ExtremeDullardOwning A Lucid Has Been Super Disappointing
Living with my Lucid Air Touring has not been pleasant - it’s a buggy mess.
YouTube
This video is the best advertisement I’ve ever seen for not replacing my old car without any smarts and mechanical-everything that’s important.
In fairness, it’s not really a criticism of electric vehicles, but rather a criticism of “cellphone cars”. I have nothing against EVs, I just wish they came with simple controls that made them good vehicles.
tburkholI saw Marques Brownlee’s review of the Xiaomi SU7 yesterday, and the contrast with this Lucid review is amazing. MB spent his time gushing over how amazing and bug-free the software was, how great the UI/UX, and all the little quality-of-life details in the hardware and design.
I still wish we didn’t have to worry about cars being bug-free… That’s something we rarely - if ever - had to worry about in the past.
Well, if you don’t count mechanical problems. Cars of yesteryear had their problems, too, and if you didn’t want to be a mechanic as a hobby, they could be a bitch. Lucid, in particular, isn’t at scale and isn’t profitable. They are still working out the kinks in the process and product.
I got an EV 6 years ago and am never going back. I plug in at home, never have any routine maintenance to perform, and spend far less on it than I ever did my old cars. The software issue people complain about isn’t even on my radar, but that may be because I grew up in the 90s and everything has been going digital for 30 years.
You have regular maintenance on that car. Make sure you rotate the tires. Brake fluid should be replaced ever couple years. There is often oil in places like a differential that should be changed.
i know most people don't do the above, but you should. Some of that might even be listed as a lifetime fluid - but they define lifetime as seven years or something rediculassly short.
My maintenance on this car is substantially less than it was with an ice car. Not oil changes, radiator flushes, or anything associated with brakes. I change my tires every 50k miles, my wiper blades, and wiper fluid. This ware the only maintenance items I need to do . I took the car in to the manufacturer at the 5yr mark to do an inspection and was told nothing was out of order and needed addressing. No hydraulic fluid or oil changes, no lubrication, no brake pads.
Just drive and spend less on electricity than you spend on gas.
I would not call all those things substantially less. My last car went 250k miles with only one brake pad change. There should be grease fittings in the steering system to lube - though maybe they just expect you to replace parts that wear out early from lack of lube - not unreasonable when they can last 100k miles without.
my phev is saving me a ton of money in gas, but maitenance is tiny either way. However you still need to do it even though as I said most people don't bother and get by.