Oh lovely, another expensive electric luxury SUV that can keep up with a McLaren SLR to 60 mph and drain around $80,000 from your checkbook. With every automaker chasing high-margin EVs to fund cheaper stuff, reports of EVs languishing on dealer lots, and a period of expensive credit locked in, now might not be the best time for the Lucid Gravity, the latest electric luxury SUV, to launch. That’s a shame, because there really is some interesting stuff going on under the skin of this posh family hauler.
On first glance, the Lucid Gravity looks exactly how you’d expect if you’ve ever seen a Lucid Air. We’re talking about a prominent brow, contrasting roof rails, just the faintest semblance of grillework, and clean surfacing. Mind you, stretching Lucid Air styling language over a three-row crossover form has also resulted in something that looks like a big Volkswagen ID.4, which is a little awkward for, in Lucid’s words, “under $80,000.” At the same time, the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV looks like a pound cake and the Tesla Model X looks like a suppository, so the Lucid Gravity may still be the leader of the pack.
As you’d probably expect, the Gravity’s real party is going on inside, with a massive 34-inch curved OLED screen capable of providing information overload. A satellite screen beneath works vital media and climate controls, while rear seat passengers are treated to their own multifunction display. Unlike in the Lucid Air, the upholstery color in the Gravity carries through all zones of the interior, with neither the first row nor the second row feeling shortchanged. As novel as flashy tech is, luxury lies in detail and craftsmanship, and the cabin of the Lucid Gravity looks as good as anything in the segment.
Diving beneath the skin, the Lucid Gravity should offer 440 miles of range, although Lucid hasn’t stated a battery pack capacity yet. Unsurprisingly, expect this family hauler to be diaper-soilingly quick, with a quoted zero-to-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds. More importantly, Lucid quotes 6,000 pounds of towing capacity and a 1,500 pound payload capacity, relevant figures for all manner of family things.
While Lucid seemed to be a CCS holdout mere weeks ago, the company has recently announced that its future EVs will be able to use Tesla’s Supercharger DC fast charging network starting in 2025, by way of an adapter. Why an adapter? Well, the landscape of 350 kW CCS fast chargers may soon be a largely Lucid-specific haven. With most major automakers switching to Tesla’s NACS connector come 2024, I can see fewer and fewer drivers of cars that can’t take full advantage of 350 kW chargers making the decision to trade reliability for sheer speed. Since the Lucid Gravity uses an architecture good for north of 900 volts, it should see the same 300 kW peak DC fast charging speed as its Air sibling. At the moment, Tesla’s V3 Superchargers top out at 250 kW, so the theoretical advantage goes to 350 kW CCS chargers. Of course, once the V4 Superchargers come out, the winner is anyone’s guess.
Astonishingly, the Gravity doesn’t share a platform with the Lucid Air sedan, instead riding on its own unique chassis that must’ve cost a fortune to develop. Even BMW uses the same platform for the i7 and iX, but it’s possible that Lucid’s just setting the stage for a whole lineup of crossovers. After all, small automakers typically can’t afford to go bespoke every time, and parts bin sharing could shoulder some costs. Needless to say, Lucid’s long-term game could be intriguing.
With the introduction of the Gravity, Lucid feels even more like a do-over of Tesla with better ideas and leadership. The trouble is, market conditions for pricey electric vehicles aren’t exactly set in stone. Plus, the Lucid Air thrives because most electric luxury sedans have, well, deficiencies. The Porsche Taycan has the space efficiency of a fourth-generation Camaro. The Tesla Model S looks and feels more than a decade old. The Mercedes-Benz EQS is the third-best Dodge Intrepid ever made. The Cadillac Celestiq is cool but not even in the same league on pricing.
