friday evening event at the Scottsdale Design Studio was excellent, complete with drinks, hors d’oeuvres, Peter Rawlinson, Zak and a dozen or more associates from the design studio. The car was a “Pre-Production” Grand Touring with Tahoe interior and black exterior. Lucid may not have a car in production, but their marketing is top notch.


Overall Impression
I left feeling a lot more positive about the car and much more likely to complete my purchase. More importantly, my wife with a background in industrial design was also impressed the car. The exterior and interior show an attention to detail that is missing in many cars. The interior materials and color pallets are superb. They look great and feel comfortable and inviting. While not perfect, it is well thought and seems like it would be very intuitive to drive.


The Car
It was a bit too crowded to get any good pictures so I will go back in a couple of weeks when things settle down to spend more time in the car and also get some pictures.

I thought that the black color with aluminum accents looked terrific. My wife thinks that the aluminum will look better with a white exterior than a black exterior. That works for me since I want a white car anyway. The Tahoe interior is beautiful. I am set on interior and exterior colors.

The multi-screen driver display is well done. It is easy to see and seemed intuitive to use. I liked the design that was simple with high quality without being over the top. It fits with the Lucid’s post luxury marketing message.

Since it was a pre-production car, some things were still missing; no massage on passenger seat, no steering wheel adjustment and not all of the knobs were functional. I did try the center switches that Peter commented on in one video, they feel great now.

The roof rails are large as this forum has previously discussed. However, they are not obtrusive. I am 6 foot tall and think that I can easily live with them. They are not great but OK. I also found the sun visors to be a bit low, even with the seat adjusted as low as it would go. I will need to test drive the car to know if that is an issue or not.


The Back Seat
The roof rails are much more noticeable in the rear than in the front but still acceptable. The rear seat is low to give adequate headroom. The seat bottom has a large rearward slope that was unexpected but still comfortable. The distance between the back seat and front seat is very great. I do not know of another car of Lucid’s size with that much space between the seats. The Grand Touring has the battery taking up foot room in the rear. I sat with my knees pretty well jacked up. It would be OK for a short trip, but not for a long trip. Short passengers and kids will likely find it very comfortable. I think that the touring model with no battery in there rear foot wells will be a lot more comfortable for rear passengers. The battery mock up on display was over 3 inches high so removing that from the foot well should provide two to three more inches and a much lower knee position. I would like to sit in a touring version to verify this.


Trunk
I liked the clamshell opening. The two levels make sense. However, the upper level may be a bit short. Cargo has to slide fairly far under trunk opening to make full use of it. The shallow height may make it difficult to get stuff in and out. The frunk also has two levels and looks easy to use.


Questions and Answers
Either the associates still have a lot to learn or there are still a lot of unknowns. My gut feel is that it was a bit of both. The associates were enthusiastic and eager to help but were not a wealth of information. I was expecting more information for being this close to production.

- Test drives are coming soon but nobody knows how soon.
- Factory tours - Not likely to happen until next year.
- Option prices for touring model - I was told that the sales people in headquarters have this. The Scottsdale associates do not.
- Displaying satellite imagery - Nobody could answer this question.
- Roof and window tinting specs - They took my phone and email and said that they would get back to me
- One foot driving - I was told that the car should be able to come to a complete stop by taking your foot off of the accelerator but that they do not know if has been implemented yet.
- Embedded apps for music streaming - Nobody really knows but maybe Spotify will be included. The associates suggested using Apple Car Play.
- Questions on tire details also could not be answered.

- I forgot to ask if I could pick up my car at the factory and avoid the destination charge. With Casa Grande’s extremely high sales tax rate, this may not be a wise thing to do anyway.

I had a good time and look forward to visiting the design studio again.
I wasn't invited to the Friday exclusive event, but did attend the general opening event on Saturday. It doesn't sound like I missed much, as Peter Rawlinson (PR) was also in attendance. There were a bunch of people running around with Lucid shirts or jackets, but I mostly spoke with a sales associate (SA) (I presume). I wasn't sure if some of the Lucid dressed people worked at Lucid or happened to be rabid fans. They never approached me - maybe they were shy Lucid employees.

The place was rather crowded, considering I arrived at the 10am opening. I came armed with the intent to find as many flaws as to give myself an excuse to cancel my order – I came away with a better appreciation of the car. I will hold off any decision until I can go back and have, what they called, "a private tour, by appointment."

