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2025 Lucid Gravity First Drive: A Promising Start For A 450-Mile SUV

First impressions are good. But is it enough to take Lucid to the next level?

Lucid Gravity First Drive

Photo by: InsideEVs

Tim Levin

By: Tim Levin

Dec 10, 2024 at 9:00am ET

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Making really impressive, stylish cars has never been Lucid Motors’ problem. Finding people to actually buy them has been the real challenge.

No matter how amazingly efficient or long-range the Air is, Lucid’s debut model has always been a sedan in an SUV’s world. As such, sales have never really taken off; the startup sold just 6,001 units last year, compared to fellow upstart Rivian’s 50,000. Lucid’s second act, the Gravity, has just arrived with a mission to turn things around.

EMBARGO DEC 9 9 AM ET: Lucid Gravity

Photo by: Lucid Motors

Lucid hopes the three-row family SUV will have much wider appeal than its slinky sedan and drive its sales to new heights. After a brief test drive this month, we think the Gravity has big potential, even if the pre-production vehicle we tested still needed some fine-tuning.

(Full Disclosure: Lucid covered my travel to Malibu, Calif. for a brief test of the new Gravity.)

2025 Lucid Gravity: The Basics

The Gravity is Lucid’s take on the three-row SUV and will compete with EVs like the Rivian R1S and forthcoming Cadillac Escalade IQ. But unlike either of those vehicles, the Gravity doesn’t resemble a conventionally boxy SUV. Its short hood, swept-back windshield and Lucid-signature light bars give it a uniquely striking look—like a minivan from the future.

Gallery: 2025 Lucid Gravity

EMBARGO DEC 9 9 AM ET: Lucid Gravity

Source: Lucid Motors

Lucid is kicking things off with the Grand Touring trim, which starts at $94,900 and is the version I experienced in person. A lower-tier Touring model will go on sale in late 2025 with a starting price of $79,900.

Here are the specs we know so far, including, notably, a stunning EPA-rated range of 450 miles from a modest 120 kilowatt-hour battery pack:

Lucid Gravity Grand Touring

Base Price $94,900

Battery ~120 kWh

EV Range 450 miles

Output 828 hp

Maximum torque 909 lb-ft

Speed 0-60 MPH 3.4 sec

Drive Type AWD

Motor Dual

The Gravity just started production in December at Lucid’s factory in Arizona, where the company also makes the Air. The company has been tight-lipped about when customer deliveries will start, but it's safe to assume it'll be in the first half of next year.

Driving The Lucid Gravity

We’ll have to wait for a true first-drive opportunity. What I experienced last week in Malibu, California was more of a first taste. My 30 minutes behind the wheel of a pre-production Gravity left a lot of questions unanswered, but were enlightening nonetheless. I learned a bit about how the SUV handles, about its redesigned user interface and about how that weird “squircular” steering wheel works in practice.

With a Lucid dynamics engineer as my minder, I started out in the Gravity’s comfiest setting, meant for everyday driving. Just like the Air, the Gravity offers three drive modes: Smooth, Swift and Sprint. Even in its softest setting, the Gravity felt more confident and easy to place around corners than other big, lumbering SUVs. Forward visibility was excellent—owing to that stubby hood and cab-forward design—and the ride was supple. The real fun began when the roads got twistier and my copilot switched the Gravity into Sprint mode.

EMBARGO DEC 9 9 AM ET: Lucid Gravity

Photo by: Lucid Motors

That makes the steering feel heavier, the accelerator more responsive and the suspension stiffer. Using its adjustable air suspension, the Gravity squatted down low to aid handling. The results were seriously impressive. I chucked the Gravity around extraordinarily sharp corners, and it felt far more agile and surefooted than a big SUV has any right to. There was barely any body roll whatsoever, and the whole experience felt bizarrely similar to driving an Air despite the Gravity being about twice as big. As you might expect, it was devilishly quick too. It was a good time.

It’s worth noting that my tester had the optional handling package, which includes fancier suspension and rear-wheel steering with up to 3 degrees of rotation. The latter probably helped make the Gravity feel like a much smaller vehicle on those twisty mountain roads. The regenerative braking system, meanwhile, was predictable and capable. I barely touched the brake pedal throughout my drive.

