With over 400 miles of range and up to seven seats
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00:00This is the Lucid Gravity, a new three-row all-electric SUV from the American automaker.
00:18The Gravity takes learnings from the award-winning Air sedan and applies them into a new form factor,
00:24and we're about to take a look around the Gravity and go for a drive.
00:30The Gravity certainly has a somewhat unconventional shape for a three-row SUV. It's much less boxy
00:35than other EVs you see on the market, and key to that is this very short dash-to-axle ratio.
00:41That is a term that automotive design nerds use to describe the distance from the base of the
00:46windshield to the top of the wheel. Here, it's practically non-existent, and what that allows
00:50is for the Gravity to be relatively short overall, but optimizing interior space, which is one of
00:56Lucid's key objectives in designing the Gravity. Along the side, we see a lot of sculpting and
01:01form similar to the Air, emphasizing the Gravity's large wheels. Along the top, we have this bright
01:07anodized aluminum bar, which will also be available in a dark stealth finish, and the design team
01:13really worked to make the shape of this bar give the Gravity a sleek form, while also allowing it
01:21to optimize its aerodynamics to give the vehicle its impressive 450-mile maximum range rating.
01:27I have to say as well, this new Aurora Green paint, which is one of the new paint colors option for the
01:31Gravity, looks very fetching on this three-row SUV. At the rear, we again see lighting similar to
01:39on the Air sedan, but now with more dimensionality and depth, as Lucid has evolved its design language
01:45slightly. Here inside the Gravity, we see some forms and details which look similar from the Air,
01:52but Lucid has worked to advance those concepts. Ahead of me is a 34-inch digital touchscreen,
01:58which is now one continuous touchscreen display, unlike in the Air, which was three displays
02:03combined together. And further down on the dashboard, we have a landscape-oriented touchscreen
02:09rather than the vertical orientation that was seen in the Air, and Lucid worked to integrate
02:13these two screens so that they would function better together. Lucid envisions the Gravity's
02:17cabin to be something of a digital haven, making your charge stops more relaxing to allow you to
02:24meditate and learn and experience with different digital features to not only pass the time when
02:30you're charging, but maybe even relax and listen to some music inside the car when you're sitting
02:34at home. Lucid thinks the sound system in the Gravity might be even better than your stereo in
02:38your living room. I'm quite tall and I'm going to as gracefully as I can get into the third row seat
02:43of the Gravity, which is arguably its most important feature that will allow the vehicle to
02:49be suitable for a lot more families and drivers than the Air ever was. I'm a pretty tall guy and
02:54I have a good amount of space back here. I might not want to take a long road trip in the third row
02:59of the Gravity, but if you are of more average height or if you wanted to put your kids in the
03:02back seat, they would have plenty of space, as well as comforts aided by amenities like individual
03:08air vents, cupholders, USB ports, and reading lights. So while the back seat, the third row of the Gravity
03:13is pretty good, where I really want to be is up front. So I'm going to hop in the driver's
03:17seat now and we're going to take it for a spin.
03:27So here we are driving the scenic curving roads of Malibu and I'm joined by Dave Lickfold, who's
03:32the Director of Vehicle Dynamics and Chassis Technology for Lucid. So he is responsible for
03:38making Lucids feel how they feel. So Dave, maybe you can tell me a little bit about your philosophy
03:44and approach in the Gravity and how you wanted to differentiate it from the Air from the driving
03:50feel perspective. Sure, I can try. Excuse the voice. Yeah, for us Gravity is all about a huge
03:58breadth of character. So we have different drive modes, we're in smooth drive mode right now,
04:03and this is all about low effort, high efficiency, it's super comfortable, as the name suggests it's
04:10very smooth, and you can bang out 450 miles on a single charge, jump out and feel fresh as a daisy.