I did have a brief conversation with PR, I asked him about several topics, but he was whisked away by a couple who wanted to get his autograph:

PR - Rear doors
The floor model's rear doors only opened to 80º according to PR. They will be putting in a 90º opening mechanism for production, which led us to the next topic.

PR – The automatic open/close doors
The SA told me that they were removed because their marketing told them that customers did not want that. I told him that I'm a customer and I want it. PR was candid and told me that the auto doors were nixed because there was not time to go into production due to issues with the sensors – basically they ran out of time to get everything integrated. The door may be in a future version, but he would not give a target date or commit to a retrofit. I told him that I wish they at least put in the hardware for easy future upgrades.

PR – Heat pump
PR mentioned that the car had a heat pump of sorts for the pack/motor cooling, but when pressed about a heat pump for the interior space, he mentioned that they were working on that, but it wouldn't be available for 8 months to a year.

The rest of the information I got, I observed directly or was briefed from the SA:

Window shades
The front window shades were not as bad as I thought they would be. They physically clip – I would have preferred them to be magnetic. They did swing to the side and slide out to cover the side window. They were also low enough to block the sun on the side window. I noticed there was a vanity mirror flap. I didn't open it to see if there was a light, but I would think the light needs power and I don't remember any power wires running to the mirror.

The rear side window shades operate as expected. After you raise the rear window, pulling the button up again will cause the rear shade to go up – reverse the steps to lower shade. This is similar to other cars.

There appeared to be a window shade that covers the rear glass, but I didn't have a chance to try it out due to too many people. The shade was integrated well with the rear deck lid. It had what appeared to be tiny rollers to assist when it reached the glass.

User Interface/Interior
I didn't get a chance to play with the interior elements much. I did use the display to adjust the steering wheel to my driving style (all the way in – I have long arms), but the rate of adjustment was so slow, that I thought it wasn't working. With the steering wheel all the way in, the display is partially blocked by it. I would have preferred the steering wheel a bit lower, but that blocks the display more. Ideally the display distance and up/down location should move with the steering wheel, for the ultimate in adjustment.

There was still a "Doors" tab, but brining it up showed the car with closed doors and no control buttons. All the doors were open at the time.

When asked, the SA told me that the car would have 5G, but was unsure about the hotspot capabilities.

Because of no WiFi or 5G connectivity, the SA said that the maps would not load if I were to put in a street address. I would have tried anyway, but again, there were too many people there. I was curious what the interface looked like and if it would still find a route without an internet connection – things you need when you are away from cell coverage.

I asked about where the face detect camera was. The SA said it was on the steering wheel, but I didn't see it.

I wanted to try the turn signals and shifter, but forgot. I wanted to know if the turn signals had soft detents or would stay in position mechanically. Ether way is fine for me, although I would rather not have mechanical turn signals.

I asked about XM Radio and I was assured by the SA that it was included in the production version, although he did write down that I was interested in it and someone would contact me regarding that. I forgot to ask about bluetooth streaming and also USB music drive connectivity.

I forgot to try the tactile switches. I did try to stow the pilot panel, but couldn't get it to stow – maybe I was using the wrong button?

I forgot to check out the rear view mirror or make any adjustments to the side mirrors to check for visibility.

The rear display that controls the climate was not on. The SA says that was to prevent people from playing with it. I would have liked to see how the rear climate control works and to see if there were a way to turn on rear interior lights. The LED lights in the rear rails were not directly controllable – i.e. push on/off. Maybe the rear display also controls the rear window shade. If it doesn't, then it should.

There is supposed to be a 4-zone climate control. I wonder how well it works. The rear did have vents on B-pillar as well as vents in the middle below the display, so that along with the rear seat ventilation (not verified), the rear should be comfortable.

There was no way to try the sound system or try the directional alert sounds. Possibly these things will be available when doing a test drive.

Seating
The front seats felt really nice and were adjustable to my liking. A 6'4" man tested the front seats for leg room and left impressed. I sat in the back while he was sitting in the front and had about 3"-4" of space between my knees and the front seat (I'm 5'11"). My thighs were not 100% supported by the back seats, but with the front seat about where a 6' or less tall driver would be, I was able to stretch my feet pretty well. Although they said there would not be a toe cutout behind the front seats, there was about a 2" gap where one could slide their bare toes into – or maybe the front of some high heals. The rear seats were very comfortable – much more so than my old 2012 Model S. In general, the seats felt slightly less firm than my wife's BMW X5 Hybrid. I didn't have a chance to try out the front seat thigh bolster, but it was already somewhat extended. The perforated leather felt really nice and grippy.