Meanwhile, the market for electric luxury crossovers is starting to boom. The Rivian R1S looks awesome and has proper off-road chops. The upcoming Volvo EX90 is incredibly promising, with a uniquely Swedish twist on things. The BMW iX may be hideous and only a two-row crossover, but the interior is phenomenal and the fundamentals are there. The Cadillac Escalade IQ redefines ridiculousness. Mainstream automakers are throwing serious money at these high-margin products, so the bar is much higher than in the sedan segment. As a result of this mainstream competition, crossover customers may view small carmaker weirdness less charitably than the handful of nerds who want the ultimate electric supersedan.
The Lucid Gravity is full of good ideas, but in a tumultuous time for expensive vehicles and amid hot competition, we’ll just have to wait and see if the Gravity itself is a good idea. Then again, with the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia holding a majority stake in the automaker, something tells me Lucid can afford to focus on the flagships. Either way, expect deliveries of the Lucid Gravity to start in late 2024.
(Photo credits: Lucid Motors)
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It’s a minivan. Not a bad thing, but let’s call it like it is.
Am I the only one here who thinks the profile is giving Kia Carnival vibes?
It looks like a VW had sex with a Toyota
They could have built this as a streamliner with a drag coefficient in the .00XX range and weighing only 350lbs. It would cost $12, have a range of 8,000 miles at Mach 1.2, and be completely maintainable without the use of tools.
Username checks out.
I’m not sure what you mean, I have cut ZERO toes this week. (Since Thursday)
Speaking of, is Toecutter still around?
Runs off a Sonicare toothbrush battery
Thanks for filling in that blank, didn’t realize I forgot to talk about battery capacity until after the edit button went away.
The Mercedes-Benz EQS is the third-best Dodge Intrepid ever made.
And… now my nose hurts from snorting liquid through it. That is some stone-cold shade and I am very much here for it.
It’s funny cuz it’s true.
So which good ideas? The square steering wheel, the 20″ rims, the frunk couch, or the fact that it’s an expensive and really big a3 hatch?
Here to remind people that SUVs are not family haulers. That’s not what they are best at or what they were ever meant for.
The frunk couch is cool to me. Frunkgating! But I’m with you on the rest.
Is this also going to have the annoyingly bright lightbar that the Air has? I’m all for lightbars but Lucid’s are nearly blinding.
I like how it’s huge and boxy like a regular pedestrian-killing SUV, but it’s also much heavier AND faster!
Am I the only one who doesn’t like the trend of squared steering wheels?
You are not. They’re almost as bad as a yoke, since the wheel height is significantly different mid-turn. At least there is wheel all the way around, I guess.
Nope. I can deal with the flat bottom, though I still prefer round. Anything else is stupid. Worst are the yokes.
I prefer round, but I don’t mind a flat bottom if she has other positive attributes.
Are we still talking about steering wheels?
Flat bottom wheels still make the rack and pinion go round.
Damn, I sang that song with my college chorus in 2016 and I just got flashbacks.
I think they are aesthetically cool and functionally shitty. Not a bad thing if we are talking about a pair of stilettos, but not what I’m looking for in the object that dictates the direction of an 8,000 pound missile that is packed with highly flammable materials.
Can we talk more about stilettos
With independent electric motors on each side of the car, this begs for a two-stick control setup, like a Bobcat.
You could couple that with Lexus’ planned EV manual transmission -AND- a low/high range for the ultimate quad-stick setup. Makes up for the lack of buttons everywhere else.
The Austin Allegro is finally vindicated!
Squircles! I like them attached to Virgil Exner-designed cars, but that’s about it.
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/atomic-age-style
The front end is not bad, but that rear 3/4 angle…oof. Needs more glass on the hatch, maybe a more traditional shut line as well. I see what they were going for but I’m not sure it worked.
I guess an increase in mass doesn’t equal an increase in attraction.
Depends on your taste. I’ve always liked to have a little something to hang on to. Potential options that look like they would blow away in a strong breeze have never really been my thing personally.
….wait what are we talking about again?
Dark energy, duh.
(I guess Saudi oil money counts as dark energy)
I like it, looks massively better than Model X or Y.
That’s a mighty low bar in my opinion, so I guess I’ll have to agree.
