So, any preliminary driving impressions particularly as it's relates to your BW? Pros/cons, etc.?
Negatives
Lots of the tech feels gimmicky.
It has like 3 times the screen real estate that the Blackwing has, and shows 1/3 the info. Then again, in an EV I don't need to show oil temp, oil pressure, coolant temp, and trans temp.
The keyless entry sucks. It's either too much automation, or not enough. I can set it up to fully wake the car up when I approach, and shut it down when I walk away, but I don't like that. I don't need the Lucid waking up when I go into my garage to drive my Blackwing, or get a broom, or something. The next lowest level of automation requires me to pull the fob out and click it. I want to keep my fob in my pocket, but walk up and touch the door to wake up, but that is not an option. Maybe I just need to embrace the automation, but I am not there yet. I also can't fully shut down the car without using the fob. There is no start/stop button.
Positives
The purchase/lease experience was the best I have ever had with a vehicle - by far. This is a direct sales thing, so the staff in the Houston Studio just answer questions and do test drives and stuff. For the actual purchase, I had to create an account on the Lucid website to make a $500 down payment via credit card to reserve the car. A day later the website had an offer for me to accept. When it came time to seal the deal, financing people in California e-mailed me paperwork that I did online doc-sign stuff with. Then the balance due at delivery showed up in my online account, which I paid via credit card. No hard-sell dealer add-ons or anything. That was the purchase process. When I went up to the Studio to pick the car up, that's all it was: a pick-up. They gave me a tutorial on the vehicles features and sent me on my way.
It is so, so easy to drive. My drive home was 40 miles in afternoon rush hour, including Houston's infamous West Loop. With max regen braking on, I mostly drove it with one pedal and barely touched the brakes. Even on inclines, the automatic brake hold feature held the car. With Creep mode on I could creep along at low speed. When I needed to change lanes and accelerate, a ton of torque was right there, right now. It actually has a transmission, but it's a single speed gear reduction, so no shifting. It was just a very stress-free driving experience. (Or about as stress-free as driving a new-to-me car in rush hour could be, LOL.)
Very comfortable. The suspension is traditional springs with active dampers. It feels at least as comfortable as my Blackwing in its softest setting. It's 5" wider than my CT4, without the need for a massive trans tunnel, so it feels way less cramped. The backset leg room is ridiculous - and in the Pure with fewer batteries the backseat floor is lower freeing making it feel even more spacious.
So far it feels like it handles really well. Not at the Blackwing level, but this might be the best-handling car I've driven that is not an actual sports car. Steering is light, but very responsive and accurate. I haven't pushed it hard, but so far it feels planted in corners. It weighs 700 lbs more than my 4BW, but it hides the mass well.
Feels about as fast as my CT4 Blackwing. In instrumented tests, Car and Driver got 0-60 and 1/4 miles times two to three tenths slower in the Lucid than the 4BW. But if you did drag races side-by-side 100 times, I'd bet the Lucid would win 90 times, due to how much easier it is to extract the performance.
Some of the automation I complained about above actually is sort of cool. When I get into the car, by the time I sit down the air conditioning is running and the radio is going. I put on my seatbelt and that's it, the car is ready to go. I find myself sitting there because it is too easy; it seems like I should have other stuff to push and click before driving away. When leaving the house I typically let my other two vehicles warm up for at least a minute before driving off; sometimes 5 minutes if they have been sitting for a week. With the EV I just *go*.
I can leave the A/C running while I run into a grocery store to shop. I suspect this will be amazeballs when running errands in the Texas summer. Through the mobile app, you can also pre-warm/cool the cabin while the car is in your garage.
Overall
I think most Blackwing owners would find this a pleasant place to be. You 5BW guys who need more power could get a dual motor Touring model for which Car and Driver got 0-60 in 3.0 seconds. (And for you *really* rich 5BW guys who have rotating driveway turntables and stuff, there are two trims above Touring that are even faster.)
From outside the EV culture looking in, I totally get that EV owners might come across as the virtue-signaling granola-eating hippies of car culture. But in a multi-car househould, an EV just might be the ultimate work commuting appliance. And Lucid is showing they can do that while still being interesting to the enthusiast.
I can totally see how people get addicted to these things.
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