2025 Lucid Gravity reshapes SUV universe

• Lucid Gravity follows effectivity method of Air sedan
• 450 miles of EPA vary, 3.4-sec. 0-60 mph, accessible third row
• Grand Touring arriving quickly, Touring coming later in 2025

One thing felt amiss as I hustled this prototype 2025 Lucid Gravity round cloverleaf ramps close to Lucid’s California Bay Space headquarters final week.

I’d flown round sooner than I’d supposed to. And but on the imperfect pavement the Gravity felt prefer it had a lot extra to present, with good poise and steadiness, a great deal of stability, communication by way of the steering wheel, and perhaps some enjoyable forward—if, properly, this have been a closed course. 

It’s simply that the Gravity is an SUV. And I’ve by no means, in 25+ years of evaluating autos, been in an SUV that drives fairly like this. Lucid has by some means managed to dial its dynamics in like a sport sedan—or, maybe aptly, a sport wagon. My internal g-sensors have been reeling and I stored glancing into the rearview mirror—at two extra spacious, minivan-like rows behind, which is what bought me all circled. 

In a great way, you hear? Based mostly on a velocity date with one, it is actually, actually good.

A breath of contemporary Air—for SUVs

Taking a couple of steps again: If you happen to’ve by some means dismissed Lucid’s very robust opening act, the Lucid Air sedan, the Gravity makes the automaker’s unrelenting give attention to effectivity unimaginable to miss or ignore. 

The Air already offered its case for the numbers it may obtain with its compact and highly effective but efficiency-focused absolutely electrical propulsion suite. Now the Gravity carries all this innovation right into a type way more People can be more likely to contemplate as their very own: a three-row SUV. On this case, it’s one which goes an EPA-rated 450 miles (based on Lucid) with a battery pack that’s comparatively modest for the mission—about 118 kwh—and one that may add 200 miles of vary in quarter-hour through a 350-kw fast-charge connector (CCS port on early vehicles, Tesla-style NACS port to come back). 

The 2025 Lucid Gravity provides in to the fact of the market and its simple forces nevertheless it does so on Lucid’s personal phrases. So it ought to come as no shock that the Gravity isn’t aiming to play on the planet of boxy, nubby-tired bricks named after off-road trails. 

“We’re not going to Utah and climbing rocks,” mentioned chief design officer Derek Jenkins. “However to get to the cabin, to do the dust path, to do medium off-roading, the Gravity goes to be wonderful for that sort of exercise, with the suspension functionality.”

Forward of my drive, Lucid’s chief engineer and senior VP for product Eric Bach jogged my memory that it’s not growing autos for 0-60 mph instances. Efficiency might be on a monitor, he underscored, or going up a windy mountain street. Or it might be crash-safety efficiency. Or NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) efficiency. 

The crew at Lucid by all accounts aren’t dyed-in-the-wool SUV guys. However they’re going to alter numerous minds with this car. 

Gravity begins with an environment friendly form

Lucid is relentless about effectivity as a result of it places the brakes on a collection of cascading components. If you happen to use parts or a design that collectively quantity to a less-efficient car, it’s then heavier as a result of it wants extra batteries to go the space. It then can’t match passengers and cargo as properly. 

To that, the model made clear to Inexperienced Automobile Experiences that it’s happy with how the Gravity isn’t larger than it wanted to be; it stretches 198.2 inches lengthy and it rides on a 119.5-inch wheelbase. Its top of round 65 inches total (in its lowest setting, we have now to imagine) makes it decrease total than a Subaru Forester—so yup, no downside becoming into parking garages.

Gravity’s lean profile maps out in all instructions besides width, the place its 78 inches not counting the mirrors is commonplace for the category. The Gravity has a frontal cross-sectional space, in CdA, that’s a lot decrease than any of its rivals apart from the Tesla Mannequin X. It’s mentioned the coefficient of drag will land round 0.24, however with remaining check numbers not but out, it may land barely higher than that. 

It’s not an Air with a distinct prime hat. Bach emphasised to Inexperienced Automobile Experiences that Gravity was conceived as a very new SUV platform, with a modular set of Air’s current parts organized to the brand new structure. Bach mentioned that’s in order that Lucid arrived at “an actual off-road-capable in addition to luggage- and occupant-optimized package deal that appears like an SUV.”

Design-wise, Gravity suits proper in subsequent to the Air. It has a very completely different profile, in fact, plus a bit extra depth to its taillights, whereas its headlights are a bit extra vertical—partly to go away room for a wider frunk opening (with elective internet on the entrance).  

It’s a gorgeous profile with a sleek roofline and good stance. But it surely doesn’t examine on to any SUV available on the market. As my colleague Joel Feder identified in a drive of an earlier Gravity alpha construct prototype, this can be a mannequin that was shaping up as a bit chameleon-like—straddling the traces between wagon, minivan, and SUV at instances. 

I don’t disagree. However the Gravity drives like no minivan I’ve ever been in. 