Doors
The soft closing of the doors worked OK, although the doors had to be almost totally closed for it to take effect. I think they were trying to avoid having pinch sensors. There are small handles with actuator buttons in the interior door handles which control the opening of the doors. Pulling further on the handle cause the door to be opened manually. It worked pretty intuitively – until it didn't work. At one point I could not open the door with the button, so had to resort to the the manual lever.

Trunks
The frunk was generously sized. The trunk, however felt a bit cramped, although the under-storage was a good size. Ideally, the rear seats should have gone down to extend the carrying capacity. The electric open/close for the trunks was done nicely with no drama regarding the speed or force at which they open/close. As Adnillien mentioned, the shallow hight is not ideal. I don't know if they have proper lighting in the trunk, but it would make the truck access much easier.

Exterior/Interior Color/Materials
I am getting the Dream edition with the limited "gold" color exterior. The small car sample they had was very gaudy. I'm hoping the color will look more like the promotional pictures. I'm also getting the Santa Monica interior. It seems to be the lightest color choice. The material samples they had were very nice.

Charging
The charging door was open, but the SA said the car had plenty of juice and didn't think they needed to keep it plugged in. I guess the charging cord would be a trip hazard. He mentioned at other stores they leave it plugged in so as to attract customers when they realize it's an electric car.

They had a display model of the Lucid EVSE. It looked classy. The cable, however, looked too thin to be for 19.2kW. I didn't have a chance to ask, or to ask about pricing. I think ultimately having a home CCS1 charger would be the best.

Conclusion
I spent about an hour there since I wanted to maximize my trip time from Tucson. I feel better about the car having been able to sit in it and try all the controls. The display panel is very nice, although functionally, the same is available in all high end cars. For me the current biggest advantage of this car, then say a MB EQS, is the trunk/frunk space, battery range and interior styling. The SA said the car was literally rolled in on Thursday night. If it came directly from the factory, it seems the factory is not making production cars yet – or at least the software crew is behind schedule. My biggest obstacle is to make room in the garage for another car.
 
PR – Heat pump
PR mentioned that the car had a heat pump of sorts for the pack/motor cooling, but when pressed about a heat pump for the interior space, he mentioned that they were working on that, but it wouldn't be available for 8 months to a year.

Thanks for a very detailed review.

This information about a heat pump is very interesting and may explain why a heat pump option was removed from the Lucid website shortly after the order configurator went online. Oddly, I glad the car won't have a heat pump for the interior. I live in Florida and don't take winter car trips where I would need cabin heating, so the power consumption of resistance heating is of no concern to me. What is a concern is cabin cooling, and I have seen several online comments from Tesla drivers that their cars with the heat pump do not cool as well as their earlier Teslas did.
 
Exterior/Interior Color/Materials
I am getting the Dream edition with the limited "gold" color exterior. The small car sample they had was very gaudy. I'm hoping the color will look more like the promotional pictures.

The lighting they use to illuminate the exterior color blocks in the studios is way off in color temperature and balance. When I was at the Miami studio Zak Edson took the Eureka Gold outside so that we could see it in natural daylight. It looked utterly different (and considerably less yellow) outside. The car they had in the West Palm Beach studio was in Eureka Gold. I went there thinking it would be our color choice, but we left less sure. The combination of the fluorescent floor lighting and the heavily tinted windows made it impossible to gauge how the car would look in natural light. Also, we found the Santa Monica interior clashed a bit with the gold exterior, something that was particularly noticeable on the door panels when the doors were opened. At this point, we're decided on the black as the lesser of the three exterior color evils, though it'll be a dickens to keep clean. The Quantum Gray car in Miami was a spectacular color for this car, and I'm highly irritated that the Dream Edition is so limited in color choice.

Here is a comparison of how the gold looks under studio lighting and how it looks in natural daylight (same camera, same settings):

GoldComparo.png
 
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Alex - thank you for the details. You noticed many things that I did not. It gives me a better reason to go back.

I agree with hmp10 on the heat pump. Air conditioning is much more important. I do want to check out the window screens more since I am worried about being too hot with the glass canopy.
 
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