Thoughts on Sun Control

[hmp10]

Seeing Derek Jenkins wearing a baseball cap while driving the Air in Florida has left me musing about sun control in the car. When I first saw the new sun visor design, I assumed there was a full panel glued to the windshield so that when you dropped the visor down you would roughly double the surface area providing sun blocking. That turned out not to be the case. So we are left with a situation where the area from which you can block direct sun glare is no larger than the visor itself. When driving into late-afternoon sun that leaves you with very limited ability to deal with the changing location of the sun relative to the windshield as the car moves.

It seems to me there would be several ways in which this situation could be improved.

One would be the fixed panel behind the visor that I first mentioned.

Another would be to use a "butterfly" visor of two hinged panels so that you could double the size of the visor by unfolding it.

Yet another would be to incorporate a rigid slide-out panel into the visor that could be used to almost double its surface area when needed. A variation of this would be to use two slide-out panels, one pulling down from the visor and one pulling up.

None of these approaches would significantly change the look of the visor or the canopy when the visor is in its stored position.

Having seen a video showing the power-operated side window sun screens in the rear doors, I'm wondering whether the front doors have a similar mechanism. ( can see no reason why they couldn't.

I have a feeling there will soon be an aftermarket for pop-in mesh panels for parts of the glass canopy and for clip-on visor extenders. For a car in the price range of the Lucid Air, that seems odd.

 

[Lucken]

Valid concerns. For me, assuming I stay with the Pure, these shouldn’t be issues beyond that of a conventional car windshield. My tendency, with every car I’ve owned, is to use the sunshade to cover the sunroof. I’m currently doing that with my Audi e-Tron, despite the large, front to rear, canopy glass. If I had the ability to delete sunroofs when ordering my previous cars, I would have done so.

This was one of the reasons I put a deposit down for the Pure. Although the look of the full canopy glass is certainly striking, it’s not something I need or would actually use.

 

[Jivor]

Living in Florida, this is a real concern for me. I love look of full glass obviously, but late and early day driving may be problematic, as well as the heat. I talked with a sales person who currently owns a Model Y with a glass roof and he had his tinted because of the greater sun exposure. I'm not a fan of baseball caps. I am interested to see real world reviews and how Lucid's roof compares to other glass roofs despite the UV/IR tempering.

 

[hmp10]

My brother has a Tesla Model 3 in Atlanta. He keeps the pop-in sun mesh installed year round. I'm probably going to do the same with my Rivian R1S, which has a glass roof framed on all four sides. I'm hoping that some aftermarket supplier will figure out how to mount mesh screens in the Lucid. It should be relatively simple for the rear glass panel, but the front will be tricky.

 

[mardin]

Owning an air GT with canopy is fine in northern California but visiting in palm springs is awful. HEAT GAIN IS ATROCIOUS. one top of that the lucid ac is anemic and can barely keep the car tolerable. Either they improve the AC or DO NOT BUY THE CANOPY.. some one suggested applying uv film to interior of glass. I am going to have to look into it. Unacceptable

 

[Bus Driver]

My brother has a Tesla Model 3 in Atlanta. He keeps the pop-in sun mesh installed year round. I'm probably going to do the same with my Rivian R1S, which has a glass roof framed on all four sides. I'm hoping that some aftermarket supplier will figure out how to mount mesh screens in the Lucid. It should be relatively simple for the rear glass panel, but the front will be tricky.

Our Tesla Model Xes came with a mesh screen for the upper windscreen. Our Model S came with a mesh screen for the entire glass roof.

We live in temperate Southern California but even here, I’ve noticed we’ve kept the mesh screens in place permanently.

 

[Demosthenes]

Owning an air GT with canopy is fine in northern California but visiting in palm springs is awful. HEAT GAIN IS ATROCIOUS. one top of that the lucid ac is anemic and can barely keep the car tolerable. Either they improve the AC or DO NOT BUY THE CANOPY.. some one suggested applying uv film to interior of glass. I am going to have to look into it. Unacceptable

I’ve heard a few reports of grossly inadequate AC in the lucid. Wondering what the general consensus is? My own experience is that the AC seems to cool the car adequately at about 30% strength on a regular San Diego summer day. However, I also tinted my windshield so that probably helps as well.

 

[Bockius]

I too wonder whether the A/C complaints reflect a problem specific to certain units. In addition to the complaints on this forum, I ran into a guy with a ZR AGT in Scottsdale who told me he is planning to sell it because the A/C is unable to keep the car cool on hot days. I was surprised because I rented an AGT (which I was driving when I ran into him) and found the A/C to be more than adequate — even aggressive.

 

[hydbob]

I too wonder whether the A/C complaints reflect a problem specific to certain units. In addition to the complaints on this forum, I ran into a guy with a ZR AGT in Scottsdale who told me he is planning to sell it because the A/C is unable to keep the car cool on hot days. I was surprised because I rented an AGT (which I was driving when I ran into him) and found the A/C to be more than adequate — even aggressive.

Just need to vent to the defroster vents. I drove on the 5 in 105 degrees with the Air set on 4 at 70 degrees with the face and defroster vents on and couldn’t be more comfortable.

 

[Alex]

Owning an air GT with canopy is fine in northern California but visiting in palm springs is awful. HEAT GAIN IS ATROCIOUS. one top of that the lucid ac is anemic and can barely keep the car tolerable. Either they improve the AC or DO NOT BUY THE CANOPY.. some one suggested applying uv film to interior of glass. I am going to have to look into it. Unacceptable

I mentioned this in an other thread, but I have had no problems with heat gain or the A/C. I did have the entire windshield and canopies tinted in 70% Spectra PhotoSync IRD. My A/C is set to 74º (Auto) and my hands still get cold when driving the car. The temperatures in Tucson have reached 105ºF in full sun.

 

[hmp10]

Our Tesla Model Xes came with a mesh screen for the upper windscreen. Our Model S came with a mesh screen for the entire glass roof.

We live in temperate Southern California but even here, I’ve noticed we’ve kept the mesh screens in place permanently.

That post was from almost a year ago, six months before we received our Lucid Air. We're now getting summer heat and sun in South Florida and have dropped all thoughts of trying to find a mesh screen or installing a film. Even sitting for extended periods in airport cell phone lots in bright sunshine, we have not found heat or glare to be a problem with the glass canopy. Yes, we do have to crank the A/C up a bit when sitting for long periods, but we haven't yet found a day when it couldn't handle the load.

The same applies to our Model S Plaid -- very different from the situation with earlier glass-roofed Teslas. The new coatings that Tesla, Lucid, and Rivian are using on their glass roofs really do seem to be a different kettle of fish from earlier glass technology.

 

[Maverick]

Agree with @Alex and others. I have had no issues. I do not have my windshield tinted though I do have the other windows tinted at 20% (which does make a difference with sun coming in the sides). I don't really feel or notice the sun overhead on the canopy and I haven't had the need to turn on the defroster like @hydbob (though that's a pretty good idea). You may want to have service take a look at it.

The only thing that I will say (and this is true of any ICE car I've owned), if you plan to sit in your car in the hot sun and not go anywhere, the AC will not cool it down, but I haven't had a problem, in the limited times I've done it, with stopping to charge after driving and sitting in the car with the AC running. It's just on starting up.