Drives like a Lucid not an SUV: Verify

One of many tuning objectives was primarily that Gravity “ought to drive not like an SUV however like a Lucid,” mentioned chassis and dynamics tech specialist John Culliton, who rode alongside for my drive. 

To guarantee that, the steering rack and the elemental geometry are carried over from the Air, however the rear suspension, together with the air suspension, is new, as is the rear-steer performance. The entrance subframe is rigidly mounted and steering gear is rigidly mounted, to hold as a lot suggestions as doable. However all of the versus Air, the exhausting factors have been moved round to higher distribute the load. Each hyperlink is new, however massaged the format to cut back hundreds into the steering and make the most of the identical gear. 

The Gravity’s physique construction is a mix of supplies however basically “aluminum wealthy,” based on Bach, with simply 2-4% metal at a couple of particular factors. Lucid has used a megacasting course of for physique items at a couple of places. 

To profit from the aero type and the lean, robust propulsion system, all Lucid Gravity fashions will get a height-adjustable air suspension and constantly adjustable dampers. A collection of drive modes dial in numerous ranges of firmness from the dampers, and there are 5 completely different experience heights, all principally chosen independently by the motive force. 

There’s no Auto mode for the multi-mode air suspension, which leaves it as much as the person to really feel the variations in experience versus responsiveness. Though, as Culliton factors out, choosing the Dash efficiency mode will drop the Gravity into its lowest experience top. It additionally makes the conduct of the rear-wheel steering a bit extra aggressive, the damping firmer, and the torque break up extra rear-biased. 

All these sensible selections permit sufficient torque for sub-3.5-second 0-60 mph instances, and a turning circle of 38 toes—in addition to a pure seat top that’s straightforward to get into and out of and physique 

On a lonely stretch of street, Culliton goals to point out off the dual-motor propulsion system, at 828 hp and 909 lb-ft mixed, and he has me do a managed launch, standing on the brake, flooring the accelerator, and releasing, and the Gravity leaps forward with not one of the feeling of lightness within the entrance finish that characterizes quick dashes in different high-power SUVs. The Gravity felt prefer it lunged ahead.

Lucid Gravity is a quiet athlete

With its playful steering really feel and muted-yet-communicative demeanor total, it had among the identical qualities because the Porsche Macan Electrical we drove for our Finest Automobile To Purchase roundup—a couple of foot shorter but in addition with rear-wheel steering. 

The Gravity I drove was additionally fitted with the most important and sportiest wheel and tire mixture within the lineup—staggered width 22- and 23-inch Pirelli PZero tires that basically appeared to have the ability to profit from the Gravity’s accessible grip on the entrance wheels. This one feels prefer it’s going to be a hoot on a closed course, by way of staying sports-car impartial on grippy surfaces. 

Moreover, experience high quality with this mix was nice. The Gravity doesn’t float alongside like another luxurious SUVs; you do really feel the street, however by no means excessively.

Lucid has additionally soft-mounted the motor to the physique to yield extra drive-system isolation from the physique versus within the Air. Though the surfaces round Lucid’s California places of work have been hardly a problem for the Gravity, heading up previous regular freeway speeds for a bit did not expose something—a testomony to all of the tuning of the physique and chassis, and to that acoustic glass overhead, maybe.

House effectivity for seven and stuff

The cabin feels vivid and ethereal, allowed partly by the huge expanse of glass overhead. The glass is acoustic, and structural, and flows constantly in two runs—one from the bottom of the windshield by way of to simply over and behind these within the entrance seat. Then a second run goes from there all the best way over the third row. It’s the one three-row SUV I can recall with the blue sky overhead, so uninterrupted. 

What strikes me most as I first as I stroll as much as the car is how low the passenger cabin ground is, whereas the underside of the car isn’t particularly low. In keeping with a supply, the air suspension spans from about 135 to 235 mm (5.3 to 9.3 inches) of experience top—that means in its lowest setting, it’s primarily the identical experience top as Air.  

Similar to the Air Grand Touring, the Gravity Grand Touring has 22 battery modules, with 4 of them “upstairs” on a second layer. Within the Air, that’s beneath the rear seat, however within the Gravity it’s been pushed to the world beneath the entrance seats, in order to permit a steady cargo ground, with the seats folded, of greater than eight toes. 

Together with the frunk’s further area, the Gravity has 120.6 cubic toes of cargo quantity with the second and third rows folded—40% greater than the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, Lucid boasts, and about 15% greater than the Rivian R1S, which additionally has a frunk. 

As Bach put it, “you want such a ginormous truck to get to among the attributes that we are able to pack into this small Gravity area idea,” pointing to the Chevy Suburban and its big body-on-frame counterparts.

Lucid hasn’t mentioned a lot concerning the Gravity’s off-road skill but, apart from that there can be some. Its Terrain mode will reap the benefits of the soundness system within the high-performance Lucid Air Sapphire. That system, able to studying inputs from all 4 wheels 1,000 instances per second, can deal with the braking portion of the traction management in Gravity at that price, albeit not for every rear wheel individually. That helps guarantee peak regenerative braking, which nonetheless arrives in commonplace and excessive settings once you elevate off the accelerator, saving the brake pedal particularly for the brake pads. 

