Hyundai Ioniq 9 Vs. Lucid Gravity: Is The Lucid $36,000 Nicer?

Luxury is in a weird spot right now, and it’s all thanks to the electric car. Just like how fragrance dupes are a huge equalizer, the quiet smoothness of electric drive has done wonders to level the playing field. No more coarse four-bangers, even the cheapest EVs have hushed powertrains that make V12s seem a little vulgar. So what happens if we line up the Lucid Gravity and the Hyundai Ioniq 9? After all, they’re both electric, they both charge quickly, they both have three rows of seats, and neither one looks like a traditional SUV.

Of course, there is one big on-paper difference here: The cheapest Gravity you can currently buy lists for $96,550 including freight ($134,500 in Canada), and with extras like $1,000 worth of paint, $4,200 worth of leather, a $2,900 third row, and a $2,900 handling package, a Gravity can easily blast comfortably into six figures. Meanwhile, the least expensive Hyundai Ioniq 9 stickers for $60,555 and the most expensive Hyundai Ioniq 9 with all the boxes ticked will run you $79,090 ($83,549 in Canada). That’s a $36,000 premium base-to-base, and you can option the Gravity up to $45,660 more than a loaded Ioniq 9. So, is the Lucid worth the premium? Let’s find out.

[Full disclosure: Hyundai Canada and Lucid Motors both brought their three-row electric crossovers to AJAC TestFest, an annual event put on by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada as part of the run-up to and evaluation for Canadian Car of the Year. Food and lodging were provided by the Association.]

How Do They Look?

Each of these crossovers is a little blobby in its own unique way, like two different species of jellyfish. The Ioniq 9 starts with the rounded nose you’d expect from an EV and features a taper to its roofline, but the rest is quite angular from the kammtail to the pixel-like detailing. Its surfacing is dominated by hard creases, a valiant attempt to make a teardrop look like a sugar cube. For the most part, it works, as it needs to. The people want boxy, even if any boxy traits here are largely illusions.

The Lucid Gravity, on the other hand, doesn’t care much for creases or squares. It’s all flowing curves and subtlety, with a roofline markedly lower than that of the Hyundai. It’s a bit minivan in photos, but there’s a real long, low, and wide presence in the metal that almost makes the Gravity feel a bit more wagon-like.

What About Their Interiors?

Slide inside the Hyundai Ioniq 9 and it reveals itself as a lovely place to be for the money. Stitched vinyl on the dash and the door cards, wonderfully contoured seats, loads of metal accents, and a bit of what almost sort of looks like granite set underneath mood lighting. Sure, it’s not leather, but you have to reach way down to find any hard plastics. At the same time, Hyundai has really thought about storage. You get a bevy of USB-C ports in a sort of half-console with trays for devices, a roomy cubby underneath the same sort of two-way armrest found in the Santa Fe, sunshades, proper second-row captain’s chairs, and in this top trim, a headliner so sumptuously soft it feels woven out of sin itself. That said, you do get a sense of retail premium inside the Ioniq 9. It’s nicer than most 15-year-old Mercedes-Benzes, but if you’ve spent time in the latest and priciest, you’ll know where the material spend has been dialled back a half-notch.

In contrast, it doesn’t take long to find where Lucid’s really spent the money. Yes, the optional leather interior is pricey, but you really do get an entire third-hand Hyundai Tiburon worth of cow here, augmented by deep textured suede and real wood. The squircle steering wheel is a bit strange, especially with a modest steering ratio, but otherwise, the ergonomics are bang-on. Lucid upped the material spend on the little stuff, too—the minivan-style foldaway third row, the tray tables that flip out of the front seat backs, the sliding console insert. It’s a richer place than the Hyundai’s cabin, but there is a usability tradeoff. More on that later.

How Do They Drive?

Twist the column-mounted gear selector of the Ioniq 9 forward, ease off the brake, and you’re immediately greeted by a soothing sense of softness, like you’re riding on a pillow of buttercream frosting. It’s proof that engineers can still do incredible things with steel coil springs and fixed-rate dampers, especially given the absence of undue float or wallow when just trundling about. That sense of ease carries into the steering and the hushed noise floor, and the end result feels like a love letter to luxury cars of old. You know, before they all had to be performance cars.