Lucid set out to make an SUV that can do it all: carry tons of stuff, go off-road and hang with the sportiest SUVs on the racetrack. I suspect most Gravity buyers will be way more focused on comfort and hauling capability than driving dynamics. So I’m eager to spend more time with the Gravity soon and get a better sense of how it performs in more mundane driving conditions.

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Oh, and what about that squircle? I’m neutral on it. It’s round enough that it’s still straightforward to use, which can’t be said of, say, the yoke you find on some Teslas. Yet the angular shape does take a bit of getting used to. It’s not as natural to rest one hand on top of the steering wheel, for example. But resting one's hands at 9 and 3 feels perfectly ergonomic.

The main benefit—and the reason Lucid went this quirky direction in the first place—is to provide a clear view of the large, curved screen behind the steering wheel. And in that sense, it works well. In many, many vehicles, including the Air, the steering wheel always obscures some part of the digital gauge cluster. In the Gravity, though, you can see every inch of that screen, which is refreshing. Plus, the shape of the steering wheel and those expansive screens lend the Gravity a futuristic ambiance.

A Whole New User Experience

While that revamped user interface wasn’t 100% fleshed out yet in the Gravity I tested, it looks promising. It’s just as attractive and crisp as what you’d find in the Air but has been reworked to be a lot more straightforward to use.

EMBARGO DEC 9 9 AM ET: Lucid Gravity

Photo by: Lucid Motors

The digital interface consists of a huge, curved display behind the steering wheel and a second screen just below it. In the Air, that secondary screen was too low and oriented vertically. In the Gravity, it’s significantly easier to reach and read at a glance. Plus, the layout on it is way simpler than what’s currently in the Air. Dave Flynt, Lucid’s head of UX/UI, told InsideEVs it will get even more streamlined before customer deliveries begin.

“We didn't just sort of start with Air and then just kind of repackage it,” he said. “We want to simplify. We want to make it easier for people to find things."

One big upgrade: In the Gravity, drivers will be able to multitask by running a different application on each screen—like, say, the maps and music. That’s something you can’t do in the Air right now, though it is coming to that car, Flynt said. All in all, the system seems to be a lot more functional and less confusing than what's in the Air right now.

EMBARGO DEC 9 9 AM ET: Lucid Gravity

Photo by: Lucid Motors

Another interesting addition: The Gravity’s steering wheel comes equipped with left and right touchpads, which respond to both swipes and clicks. You can use them to cycle through menus or swipe away notifications, for example, mimicking the gestures of using a smartphone. It’s too early to levy a verdict there, but we look forward to seeing how intuitive those novel controls are when we have a bit more time with a fully fleshed-out Gravity. All I can say so far is that they did work and could probably use some haptic feedback.

A Huge Interior

Taking a step back from the screens for a moment, the Gravity’s interior feels large and high-end. All three rows had tons of room, even for someone like me, who's just over six feet. Surprisingly enough, I had plenty of space for my knees and head when I crawled into the third row.

EMBARGO DEC 9 9 AM ET: Lucid Gravity

Photo by: Lucid Motors

An enormous glass roof—plus a windshield that stretches over the driver’s head—helps make things feel airy. But it’s Lucid’s relentless focus on packaging that really seals the deal. The startup tries to make its motors and other electronics as compact as possible. Plus, it works hard on efficiency, ensuring that its vehicles need less battery capacity than rivals to travel just as far or farther. All of that gives Lucid more room to play around with for passenger and cargo space.

“We are packaging nerds,” said Eric Bach, Lucid’s chief engineer, referring to himself and Peter Rawlinson, the firm’s CEO. That’s palpable when you poke around a Gravity. There’s a large frunk up front, plus an under-floor storage area behind the rear seats.

Early Verdict

We can't draw any definitive conclusions from a half-hour test drive and some time poking around the Gravity’s interior. But first impressions were positive. The Gravity is ridiculously fun to drive, pleasant to spend time in and has extremely impressive specs across the board.

What do you think?

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Is it enough to launch Lucid’s sales into the stratosphere? We’ll have to get some more time behind the wheel to tell you that.

Contact the author: tim.levin@insideevs.com