04:18And then at the other end of the spectrum, we wanted to really kind of bring in some of that
04:23character from Porsche Cayenne GTS, the Aston Martin DBX 707, so you can switch into a more
04:30aggressive drive mode, swift or sprint, and then we change all of our actuators across the car,
04:38powertrain, chassis, we have different steering calibrations, brake calibrations,
04:43damper calibrations, we have switchable three-chamber air suspension on this car,
04:49because we have the optional dynamic handling package, so we can go to a firmer spring rate,
04:54as well as upping our damping, and then we have rear steer as well, which changes its calibration
05:00and makes it much more agile. So yeah, our philosophy is breadth of character, and really it's
05:07many SUVs in one, and we also wanted to make an SUV that drives like a Lucid Air, so we're really
05:14happy with Lucid Air, especially Lucid Air Sapphire, which was kind of our latest and
05:21greatest, and a lot of that learning has gone into this car. But I can feel there's some lineage
05:26shared with the Air certainly, but with this air suspension I am detecting a bit more plushness,
05:32maybe just a bit more fluidness, this definitely feels much more like a true SUV than a sedan,
05:36which the Air is of course, but I found it really fascinating that with this dynamic handling pack,
05:41your spring rates can be adjusted to a setting that's softer than the softest air,
05:45and then harder or as hard as the Sapphire. Yeah, yeah, we have a huge range of character. Yeah,
05:50like you said, we can go softer, more plush, lower ride frequencies than the most comfortable Lucid
05:57Air in Smooth mode, or you jump into Swift, and we can be firmer with more body control
06:03than Lucid Air Sapphire. The ride seems quite comfortable, and what I'm really enjoying as
06:08well is my ability to hold my speed simply using the accelerator, I haven't touched the brake yet,
06:14and just using the regenerative braking, it's very smooth and intuitive to hold a safe speed
06:20and not go above the speed limit. Are there any adjustments to the regenerative braking strategy
06:25or adjustability in gravity compared to air? Similar kind of strategy really, so we have
06:31a high mode, we have a standard mode, and we have a low or off mode as well. Are we in high mode now?
06:37We're in high, yeah, this is our most efficient mode for most people. But then clearly the gravity
06:43has some pretty substantial physical brake hardware as well. What can you tell me about
06:48that setup compared to air? Yeah, we do have a fantastic setup on air. We've moved to a different
06:54supplier, so these are Brembo brakes now. Where you're using Akabona? It was Akabona previously,
06:59also a very good supplier. So this is a very, very capable brake system. So up front we have,
07:07if I remember correctly, 390 millimeter diameter brake rotors with big six-piston fixed brake
07:14calipers. On the rear we have 388 millimeter diameter brake rotors and a fixed four-piston
07:22caliper, then with a separate parking brake as well. So very high performance. I would call out
07:30that many vehicles, be they SUVs, high performance or not, typically have single piston, often have
07:36single piston rear calipers. Yeah, they do. Was that an accommodation for the weight of the vehicle
07:42to get the braking performance that you wanted? It's often about center of gravity height. The higher
07:48your center of gravity, the more load transfer you have forwards during braking and when you're
07:53transferring load forwards, you're taking weight off the rear and decreasing the rear axle's
07:59braking capability because you're decreasing grip. With an EV, it's the SUV-like gravity,
08:04you have a very low center of gravity, which means we can brake much more on the rear,
08:10which means we get benefits when we have a fixed multi-piston, four-piston in our case,
08:17brake caliper. One decision we made around the brakes for gravity, similar to air,
08:25is to keep a hydraulically coupled brake system. So anytime you touch the brake pedal, you're
08:31getting friction braking. We don't do blending of regen and friction brakes on the B-pedal.
08:38Interesting. That's because we want enthusiastic drivers to be able to feel what the brakes are
08:43doing when they're touching the brake pedal. Absolutely. So it's always a direct hydraulic
08:49connection to the friction braking. That's a very interesting approach because often in high
08:53performance EVs, there is sort of a transition point as you press the brake pedal, as it pushes
08:58through its regenerative capacity and then activates the friction brakes and there can be an
09:02abrupt sort of handover there. Exactly. By using friction brakes with the hydraulic coupling all
09:07the time when you're using the brake pedal, eliminates that problem. Exactly. I'm not aware
09:12of a single vehicle that has done that blending well enough that we would be happy to do it.
09:18So yeah, we decided anytime you touch the brake pedal, you get friction brakes.
09:27Just in these normal driving scenarios, I get the sensation that there's
09:31ample power and torque available. Do you ramp up the amount of power and torque that the motors
09:38produce depending on drive modes? So we're still kind of designing that. We've got a couple of
09:43weeks more tuning and then we'll push the software via over-the-air updates to all these cars.
09:49How much power am I experiencing? How much power do I have available now to me?
09:53848 horsepower. Which is a significant amount. Which is a significant amount. Are these motors
10:00the same as what are used in-air? Very, very similar. Yeah, so we get great economies of scale
10:06with air. The front is now dual isolated, so you may notice almost zero powertrain noise whatsoever.
10:14Absolutely. Yeah, in-air, you know, I enjoy the motor whine that it makes. There's some
10:19engagement that comes from that, but I'm not detecting any of that in gravity here.