That’s not to say the Ioniq 9 isn’t reasonably quick, though. This top-shelf model pumps out 422 horsepower and 516 lb.-ft. of torque, enough to run from zero-to-60 mph in about five seconds. Of course, really welding your right foot to the floorboard means you probably won’t achieve the rated range of 311 miles (500 km), but even if you hammer down, 350 kW DC fast charging means you’ll be back on the road in about the same amount of time it would take for the person in front of you at a gas station counter to check their lottery tickets. So long as you aren’t expecting sportiness, Hyundai’s electric three-row really punches above its weight.

In contrast, Lucid’s crossover is firmer than Hyundai’s, with the tires smacking cracks in the road instead of smothering them. A bit of an odd choice until you take a corner and realize no three-row crossover should handle this well, from beautifully weighted inputs to shockingly good body control with the Dynamic Handling Package. Alright, the brake pedal feels a little spooky around an autocross course because its resistance isn’t as progressive as you’d expect, but even though the Gravity squeaks in under the SCCA’s height-to-track-width requirement, are you really going to be gunning for a national title in this thing? The bottom line is that you can drop the kids off at granddad’s, head out for a spirited drive with your friends, and actually keep up. That’s a huge achievement.

At the same time, the Gravity is just in another realm of straight-line performance. We’re talking zero-to-60 mph in the mid-threes thanks to 828 horsepower, all while boasting an extra 75 miles of range over the Ioniq 9 in its quickest trim for a total of 386 miles (619 km) of range with these big wheels. Even the optional four-wheel-steering is completely transparent when parking, something that even more expensive cars can struggle with. Mind you, the Gravity’s 400 kW DC fast charging isn’t as much of a bonus over the Ioniq 9 as it sounds because most ultra-fast chargers are capped at 350 kW. Still, what a thing.

Do They Have The Electronic Crap I Want?

In the case of the Hyundai, absolutely, and not just because you can park it from the key fob. We’re talking USB-C ports galore, a properly intuitive infotainment system and digital cluster set beneath a curved glass panel, heated and ventilated La-Z-Boy-like second-row seats, an intercom for chiding rear seat passengers, and a full suite of well-calibrated advanced driver assistance systems from lane-keep assistance to adaptive cruise control.

At the same time, you still get real buttons for a whole bunch of stuff. Hard keys for the infotainment and radio, knobs for the volume and tuning and temperature, just about everything placed exactly where you’d expect. Somewhat annoyingly, the heated seats are actuated via touchscreen, but at least they’re permanent digital keys in a small separate display between the temperature knobs. The big disappointment? The Bose stereo. It’s just not that good, which is unfortunate for a vehicle with such a low noise floor and a total contrast from the unexpectedly crisp, dynamic system in this car’s three-row platform-twin, the Kia EV9.

What sort of gadget says more money like adding more screen? In addition to the sweeping display for maps, gauges, and a few secondary functions, the Gravity gets a big central touchscreen that just works as promised. The user interface looks great, you get Apple CarPlay, and the Gravity still has enough physical switches and scroll wheels for volume and climate controls to be usable. It’s only when you start digging deeper that you start to notice technology for the sake of technology. For instance, the steering column adjustment and mirror adjustment are handled by hitting tiles on the touchscreen and then working a steering wheel D-pad. That’s a bit more complicated than it should be, and it’s the same deal with the central locking being on a touchpad to the left of the driver. On the plus side, the sound system bangs, and if you have particularly deep pockets, you can spec the Gravity with hands-free highway driver assistance and true semi-autonomous parking rather than just key fob remote control, if you’re into that sort of stuff.

Is The Lucid Gravity Worth The Premium Over The Hyundai Ioniq 9?

On paper, this should be a tough call because the Hyundai Ioniq 9 is already a brilliant electric family hauler. It’s spacious, it charges quickly, it has plenty of range, and it’s seriously quiet and comfortable. While the Lucid Gravity can’t match the ride quality of the Hyundai, its materials, tuning, performance, and little touches combine to elevate it into another tax bracket. Still, what we have here are two excellent cars, both of which seem to give you more than what you pay for. Value is relative, but both of these battery-powered crossovers will satisfy.

Top graphic image: Thomas Hundal