Should I make a reservation?

[VeryPowerful]

I want to hear your opinion. I'm considering getting (most likely leasing) Lucid Gravity GT, but I wanted to test drive it first before making a final decision. I had a chance to see the car and play with it for some time in Lucid Studio University Village in Seattle. But they don't have a car for test (educational) drive. I was told they might have one in a month... maybe two. I probably can assume they have no idea when they'll get one.

The bill passed and the $7,500 tax credit will end on September 30, 2025.

I was wondering if it makes sense getting in the queue and count on Seattle's Lucid Studio to get "driveable" Gravity before Lucid starts working on my order? On that note, do they give any heads up before the car enters production in case I want to cancel my order?

What is a chance I'll be able to test drive the car and get one produced and delivered before September 30th... From my understanding the exterior color and HUD might affect the delivery time. I was considering getting Quantum Grey Metallic without a HUD. Is there anything else that can affect the delivery time?

 

[TahoeMichael]

The short answer is: nobody can say for sure. The longer answer is:

They seem to be sequencing through the various color options. Green was first, black next, and white is anticipated soon. Any other color might well take you past the end of September, but it's hard to say for sure. They've also pivoted from a unified technology package to separating out the HUD and the "Power Package". The intent is to offer the Power Package now, and delay vehicles for those waiting for a HUD until "the fall". However, it seems that the pivot hasn't yet made vehicles with the Power Package available, and those wanting rapid delivery of GTs might need to avoid all components of the Technology Package. If you're prepared to be flexible about exactly which configuration you'd take, there have already been examples of SAs offering up available vehicles where the original buyer backed out. But if you're very specific about what configuration you want, laying hands on a vehicle before the tax credit is gone seems dicey.

 

[californiaboy935]

I want to hear your opinion. I'm considering getting (most likely leasing) Lucid Gravity GT, but I wanted to test drive it first before making a final decision. I had a chance to see the car and play with it for some time in Lucid Studio University Village in Seattle. But they don't have a car for test (educational) drive. I was told they might have one in a month... maybe two. I probably can assume they have no idea when they'll get one.

The bill passed and the $7,500 tax credit will end on September 30, 2025.

I was wondering if it makes sense getting in the queue and count on Seattle's Lucid Studio to get "driveable" Gravity before Lucid starts working on my order? On that note, do they give any heads up before the car enters production in case I want to cancel my order?

What is a chance I'll be able to test drive the car and get one produced and delivered before September 30th... From my understanding the exterior color and HUD might affect the delivery time. I was considering getting Quantum Grey Metallic without a HUD. Is there anything else that can affect the delivery time?

I’d lease a DE, if possible, and then you’d have it before the deadline most likely.

Otherwise I doubt you’d get the credit, just based on the cue of people that are getting read for their GT deliveries. I could be very wrong tho. Honestly, from what I’ve experienced first hand, with or without the credit you (yes you) want this car… “need”

 

[VeryPowerful]

I placed an order for GT for now and see where it will take me. I'll try to ask about available options once SA contacts me. I'm not considering DE since I don't care about extra HP or some of the included options. It also doesn't make any sense for me to spend extra $25k to save $7.5k on tax credit with early delivery.
I was just browsing Lucid Motors website and checked "Events" and I learned that there will be Electrify Expo in Seattle (Redmond) and apparently there will be a Lucid Gravity to test drive. I'm considering going there and trying my luck.

 

[WeighingGravity]

Lucid appears to be building in batches and so far the only batches have been in green and black. It is known that Supernova Bronze and Lunar Titanium will be delayed until Fall and Winter, respectively, at best-case scenario. Quantum Grey availability is anyone's guess, and whether they're going to run more green and black or white before grey is a total crapshoot. The higher your spec, the better your chances, and it will pay to be flexible because even those of us who have been in line for a long time (My GT order was in on day 1 and I also have a DE order as well) are, in many cases, "settling" for an orphaned vehicle that might not quite match our specs. But I have no idea how long the pecking order is and whether you'd get an offer of the same vehicle as someone higher on the list. I think your delivery location sometimes plays a role.... but the whole system is quite opaque.

