World premiere Lucid Gravity: Lots of space, big range: Here comes the next Tesla hunter

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Things aren’t going well at Lucid yet. Although testers praise the Lucid Air, the luxury sedan isn’t yet a bestseller. In the third quarter of this year, the American start-up sold only 1,457 units; In Switzerland, 14 units were sold in all of 2023.

An important step

Now Gravity needs to do this; A seven-seat luxury SUV with plenty of space and power. “We looked at all the relevant SUVs and found that they always represented a compromise,” designer Derek Jenkins explains, pointing to a graphic showing the silhouettes of well-known crossovers. From the Porsche Cayenne Coupé to the Range Rover, all luxury cars are recognizable. A model is either good on asphalt or off-road; but it cannot be both. Electric Lucid Gravity should now be impressive in both disciplines.

Many electric sedans, let alone SUVs, can’t even reach Gravity’s drag coefficient of 0.24. No wonder Lucid has named the portrait-format electric car, which is expected to offer a combination of luxury, performance, range, design and space, SUV 2.0. There is actually plenty of space in the vehicle, which is approximately five meters long. The first seat test shows that if you are over 1.80 meters tall, you still have enough space in the third row, even if the second row is occupied by adults. When you fold the backrests of the second and third rows, a space of approximately 2.29 meters is created. Fun idea: The wide front section, that is, the cargo area under the front hood, can also be used as a picnic bench for two; Matching seat cover is available as standard.

Weather as a role model

Lucid Air was the inspiration for the interior. Finally, Gravity shares its architecture with the sedan. However, technicians further improved the interior and infotainment system. The seating position has been significantly improved; The curved instrument cluster with digital displays and a 12.6-inch central touchscreen has been moved up and is now positioned above the steering wheel. The infotainment system is complemented by a head-up display with augmented reality that shows the way with flying arrows, as we know from Mercedes and Audi. Marking road boundaries is certainly useful in bad weather conditions.

The process is now easier as you can move frequently used functions to the top menu level for direct access. It’s great that Lucid still relies on classic knobs and buttons for air conditioning. “We make the electronics and software ourselves,” says Derek Jenkins. This also applies to voice control: “Alexa isn’t good enough,” Jenkins grins. You won’t find ChatGPT yet, but vegan seats and leather-free panels are available upon request.

HP power

Lucid’s concept of manufacturing the most important components itself is expensive, but it has its advantages: If you don’t have to buy components or software off the shelf from a supplier, you can get the best possible range. By gravity it would definitely have to be over 700 kilometers. Battery capacity will likely remain the same at 118 kilowatt hours. Thanks to 900 volt technology, you can charge approximately 320 kilometers of electricity in 15 minutes with a 350 kW fast charger.

The top model will have over 1,000 hp (725 kW), accelerate from zero to 100 km/h in approximately 3.5 seconds and be able to tow more than 2.7 tonnes. But we still have to wait: Gravity won’t be available until the end of next year and will cost under $80,000. in the USA. However, Swiss prices are not yet known.

Source: Blick