We let our long-term Lucid Air sit out in single-digit temperatures overnight then drove it until it went into limp mode. Here’s what we learned.
without retreating inside halfway through the job. Within minutes of stepping outside, the cold clamped down on my gloved fingertips like an iron vise. By the time I had finished inflating the second tire, I didn't have the dexterity to thread the cap back on the valve stem.was waking up from the coldest night it had seen since arriving in Michigan in November. We had been waiting for this day—the perfect day for a cold-weather torture test.
To add another level of difficulty, we started the cold-weather range test with a deep-freeze cold soak as a sort of worst-case scenario. The day before the drive, I charged the battery to 100 percent and then unplugged, leaving the Lucid to fend for itself in my driveway as the temperature dropped from 32 to the overnight low of 3 degrees.
We've asked Lucid to explain why this happened, but until the company provides clarity, we assume that it's the result of a conscious decision to stretch the Air's range by delivering less heat than the customer asks for. That strategy might work if the set point and the cabin temperature were a few degrees apart, but the difference was so preposterous in this test—up to 22 degrees—that it's simultaneously insulting and laughable.
Diving into the data, it appears that the Air's indicated range is based solely on the battery state of charge and a fixed efficiency assumption. If that's true , that means the range estimate never accounts for different tires, or climate control usage, or major changes to aerodynamic drag, such as a rooftop cargo box.
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