It's better to have an order in than not though; otherwise you'll never get any call.

With all that said - I'm not sure how good a deal the tax credit really is on a Gravity lease at this time. Ceteris paribus it's better to have the credit than not, but just bear in mind that the financing rates are very high since this is still a vehicle in launch with demand that far outstrips supply for the moment. I'd guess that eventually they'll have to improve the financing rates to more competitive levels when there isn't a backlog of demand and they have to incentivize more sales. When that happens, the $7500 capital cost reduction might be more than offset by reduced interest charges. And if you didn't want a fully-spec'ed vehicle but were only buying certain packages to rush delivery before the credit expires, then your savings become even more questionable.

 

[VeryPowerful]

Thanks @WeighingGravity, I wonder how orphaned car are handled? Do they call people who ordered the same color first? I wonder if there is some rule they follow. I think I'm open for a non-matching swap, but there are a few things I consider must haves.

I might be wrong but I don't think financing is that bad. I did some calculations in Excel. I know the lease time, pre-tax monthly payment (from Lucid's calculator), and cap cost of the car. There are 2 variables/unknowns: residual and money factor. So made a table with Residual % from 40% to 60% and I calculated MF for each. If we assume I didn't make any mistake and Residual is around 52%-50% then I got 2.13% - 2.98%. It's not that bad, but of course it's not as good as offers for other cars.

I followed this calculations:
Residual Value = <Cap Cost> * <Lease term>
Monthly Deprecation = (<Cap Cost> - <Residual Value>) / <Lease term>
Monthly Rent Charge = <Pre-tax monthly payment> - <Monthly Deprecation>
Money Factor = <Monthly Rent Charge> / (<Cap Cost> + <Residual Value>)

If we follow this for
Cap Cost = $108,995
Lease Term = 36
Pre-tax monthly payment = $1,659 (from Lucid's calculator)
Residual % = 50%

we get
Residual Value = $108,995 * 50% = $54,497.50
Monthly Deprecation = ($108,995 - $54,497.50) / 36 = $1,513.82
Monthly Rent Charge = $1,659 - $1,513.82 = $145.18
Money Factor = $145.18 / ($108,995 + $54,497.50) = 0.000887995
APR = 0.000887995 * 2400 = ~2.13%

And I repeated the same for different residual % values.

Did I make a mistake?

 

[Elfin]

Did I make a mistake?

The interest rate is really high. The numbers can be computed by getting two points from the calculator. Here's what it was last time I checked:

So it looks like the APR is about 8% and the residual is 62% for 36months 10k miles a year. I ran a bunch of combinations and got the same result.
I ran it for the Air and the interest rate is 3.2% and the residual is 50%.

 

[VeryPowerful]

The interest rate is really high. The numbers can be computed by getting two points from the calculator. Here's what it was last time I checked:

I looked at your post and MatLab calculations. In the calculations we are missing 2 variables. There are infinite number of solutions for residual % and money factor that will give you the monthly payment you specified. I'm not sure why MatLab decided that 62% residual is the answer. Did it just give you the first solution to the equation you specified?
62% residual for expensive, luxurious car doesn't make any sense. That's why I decided to assume residual % from 40% to 60% and calculate corresponding money factor that will give me the pre-tax monthly payment from Lucid's calculator.

Are your numbers in your post all pre-tax? It's important to do calculations on pre-tax numbers.

 

[VeryPowerful]

I can't edit my post...

But I think I understand what you did there. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Did you use min specced Gravity vs differently specced Gravity and tried to find residual and money factor and assumed that money factor will be the same for both? I think that's a very big assumption.
If you assume residual is 50% then for min specced car you lease/finance $89,115 / 2 = $44,557.5 vs $109,115 / 2 = $54,557.5. That's a significant difference that might push more expensive car money factor higher.