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Electric car evangelists love to tout the glory of torque-rich acceleration, spaceship silence, and zero emissions.
But none of that matters when you’re stranded in a downtown parking garage with three passengers, a loaded trunk, and a $140,000 paperweight that won’t shift into Drive.
For Lucid Motors, a company betting big on its new Gravity SUV to lead the charge into mainstream luxury, one owner’s real-world road trip revealed the same inconvenient truth that’s haunted EV startups for over a decade: brilliant engineering means nothing without bulletproof execution.
Reddit user zerocylinders detailed the highs and lows of a 620-mile round-trip from Chicago to St. Louis in his new Lucid Gravity, and the account is a cocktail of genuine admiration laced with real frustration.
“We did a road trip from Chicago to St. Louis to move our son into his apartment, and with some serious trepidation, I decided to take the Gravity. It was the hauling capacity that was a major reason for my switch from the Air GT to the Gravity, so not taking the Gravity seemed like surrender. TL;DR The Gravity is a dream to drive, and has great long trip potential, which is marred by lackluster support from Lucid and a couple of really material issues that need to get fixed ASAP.
Basic stats: 310 miles each way (we took 55 up and down).
Speed: Generally stuck at 80mph, with slower speeds in congestion and construction zones. Max speed was 85. Weather: Dry, 70-85 degrees. Crosswind was about 6-8mph both coming and going. Load: I didn’t weigh, but we filled the back (3rd row seats folded down). I am sure we had at least 1000lbs of load, including the 4 adults in the car. Nothing outside the car (no luggage carrier or anything that would impact airflow). Avg efficiency: 2.8 miles/kWh (on way down to St. Louis), 2.6 miles/kWh (on way back).
I can’t explain why the difference .. I was expecting BETTER efficiency combining back (because we did not have the load that we started out with). Possibly wind or elevation differences.
The Good: Driving the Gravity on a road trip is highly recommended (aside from the issues below under the Bad). Handling and comfort are as good or better than Mercedes/AMG GLS (we have had two of those). Acceleration, of course, is beyond anything else on the road. The interior is VERY quiet on the highway (which is a major improvement over the 2022 Air GT, and a major improvement over every Tesla ever made). AC/fans worked brilliantly with adults in the first and second rows, having no issues despite varying settings for each person. The amount of furniture and boxes we fit in the rear half made it unnecessary to rent a moving truck. Cruising range (319-344 miles without charging) was exceptional, though a bit under my expectations.
The energy monitor app is also excellent. It shows exactly how far I can go, where I can go, at my charge level, given actual usage. The “dynamic range” indicator on the left of the driver panel is also quite useful to keep an eye on efficiency levels during the drive.
The Bad:
(1) “Key not recognized”. As described in my other post, last week, before our trip, we had a dead Gravity due to a security access module needing a manual reboot. I was told that was rare, and with the reboo,t we should be okay. I was given the cell phone of one of the techs just in case. I was also initially told there was a tech in St. Louis who could be available if we got stuck.
None of that was true (see below #2). On the second day in STL, at 4 pm downtown (not a very safe spot), the car did its “Key not recognized” thing and refused to move into Drive (even though I could open doors and lock). It took 20 minutes before I could finally get moving again, and I am not sure how I did it (I tried rebooting, replacing the battery on the key, etc.) it just seemed random that it decided to finally wake up. This issue (not just with my car from other responses in the other thread) has to be fixed ASAP, or the car is going to go back to Lucid.
(2) Charging. Lucid’s plug-and-charge system was not working, at least for me. Plugging into any third-party charger directly and the charging starts and stops immediately, with my Lucid app telling me that I needed to add a payment method. But I have 3 credit cards entered (tried each one in succession) and the cards are all verified, working, and clear.
I was attempting to charge the night before our trip back, and was unable to do so. I went through Lucid’s customer service and was on hold… tried the text system and got no response at all (even now, a day later!).. tried my Chicago-based tech’s mobile number, but he said he couldn’t help with the charging issue. I finally reached someone at Lucid after waiting forever on hold. He tried reinstalling my charging contract, but that did not fix the problem.
He also told me that if it happened again, I would have to tow the car to a “safe” location and wait until Monday because support was CLOSING for the weekend. Seriously. Sell a car that is really in beta, and close support for the weekend? Wtf. Anyway, I ended up paying for a Tesla membership to use the Tesla chargers. Not ideal, but better than the alternative the support desk offered.
(3) Dream Drive. Most of the time, Dream Drive did very well. The semi-automatic lane change feature worked well, and the car maintained a center of lane profile (adding space when passing trucks, which is a nice feature too). However, on several occasions, the Dream Drive just abruptly shut off and came up with a red warning to take control! There was no warning, no error or message indicating why this happened, but it was repeated maybe 2-3 times.
There was nothing unusual (not in a construction zone where I might expect that behavior). Similarly, several times the Dream Drive refused to engage even though everything seemed clear, roads were well marked, etc. There are other minor issues, like the fact that increasing or decreasing the set speed was often delayed or didn’t work at all, but the abrupt shut-offs and inability to engage at times seem like major problems.
