Lucid swerves into the electrical SUV market with the three-row Gravity

Lucid Motors formally introduced its subsequent electrical car, the three-row Gravity SUV. Primarily based on the identical platform as Lucid’s solely different car, the Air sedan, the Gravity is the California-based firm’s first foray into the profitable and intensely aggressive SUV market.

Lucid says the SUV will rise up to 440 miles of vary, can speed up 0–60 mph in beneath 3.5 seconds. It can have a base value of $80,000 and is predicted to enter manufacturing in late 2024.

However the panorama appears to be like remarkably totally different than it did three years in the past when Lucid first teased the potential of an electrical SUV. The luxurious EV market, specifically, is extremely aggressive and overly saturated right now, with choices from Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac, and BMW. Consultants say the early adopter period of EVs is over, and extra inexpensive automobiles are what’s wanted most — not one other sub-$100,000 luxurious mannequin.

Furthermore, it’s been a troublesome 12 months for Lucid. The corporate slashed its manufacturing targets not too long ago, sending its inventory value plummeting to an all-time low. Lucid manufacturing prices are huge, and the corporate loses a staggering $227,000 on every automotive it sells, in keeping with The Wall Road Journal. It continues to battle to seek out prospects for its EVs.

On high of all this dour information, the Gravity emerges as an indication of latest hope for Lucid. Based as Atieva in 2007, the corporate bought its begin making high-performance batteries for all of the Method E racing groups. It modified its identify to Lucid Motors in 2016 with the promise to make a midsized sedan that looks like a large, roomy flagship car. An SUV was quickly to observe.

That SUV took a while getting right here, due to the pandemic and different delays. However now that it’s getting a correct reveal, the Gravity appears to be like each bit the follow-up to the luxurious Air sedan. At the beginning, it appears to be like to be a spread chief within the EV house with 440 miles on a single cost. That’s greater than different three-row electrical SUVs, together with the Tesla Mannequin X (348 miles), Kia EV9 (230 miles), Rivian R1S (400 miles for the twin motor model), and Volvo EX90 (300 miles).

Lucid, after all, makes use of its vary estimates to boast better-than-average battery capability and efficiency. The Air was initially estimated to recover from 520 miles of vary on a single cost, although subsequent vary assessments discovered it to be considerably much less. And vary estimates can’t be seen in a vacuum, with exterior temperatures, driving types, and highway sorts all having an impact on the top quantity.

Design clever, the Gravity is replete with gentle curves and undulating traces. The aerodynamic profile expertly hides an elongated cabin and makes for an general form that’s glossy and indicators ahead momentum. A theme that continues to the rear of the car: a sharply angled C pillar appears to resemble an arrow firing forward. Lucid says it’s focusing on a drag coefficient of lower than 0.24, which the corporate claims is unsurpassed by every other three-row SUV on sale in the present day.

However simply because it’s sporty doesn’t imply it could possibly’t do SUV stuff like hauling and towing. Lucid says due to the “most power-dense EV motors in manufacturing globally,” the Gravity will be capable to carry as a lot as 1,500lbs of payload or tow a most 6,000lbs. That places it slightly below the Ford F-150 Lightning by way of capability, which is sort of insane to consider it.

Just like the Lightning, the Gravity can have a “substantial frunk” — although we don’t get any extra particulars about cargo capability or energy shops. We do have this picture of two bikini-clad girls sitting within the frunk, so at the very least there’s that.

With the rise of fast-charging, 800-volt structure EVs, Lucid after all needed to go one higher. The Gravity sports activities a 900-volt structure, including as a lot as 200 miles in simply quarter-hour when related to a 350kW quick charger.

“Gravity will take our prospects farther with much less batteries and subsequently utilizing much less valuable vitality,” Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson stated in a press launch. “Its smaller, lighter, and better know-how battery pack means fewer valuable metals and minerals, much less vitality to cost, much less electrical energy consumed, much less strain upon the grid, and a lighter weight and extra dynamic car. After we say we’re right here to advance the know-how, that is what we imply — that is actually sustainability in motion.” 

Very similar to with the Air, Lucid is stressing roominess and cargo house as distinctive promoting factors with the Gravity. Each second- and third-row seats will be folded flat to disclose an enormous 112 cubit toes of cargo house. That’s up there with the Ford Explorers and Toyota Sequoias of the world, and it ought to assist nab these prospects who discover the present crop of EVs a bit too cramped. Seven passengers can match comfortably contained in the Gravity, Lucid says.

Two main screens dominate the inside: the 34-inch curved OLED show that floats above the steering wheel and serves as each instrument cluster and infotainment display screen; and a second Pilot Panel within the middle console that may additionally fold as much as reveal additional storage. The Gravity will function the subsequent technology of Lucid’s working system software program, which will be up to date over the air.

There will even be a collection of options designed to advertise “nicely being” These embody Lucid Sanctuary, vaguely described as “a revolutionary set of experiences rigorously designed to introduce tranquility on the go”; and Lucid Areas, through which a single faucet “transforms the cabin right into a serene oasis, immersing drivers within the soothing environment of places like Lake Tahoe or Joshua Tree.” Hopefully it should assist cut back highway rage incidents when caught in site visitors.

We don’t know a lot else concerning the Gravity, besides that manufacturing is predicted to start out in late 2024. Lucid is majority owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, and earlier this 12 months the corporate introduced plans to open a manufacturing facility in Jeddah metropolis. Whether or not the corporate can overcome its monetary hurdles earlier than it begins manufacturing of the Gravity will rely so much on this relationship with the oil-rich nation.