It's only a matter of time before any electric auto startup gets to addressing its lack of obligatory SUV, and Lucid Motors' time is now. The company has released the first look at its Gravity SUV ahead of a more formal reveal early next year. So far, the Gravity looks like an earthly electric spaceship with clear views of the star-filled night sky from inside an almost bubble-like glasshouse. Lucid says the SUV will combine supercar performance levels with more driving range than any other EV out there, save for its own 520-mile (837-km) EPA-rated Air sedan.
We'd love to see Lucid's world-beating electric range decoupled from its increasingly ludicrous and unnecessary "supercar levels of performance" to create a semi-affordable, practical electric SUV, but that's not going to happen ... at least not yet. So for now, the Gravity will be just another high-priced luxury performance super-toy for wealthy folks who want family-hauling space.
That said, the Gravity will nudge the Lucid family along in a more practical direction with two- and three-row configurations for between five and seven seats.
Lucid's first interior teaser shows how its "Space Concept" really opens up in six-seat, three-row SUV format, offering full recliners in the second row. That picture also highlights just how expansive the panorama above will be, the glass roofing stretching over top all front and rear passengers, broken only briefly by a hoop-like B pillar and central front beam.
"I’m so thrilled with the results we are seeing with Lucid Gravity, sparing no opportunity to build on everything we learned with Lucid Air to create something that warps the vehicle-class continuum," said Derek Jenkins, Lucid Group's senior design VP. "It is both a supercar in disguise and an SUV with flexible passenger and cargo space that seems impossibly big relative to the exterior size of the vehicle."
Lucid is still finalizing the Gravity's design and spec sheet, but it does promise that the new SUV will offer more range than any other EV on the market, excepting its very own Air sedan. The Air offers between 410 and 520 miles (660 to 837 km), depending upon trim.
The use of "EV" and not "electric SUV" to compare the Gravity's range to the market suggests that, at the very least, Lucid's SUV will top the Tesla Model S' 405 EPA-estimated miles (652 km), the next highest range on the list of longest-range EVs. That will make it the longest-range electric SUV by a good margin, even if it doesn't get too close to the 500-mile (805-km) ranges offered within the Air lineup. It promises to offer a very impressive combination of range, space, performance and utility ... but at what price?
Lucid plans to reveal more details about the full Gravity lineup when it opens up reservations in early 2023. The model will launch in 2024.
Lucid also announced this week that it has begun customer deliveries of the $84,700 480-hp Air Pure AWD and $107,400 620-hp Air Touring AWD sedan models. Meanwhile, it continues development of the 1,200-hp Sapphire performance flagship toward a 2023 launch. Its latest testing puts more specific numbers to the Sapphire's performance capabilities, suggesting the car will out-accelerate the Rimac Nevera from 0 to 100 mph (161-km/h) with a 3.87-second sprint before ultimately falling well short of the Nevera's fresh world speed record for a more modest 205-mph (330 km/h) top speed. The Sapphire will also be capable of a 1.89-second 0-60 mph (96.5 km/h), according to Lucid.
Source: Lucid Motors