Yay! Another EV no one can afford. EV’s aren’t a progression of ICE vehicles. They are a new tool. Maybe we should have started building simple EVs first instead of the worlds most complex vehicles.
The problem is that a simple EV is going to be quite a bit more expensive than a simple ICE car because batteries, so they all aim for luxury to get to where the difference doesn’t matter.
Yes, this here ^. The profitability floor on EVs is too high, plus the resources needed to build higher volumes (though, they would likely use less per unit, production numbers would have to be a lot higher), then there’s the higher profitability models being able to fund necessary R&D the low end could not, and buyers on the low end tend not to be early adopters and more wary of new tech because they can’t afford or don’t want to have a new car that’s a service queen. The other thing is perception. If electric started out as cheap cars, the tech would be perceived as being “for the poors”, making moving upmarket where the profit is an even far more difficult task. That’s also making a large assumption that those cheap EVs would be reliable and durable so as not to further shake perception. A big reason Tesla succeeded was going after the high end of the market first, selling it as premium tech and the “cool new thing” to have to people who can afford to toss money at the “cool new thing” and care about showing off how current they are without having to make excuses as they have the performance along with the environmental cred. Basically, there is no low end before the high end. This has pretty much been true since cars were first produced.
And that’s where the government needs to fund appropriately. I don’t think funding new product development of luxury vehicles is the right approach.
I don’t think it has to be this way. It is this way because of corporate profit hounds and immediate share holder value. The model t cost an equivalent of $28K when it debuted.
Oh I know. But that’s a terrible way to develop a new product.
The gist of it is, affordable cars are expensive to build, and since they require higher sales volumes to make money, the stakes are higher
Startups aim at the 80-100k segment in the US because it’s in the Goldlocks Zone where they can make revenue on a low volume of cars and position them as luxury vehicles to appeal to early adopters who can afford it. That also lets them shape their brand perception as well
Legacy OEMs can afford to come out with an affordable EV out of the gate because they don’t have to build an entire company from scratch and can parts-bin a lot of it, but they still run into the issue of having to convince people to buy them, as buyers under 30k tend to be very risk-adverse.
Meanwhile, Fisker outsourced everything to Magna-Steyer in Austria and while that lets them sell a lower priced EV right out of the gate, they won’t be as profitable in the long run versus building the cars themselves in their own factory
Economy cars like the Fit, Versa, etc. are typically sold globally (high volume) and filled with parts and tech that’ve have been amortized both over global production volumes and over time by being used in more expensive cars first
dawg that’s a minivan
No, minivans have convenient sliding doors. This is nowhere near as practical. But I suppose I shouldn’t expect anything that is $80k to be practical.
I guess my reading comprehension sucks. What specifically are the good ideas?
The rear quarter aesthetics really give me a Chrysler Pacifica vibe.
The steering wheel gives off early-mid-sixties Chrysler squircle vibes.
Man they really swung and missed with the styling here. It looks like the unholy love child of an iD4 and a Chrysler Pacifica. I’m sure we’ll have some commentariat members whose reactions are IT LOOKS LIKE A VAN, VAN=GOOD, THEREFORE THIS DESIGN IS GOOD but it just looks so wonky to me.
It’s just another melted soap bar in a sea of them, and it’s a damn shame because the Air is a legitimately good and unique looking car. Anyway, time for my usual spiel!
OH LOOK! Another overpriced vanity crossover for the virtue signaling wealthy that no one asked for. There are like 176 of them in the 60-100k range that aren’t selling but surely this is the one we’ve been waiting for! We need more of these products! They’re a totally fantastic use of our finite battery resources! Dr. Douche’s 3rd wife Mrs. Douche-Tok simply NEEDS one of these to drive to the country club.
That’ll show Karen and her stupid Model X a thing or two! AND it’s not made by that horribly improper Elon Musk. Instead it’s funded by *checks notes*
…the Saudis! Nothing to see here. Hell if you mention that you may be subjected to a fate that you never saw coming, if you catch my drift.
