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Lucid reveals the look of its long-anticipated all-electric SUV, and it is finally shipping more affordable trims of its luxury Air sedan to longtime reservation holders.
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Lucid’s all-electric Gravity SUV is finally revealed.
Image: Lucid
Lucid Motors is finally giving a first look at its luxury all-electric Gravity SUV. New images released by the automaker Tuesday show off a spacious three-row interior with dual center seats that have leg rests that can recline and an exterior that features a swooping all-glass roof.
Gravity is the automaker’s second vehicle model to be revealed. In a press release, Lucid’s SVP of design Derek Jenkins says the company is “sparing no opportunity to build on everything we learned with Lucid Air,” the automaker’s luxury electric sedan and first vehicle.
None of the images show off the front interior, but Lucid is promising a next-generation “Glass Cockpit” with high-resolution displays that will run on a new version of its Lucid UX software. For the rear, multiple passenger configurations will be available, including five-, six-, and seven-seat configurations.
Lucid declined to disclose additional information about the Gravity, including range, performance, and pricing until reservations open in early 2023. The design and specs are not fully finalized, but the automaker plans to work on that “in parallel” with the expansion of its AMP-1 factory in Casa Grande, Arizona.
Hints about Lucid’s SUV started as early as 2019 when then-chief technology officer Peter Rawlinson (now also CEO) told The Verge that plans for an SUV were “quite possible.” But the SUV would not get mentioned again until the company went public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger in 2021. At the time, the SUV was slated to be released in 2023.
Meanwhile, Lucid said it would begin delivering its first midtrim Touring versions of its Air luxury electric sedan. Starting at $107,400, this version features 620-horsepower dual-motor all-wheel drive and can go zero to 60mph in 3.4 seconds. It comes with a “Long Range” 18-module battery pack (as opposed to the 22-module “Extended Range” one) that adds more rear seat foot space and can travel 425 miles on a single charge. The Air Touring also matches the 4.6 miles per kWh efficiency of the more expensive Grand Touring version.
Lucid so far only delivered the initial launch version, called the Air Dream Edition, that started at $169,000 and the upper trim Grand Touring models that currently start at $154,000. The Dream variant is no longer available.
The dual-motor, 480-horsepower version of the slightly less expensive model, Lucid Air Pure, is also arriving this year. It can travel up to 410 miles on a single charge using the same 18-module battery of the Air Touring. Much like early lower-end Tesla Model S trims, Air Pure trades a glass roof for a body-colored metal one (made of aluminum), and the cheapest version with single-motor rear-wheel drive will arrive in 2023.
Pure retains many of the features of the other models, but for the lower $87,400 starting price, the seats are faux leather instead of Nappa, it doesn’t include the “Surreal Sound Pro” Dolby Atmos-enabled speaker system by default, has a mostly plain black “Mojave” interior with recycled woven textile trimmings, and you can only get the less fancy Aero wheel rim options.
All Lucid Air models have now been slightly tweaked to achieve a 0.197 drag coefficient, becoming the “most aerodynamically efficient production car on the market,” the company says. In comparison, Hyundai’s new Ioniq 6 has a 0.21 drag coefficient, and the Model S Plaid’s is 0.208. All models also come with Lucid’s DreamDrive Pro advanced driver assistance system that uses a combination of lidar, cameras, and ultrasonic systems and will eventually become semiautonomous through software updates, Lucid claims.
Lucid’s Air Touring and Pure models now join the currently available Grand Touring, which is able to achieve a further 516 miles of range in one charge. And in the first half of 2023, Lucid will begin production of its apex Air Sapphire trim with triple motors, starting at $249,000. The automaker says it’s currently fine-tuning the vehicle on public roads and racetracks and estimates it to be capable of a zero to 60mph acceleration in just 1.89 seconds.
Even so, it’s been a rough year for Lucid. The automaker had to revise its delivery prediction down to 7,000 vehicles max, the second time it had to slash production this year due to continuous supply chain challenges. In February, production targets were as high as 14,000 vehicles.
With some longtime reservation holders finally getting their cheaper Air Touring sedans this year and a first look at the Gravity SUV, the company might have exhausted as much buzz as it possibly could before the end of this year. What it hasn’t exhausted is more investment though, as the automaker reportedly plans to sell up to $915 million in shares to its majority owner, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.