(4) Support from Lucid. With a 140K vehicle, that is admittedly even by Lucid in beta stage in terms of software (and that has a couple of big unresolved issues), having customer support disappear at 5 pm for the weekend is not acceptable. Towing my car to a safe place in the middle of a road trip and waiting until Monday is NOT acceptable, especially when many of the issues can and should be resolved remotely if they were available. I had the first Model S Tesla, and there were some similar issues. I remember Tesla promised that they would send mobile techs anywhere to rescue someone who was stranded in a car. That level of service from Tesla was temporary (and now non-existent), but they recognized early adopters needed extra support to deal with these kinds of bugs in their vehicle. Lucid seems catastrophically stupid in supporting their cars.”
The specs sounded promising: 320 miles of range, great comfort, and Mercedes-level highway composure, but the trip delivered more than just family memories. It exposed the precarious gap between a company’s ambition and its readiness.
Lucid Gravity: Owner Support and Warranty
- Lucid Customer Care is reachable Monday–Friday (5 am–9 pm PT) and Saturday (6 am–5 pm PT) at +1 (888) 995-8243 or via [email protected]
- The Lucid Knowledge Center online provides detailed guidance on ordering, delivery, charging, maintenance, and software updates at lucidmotors.com/knowledge
- A 10-year/100,000-mile Limited Battery & EV System Warranty covers critical EV components, complemented by roadside assistance and recall repairs
- Over-the-air updates continuously enhance vehicle features; home charger installations can be arranged via Lucid’s partnership with Qmerit
The Gravity has the bones of a great car. Our road-tripper reported highway manners as poised as a Mercedes-AMG GLS, with cabin quietness that bested both Tesla and Lucid’s own Air GT. Hauling over 1,000 pounds of cargo and four adults, the Gravity remained composed, quick, and impressively efficient, 2.8 mi/kWh on the way down, 2.6 on the way back. No overheating, no discomfort, and no regrets about swapping from the Air to something with more utility. It was, in a vacuum, a great SUV.
But this wasn’t a vacuum. This was reality. And in reality, cars don’t just drive, they start, charge, and connect to the cloud. It was here that the Gravity began to fall back to Earth. On day two, in the middle of downtown St. Louis, the SUV threw up a cryptic error: Key not recognized.
Doors opened and locked, but the vehicle refused to move into gear. After 20 minutes of button-mashing and prayer, the car inexplicably recovered, but not the owner’s trust. “This issue… has to be fixed ASAP or the car is going to go back to Lucid,” he warned. Reddit and Lucid forums lit up with similar accounts, some users calling the Gravity’s key system the “most complained about issue” since launch.
The Lucid Gravity Charging Debacle
Then came the charging debacle. Despite having multiple credit cards loaded into the Lucid app, none were accepted at third-party chargers. Plug-and-charge failed. Customer support ghosted him. The one contact number he was given turned out to be ineffective. Eventually, he ponied up for a Tesla membership just to juice the car enough to get home. “Support was CLOSING for the weekend,” he wrote.
“Seriously. Sell a car that is really in beta, and close support for the weekend? Wtf.”
No amount of glossy UX design or dreamy press renders can excuse that kind of lapse in customer care, especially when the vehicle’s technology is still finding its footing.
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And the Dream Drive system? Still a dream deferred. The car’s semi-autonomous features sometimes worked flawlessly, executing smooth lane changes and keeping centered behind semis, but on at least three occasions, it disengaged abruptly, red warning lights flashing with no explanation. Other times it simply refused to engage. In a car this expensive and this high-tech, that kind of unpredictability isn’t charming, it’s alarming. As one forum user noted bluntly: “Dream Drive on the Gravity doesn’t keep you in lane, it doesn’t change lanes, etc.” It’s a work in progress. Just not one you want to beta-test while barreling down I-55.
Lucid Gravity: Weight and Polarizing Looks
- The three-row Gravity curb weight is approximately 5,966 lbs (2,712 kg), while the two-row AWD model weighs around 5,840 lbs (2,655 kg)
- Manufacturer estimates place Gravity’s curb weight near 6,050 lbs, still lighter than many full-size electric SUVs, thanks to extensive use of aluminum
- The elongated profile and low-slung roofline depart from the boxier SUV norm—praised as “elegant” by some, yet likened to a minivan by others
- With a 198.2-inch length and 119.5-inch wheelbase, Gravity conveys a commanding presence, a styling choice that divides opinions among luxury SUV buyers
In the comments below the original Reddit post, prospective buyers and existing Lucid owners weighed in with mixed emotions. Some remained optimistic, like dragadi1, who said,
“Those will be sorted out soon. It was the same with the Air.”
Others, like Successful-Pie6759, noted that while they still loved their Lucid Air, “other people (my wife for one) would never tolerate the little problems that pop up every now and then.” It’s a sentiment that echoes through the luxury segment: engineering excellence must be invisible. Flawlessness isn’t optional; it’s the cost of entry.
To Lucid’s credit, the Gravity doesn’t suffer from laziness; it suffers from ambition outpacing stability. The fundamentals are there. It’s fast, quiet, useful, and arguably more compelling than many legacy SUVs.
But as BananaBagholder put it, “there are major gremlins that need to be worked out before the car is ready for prime time.” And those gremlins aren’t hiding in obscure menus; they’re at the core of the driving experience: starting, charging, navigating, trusting.
The Gravity was never just a car; it was Lucid’s big bet on sustainability, scale, and solvency. It’s supposed to be the vehicle that pulls Lucid out of startup obscurity and into the big leagues.
And it can be. But to get there, Lucid will have to close the delta between Silicon Valley promise and Detroit-grade support.
Image Sources: Lucid Media Center
Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.
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Source: torquenews.com
