We took delivery of a Touring a week ago. We started with an 850 mile drive the 2nd day. This was probably not a good idea since we have never owned an EV. We made it with me believing we had a better experience than my wife thinks we did. Here are my observations along with those of a good friend of mine who purchased a new Tesla Plaid this summer.
My car has been far from perfect. We had a lot of charging issues at EA that required anywhere from 25-50 minutes with Lucid support and EA on the phone to get the car to charge. EA had to give us a complimentary charge as we get an “authentication error” each time. The navigation system had some serious glitches, including an inability to find charging stations and voice commands working/not working along with odd rerouting to much longer travel choices. The cameras have been glitchy sometimes working, sometimes not. The Dolby Atmos is not working, though we can now get music. So, not all roses. I have been driving Mercedes Benz/AMG and Porsche products for the past 30 years. Never had a car with as many problems. They do all appear to be software problems and I hope Lucid will get them all fixed. That being said, the car itself is fantastic to drive. I realize the Plaid accelerates faster, as do the AGTs. In no way can I use the all of the acceleration/speed the Touring has on public roads. Not on a regular basis. It is a parlor trick to accelerate as fast as these cars (and others) can. Often fun to stun friends the first time. In daily driving, I simply don’t need more power/speed/acceleration than either the Touring offers. All of them (AGT and Plaid included) offer acceleration, to quote Rolls Royce, that is “adequate”. Unless, you are big into stop light racing. Never been my thing. Now, if you are taking your car to a track, you may want the the extra power of a Plaid or a AGT.
The car is comfortable, fast, handles better than a 4 door sedan should, and extremely quiet. The Hiway Assist worked well for me. I have read other postst on this forum suggesting th the assist should move the car to the left side of the lane when passing trucks and I agree. Some of those big trucks seemed to get too close to me. The Air feels like it was put together by german engineering. To be honest, it feels more solid than my AMG coupe. It is great fun to drive. Inspite of the software issues, I am trying to make up reasons to take it on a long road trip again. It is a great driver’s car. A long road trip currently, may be a tough sell to my wife. She is very concerned we will be left on the side of the road unable to get the car charged.
I had it in to Lucid service for 2 days last week. I will say this, the service manager, (John), and all of the people I have had a face to face encounter with at the Scottsdale service center were very nice and helpful. They all really seem to care about Lucid, the cars, and the customers. They believe they fixed most of the problems with a “hard reset”. I tested the navigation today, it gave voice commands,and found charging stations. I drove to an EA station today and the after plugging in, the car began charging. The cameras seemed to work just as they should. I also performed the Dobly Atmos test. My car is definately not playing back Atmos music correctly. Perhaps it has not been activated by Lucid? Perhaps I have something set up incorrectly on my end? I will phone the service center tomorrow.
My Plaid owning friend had this to say. “The Lucid interior is much nicer, the car feels much more solid, and I think It is a better looking car than my Plaid. I do like the Telsa supercharger network. Other than that I don’t really see any reason to choose the Telsa over the Lucid”. His wife thought the interior and exterior are nicer than their Tesla. I haven’t spent any time in his car. I have experienced the Plaid acceleration and it is mind blowing. Just not real useful to me on public roads. Your desires may be different.
I have hopes, my Lucid software issues will be, for the most part, put behind me. The hardware and driving experience is amazing. If the software issued can be fixed quickly, the Touring is a bargain for what it offers in range, build quality, and driving characteristics. There are a lot of good automobiles available for purchase. I think Lucid is the premium EV at the moment. If Lucid can improve the software/reliability I don’t see why they would not remain a top consideration.