At this moment in time I’m really not sure who is worse, Elon or the Saudis. I don’t hate the look of it, but as I said below it would be a great looking wagon if shorter.
I don’t know either but I can tell you that I’m not going to give my money to either. Or to China, for that matter.
Well, skeletons, closets, and all:
USA: Vietnam, WMD, etc
UK: pioneer of concentration camps (Boer Wars), Opium Wars, pillaging India, colonialism, slavery
France: all the shit they did in Africa and Indochina
Spain: ethnic cleansing in Latin and South America
Germany: two time World War instigator and loser
Japan: Rape of Nanking, Bataan Death March, Unit 731, Comfort Women, etc.
Don’t forget Belgium!
Also the US has more prison labor per capita than China. They make car parts including, maybe, your licence plates:
https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/national-verify/incarcerated-workers-prisoners-make-license-plates-other-items/536-64abeb45-66e1-4ee9-839f-d51607a0497c
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/us-prison-labor-programs-violate-fundamental-human-rights-new-report-finds
https://harvardpolitics.com/involuntary-servitude-how-prison-labor-is-modern-day-slavery/
Unless your living the mad Ted Kaczynski lifestyle how exactly are you going to not buy products with either a Saudi or Chinese connection?
Now that you mention it, Chrysler could dust off the old Citadel concept…
It’s nice enough but doesn’t seem like it has the presence of an Air in the Lucid line, or an R1S among EV crossovers.
Glad I’m not the only one who looked and saw Pacifica.
The real reason EVs don’t sell: the identity conflict between galaxy-brain twerps and anonymous dentists.
If they cut about 8-10 inches our between the floor and windows that would be one sexy wagon.
One thing about the Lucid Air, it looks really striking in person. I’m assuming this won’t be as striking because it’s a CUV, but their exterior design team is really doing an impressive job.
Not that they care… but that’s exactly why I would not consider one.
Because you don’t want to risk increasing the wealth of the Saudis? May I ask if you drive a gasoline powered car?
Even if its an EV powered by non Saudi funded solar/wind/nuclear I’ll bet there’s some Saudi oil in those plastics.
I have read that roof racks are surprisingly bad for aerodynamics. Given that high end electric car makers have put effort and money into making flush door handles, I would expect them to do something similar to roof racks. Maybe make them lay down when not in use?
Toecutter, am I onto something here, or would it be more trouble than it’s worth?
Seems like it would be pretty simple to make a gutter on each side that your crossbars could mount into, plus a cover for it to maintain aero when the crossbars aren’t installed. Or just four holes with plugs. That could make installation dead simple, too.
I’d imagine people would lose or forget to reinstall the plugs. Water would enter the holes and rust would be a problem.
That or people would just leave the racks on, gas mileage be damned.
I mean, sure, but people leave crossbars on anyway. If you’re trying to improve aero for people, you know some are going to mess it up. I guess the best solution might be rails with crossbars attached that can lower the whole thing into the roof, but that cuts into the headroom at that point.
The curvature of the roof might get in the way in some cases, but I don’t know why they don’t make longitudinal rails that switchblade-style cross bars could rotate into when not in use. To make it even more aero, the rails could be readily removable.
It always makes me roll my eyes when I see adherents to the stupid fad of driving around with clip on aftermarket roof racks with nothing on them or perpetually holding up a large cargo box that’s probably empty. They’re almost invariably on a vehicle that looks like the owner has a lot of better things they should spend their money on than wasting gas to fit in with a group of other idiots with no apparent other way they can figure to make themselves stand out, yet still feel the need to. Plus, those racks aren’t cheap, which is even dumber if you don’t need them.
Wait, is ‘frunking’ the new tailgating? I can’t keep up with this shit
Sure, it’s… Large, I guess, and expensive, and it satisfies the base urge to mash a pedal and accelerate quickly. Is it common knowledge that the Saudis are majority owners?! As if electric cars needed any help with their image as the playthings of rich weirdos. I think there are few richer or weirder than those guys. Even ole Elon is beat here.