Gravity again seat: Tables not screens

I’m 6-foot-6 and might really sit immediately behind two of myself, fairly comfortably, within the Gravity. 

The best way the third-row ground stays flat, and the best way the seats swing round right into a properly behind the car. Bach says that the staff made numerous selections all through the engineering course of to not compromise any of that area. For example, it break up its energetic rear steer actuators in half, whereas it may have gone with a mixed unit that will have compromised third-row legroom. 

The third row is elective for $2,900, nevertheless it solely provides about 130 kilos to the Gravity’s curb weight (but undisclosed). The staff behind the Gravity see this as a street journey car, with the second row good for consuming, taking part in video games, and watching issues on gadgets. So that they opted for a pair of sturdy utility tables, instead of a local leisure system for the rear.

What the Gravity ended up with is an answer that is likely to be proper out of a first-class air cabin. 

“We talked to prospects, we talked to enterprise folks, we talked to households, and everybody mentioned simply give me a desk for meals, for laptops, for the children’ iPad, charging, and ensure it’s straightforward to stow. “I’m super-proud of this, as a result of it was an enormous push to make this occur and never sacrifice second-row area and do one thing strong and strong,” mentioned Jenkins. 

A 90-degree-opening rear door additionally permits simpler loading of youngsters into little one seats, took some additional stage of engineering to ensure the latches have been robust, and the doorways have a particular low security cinch helps bolster aspect safety when the influence is simply above the decrease sill. 

Counterintuitively, Lucid was in a position to put its H-point for the third row greater up than within the Suburban, permitting extra relaxed leg angles. You gained’t be trying solely at your knees. 

Jenkins additionally famous that Lucid has additionally thought way more concerning the robustness and cleanability of all of the supplies It’s providing 4 completely different themes for the Gravity: Tahoe and Ojai are leather-based, whereas Yosemite and Mojave are non-leather.

Gravity interface: Panorama, swipes, and vibes

Inside, the Gravity doesn’t solely commerce in what Lucid has established as an interface, nevertheless it reworks it. The instrument panel is even slimmer, with up to date vents for higher heating and cooling and a bigger middle console. Essentially, new {hardware} presents a full OLED show aspect to aspect with no interruptions and higher distinction

Possibly most notable of all, the steering wheel has been changed by a “squircle,” and based mostly on the short drive my palms felt pure at 9 and three in tight corners and in high-speed cruising.

There are new mood-and-ambience modes referred to as Vibes. It’s taken a detailed take a look at what it’s together with within the augmented-reality head-up show to ensure it’s not including to litter, and the touchscreen has moved to a panorama format, with new thumb controls that provide a swipe operate good for dismissing alerts plus a tactile thumb swap for menu choice. Within the new format, menus at all times open to the appropriate

As of my drive, among the interface factors nonetheless stood out as works in progress, because it aimed to quell some switchgear and menu-latency points. 

Luxurious in worth, however extra inexpensive later

To this point Lucid has solely mentioned that the Gravity Grand Touring will begin at $96,550 (together with $1,650 vacation spot) and embrace the bigger battery pack and dual-motor all-wheel drive, with preliminary deliveries set to begin late this yr. The $81,550 Touring mannequin, coming in late 2025, can have a smaller pack, and officers say it’s honest at this level to imagine that choices will parallel these of the Air Touring—which will get a smaller 84-kwh pack. Do the mathematics and within the Gravity that will nonetheless imply properly over 300 miles of vary from the small battery. 

Loaded up with choices, the Gravity is properly into luxurious territory. The Dynamic Dealing with Package deal provides the rear-wheel steer system, triple-rate air suspension, and painted brake calipers. And a $2,500 Consolation and Comfort package deal brings energy rear sunshades, soft-close doorways, a heated steering wheel, heated wipers, heated second-row seats. Two completely different ranges of Lucid’s DreamDrive assisted-driving and active-safety options are additionally elective, for as much as $6,750. And the $750 towing package deal brings a tow score of as much as 6,000. 

Add the works, together with $2,900 Surreal Sound Professional audio and the largest (22/23-inch wheels), and the grand whole quantities to $117,400 for a totally loaded Grand Touring, not together with different beauty upgrades.

My drive, whereas it left an excellent first impression, was a really fast absorb a well-fettled prototype with firm handlers. I didn’t get to move off pavement, and I seen a couple of completely different quirks within the switchgear and touchscreen interface that, in all hopes, Lucid can have mounted by the point the primary autos are delivered. Arizona manufacturing of the Lucid Gravity began final week. 

There are such a lot of causes to like this car, and it’s absolutely one of many yr’s greats. However what it quantities to is that this: If you happen to want an SUV, however you’d relatively be in a sport sedan, that is your forefront.