10:23Yeah, exactly. When we made air, we knew there's quite a kind of enthusiast,
10:28driving enthusiast audience, and we said sometimes a bit of motor noise is good because
10:33it's engaging. We don't have a combustion engine roaring, so, you know, a little bit of gear noise
10:39is great. It's got those straight cut gear rally car type vibes. But yeah, some customers said,
10:47yeah, we'd prefer it to be a little quieter. So when it came to gravity, we said, let's just make
10:52it silent. Sure. We played a little bit with gear ratios as well. Interesting. Yeah, please talk more
10:57about that. So the front gear ratio is the same as on most airs, 7.06 to 1. And on the rear, we
11:06have the same gear ratio as on air rear wheel drive, 8.7 to 1. That's all about giving the
11:13right torque on the right axle. Absolutely. I mean, this being an SUV, the needs of it
11:18are much different than air.
11:27In sprint mode, I immediately feel that the weight of the steering becomes slightly heavier
11:32and the accelerator pedal becomes more aggressive, really giving me a feel
11:38of more power with the less pedal applications. So rear steer is now in its agilizing mode.
11:43Absolutely. Decreasing your effective wheelbase, making the car feel more like a hot hatch.
11:49So it's helping you turn in. Yeah, I can detect that the degree, the amount of turning that I'm
11:56getting relative to the amount of input that I put on the steering is more, it feels much more
12:02agile. And the air suspension, which is Lucid's first, the air did not have an air suspension
12:07system, has firmed up. It's really keeping the vehicle level and stable through the corners.
12:12And there is more firmness, more impact coming through the suspension. But clearly, there's a
12:19sense for luxury and comfort here still as well. Very nicely damped, very nice body control as I
12:25want through the corners here. And there is ample power available. So we, depending on which drive
12:32mode you're in, we do intelligent things with torque distribution front to rear.
12:39If you're in smooth, as we said earlier, it may be running in front wheel drive, for all you know,
12:44on the freeway. But we can switch into all wheel drive incredibly quickly, quicker than the driver
12:49can perceive whenever they make an input or if the road asks for it. When you're in swift or
12:55sprint mode, it's more rear biased. I don't have the exact numbers with me, but it may be 60-40
13:03biased to the rear. But then we also do very intelligent torque shuffling dynamically while
13:08you're driving. So we're targeting a certain vehicle behavior and our powertrain controls
13:16engineers have tuned these algorithms, developed and tuned these algorithms to put torque exactly
13:21where it's needed to give you the drive that you're asking for. Yeah, I don't think there's
13:25much question that this will have enough performance to satisfy anyone expecting
13:30high performance out of an SUV. Clearly, it's a large vehicle. There's a higher center of gravity
13:34than what you would get in a true sports car. But in this realm of luxury, sporty electric SUVs,
13:42the gravity seems like a good contender. But Dave, I think there's a good chance that
13:47most Lucid Gravity customers won't opt for the Dynamic Handling Pack. What can buyers of base
13:53cars look forward to from a feel perspective, even if they don't choose the Dynamic Handling Pack?
14:00Yeah, the base car, if we can call it that, is still a fantastic car. Still equipped with air
14:05suspension. Yeah, still has air suspension, still has very high-end adaptive Pilsen dampers,
14:14still has all of our love and care and attention in tuning all of our systems. So yeah,
14:22the non-Dynamic Handling Pack car is kind of quite a purist choice in some ways.
14:30To your point about reducing hand-over-hand movements, so far I've taken on some nice
14:36corners here and there's been really no need for any sort of hand-over-hand maneuver,
14:41unlike what's been experienced in certain other vehicles with a slightly unconventional, more
14:46yoke-shaped steering apparatus. This feels very comfortable and direct, yet it's not twitchy
14:54either. So really just making it easy to place the car on the road,
15:00stay in the lane, and really tuck it in through some of these tighter corners. Definitely aided
15:05by that rear steering system and there is plenty of power through these corners here.
15:14Might get some traction control intervention with learnings from the Lucid Air Sapphire's
15:22bespoke traction control system. So we tried Smooth to start and we used Sprint to get up the
15:28hill and now as we traverse back to our starting point, we are in Swift mode, which is, as Dave
15:36said, the in-between. And indeed, the steering is slightly lighter, the ride slightly more plush,
15:43but still very nice body control and lots of power available. I can only imagine, and I know
15:50that you can't say, but I can only imagine that there will be yet higher performance
15:56versions of the Gravity available. I doubt that there will only be one
16:00Sapphire model in the Lucid lineup. Time will tell.
16:20The Gravity is now in production at Lucid's facility in Arizona, so expect to see them on
16:27the road soon. But for the time being, there's more to say about the Gravity, so head to
16:30Motortrend.com for our first drive impressions of the Gravity and more details on this 450-mile,
16:36three-row electric SUV.