But how much fun could you have with eight $10,000 trucks?
Lots. Maybe not all the fun, but I could make a good run at a large percentage of it 🙂
This article may contain the first and only reference to a Cadillac Escalade as a “crossover”.
Around here the definition of “crossover” seems to be “SUV we don’t like”.
Do they like any besides old Jeeps?
US-unavailable Chinese cars.
Well yeah apparently the grand highlander and kia telluride, which I don’t understand. Excursion too
The Escalade does “crossover” the lines in parking lots! Hahaaaa!
No seriously the Escalade drivers here are a menace.
Also the EV version might be a crossover, I don’t remember the platform they’re using.
I assume it’s a luxury body on the Hummer chassis, but I guess I don’t know that for certain.
Yeah I honestly have no idea myself, but there is a chance I think? I will admit to being just indifferent enough to not check.
Though then you get into the muddy area of what is the distinction between a CUV and an SUV.
I mean, I think it looks nice from most angles. But yes, another not really attainable SUV. But if they sell it, great! Because in 7-10 years when they are tired of it sitting in the garage, then I can buy it at a discount.
10 years? This thing will be worth 40-50 grand a year after it rolls off the production line….
Actually not wrong. Premium EV resale numbers are super yikes right now, and it’s not specific to any brand either. Even the PLAID variants of the Tesla Model S and X take an absolute bath relative to the rest of the Tesla model lineup.
Moreover, price cuts and cash on the hood is not helping things either. The Mercedes EQS incentives seem like a good deal on the front end, but a year from now you’re just that much further in the hole. Same with Audi e-tron variants with a legit $50,000 on the hood, where at the Manheim auctions those things are getting 55% of MSRP only a year later.
Again, not brand specific, and it’s only the premium models (say, above $65K) seeing it. Rivian and the Hummer EV are doing OK because they can’t yet sate demand (but the premiums are gone), but Audi e-tron, Mercedes EQS, Lucid, Tesla PLAIDs, Jaguar i-Pace are all yikes. The Porsche Taycan is doing less bad, but not hot in the resale market either.
I’ve already seen Audi E Tron GTs popping up in the 50s in my area and Taycans aren’t far behind. The other thing that doesn’t help is that it seems as though cars that need a battery replacement wind up being completely totaled or bought back by the manufacturer and receive salvage titles as a result. I’m…not entirely sure that that makes sense to me personally, since buying an EV with a new battery pack isn’t really the same as buying an ICE vehicle that’s been totaled…but as of now that’s how it’s done.
Believe it or not I actually think an E Tron GT is a lot of car for the price once it’s THAT cheap. But the first owners are getting absolutely hosed. I guess I don’t care too much since only the ultra wealthy can afford these damn things anywhere near MSRP, but still…super yikes indeed.
There’s a guy in my area with the RS trim e-tron GT. He paid full price when it was new, and didn’t put much down. Talked to him a bit, and he was concerned about the $50K on the hood now.
I did the napkin math looking at his estimated monthly payment, insurance, and the absolutely horrendous depreciation. I reckon his first year TCO (again, including depreciation) was in the $80-85K range. Or, you know, in the ballpark of what you’d spend to own a pretty nice house for the same period. You know he won’t keep it long, either.
I’m just staggered. That makes the depreciation of unwanted Aston Martins, Ferrari GTs, Bentleys, etc. seem quaint by comparison. The 3-4% depreciation per month of the premium EVs is completely nuts.
I just can’t process that. For that kind of outlay I’d rather own a poster car, not a future historic footnote no one will recall, that 30 years from now you’d be amazed if you ever saw one at a Cars and Coffee.
This is one thing that keeps me from jumping both feet into EV. Improved AND cheaper variants are almost always around the corner, rendering current offerings worthless.
If I must get an EV to replace my current ICE car it’s gonna be a lease and only if the residuals are reasonable (i.e. let the automaker subsidize the residuals.) I’d buy an EV outright only if the MSRP is low enough, such as the upcoming Volvo EX30.