It’s been two years since Lucid’s “Project Gravity” SUV was first teased in photos at the premiere of the Lucid Air sedan. Since then, the extremely ambitious Air has become a high-performance reality, with several thousand of the hyperfast luxury sedans now in customers’ driveways and thousands more rolling off the production line. Now the company is getting ready to roll out the production of Lucid Gravity, with reservations slated to open in early 2023.
2024 Lucid Gravity Changes
While a seven-passenger SUV is a new territory for the upstart automaker, the hardware beneath the Gravity and the design philosophy behind it are familiar. It’ll ride the same platform as the Air and reuse many of its mechanical components.
“The Gravity builds upon everything we have achieved thus far, driving further advancements of our in-house technology to create a luxury performance SUV like none other,” said Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, of Lucid Group said in a media release announcing the official launch. Rawlinson went on to opine that the Gravity will have an effect only on the luxury SUV market similar to that of the Air on big sedans, “Setting new benchmarks across the board.”
Engine & Specs
Certainly, it could set some records for speed and power. Though exact specifications won’t be released until next year, if the Gravity re-used the battery pack and motors from the Air Grand Touring it would offer 1,050 horsepower and be capable of leaping to 60 mph in under 3 seconds. That’s serious speed even by the standards of high-performance gas-powered SUVs like the BMW X5 M Competition or Cadillac Escalade V and only approached by the Tesla Model X Plaid.
Whether the Gravity would be particularly capable off-road is an entirely different question, as the Air isn’t meant for the dirt and we don’t know what the final package will look like. Rivian’s R1S is likely to remain king of the off-road EVs for some time.
The automaker says that the Gravity will offer more range than the Air, which is already the longest-range EV on the market. There may be multiple battery pack options, but expect a 500-plus mile range in the initial launch version. One Gravity advantage over the Model X that we’re sure of is style. It has the same muscular, understated design ethos as the Air, but as an SUV the “Lucid look” has a less conservative bent.
The Air looks like a traditional luxury sedan (a la Mercedes-Benz S-Class) reimagined for aerodynamic optimization. The Gravity looks taut and toned like it’s ready to show off its chiseled muscles on Santa Monica Beach, or at least on the Pacific Coast Highway. Appropriate, since Lucid’s designs are “California inspired” and sports interior designs named for Golden State locales.
Interior
The Gravity’s interior is also likely to be as high-luxe as the Air’s, and more luxurious overall than the aging Tesla or the more utilitarian Rivian. Expect to see interior fittings meant to rival the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV or the Range Rover, a fully electric version of which will be arriving around the same time as the Gravity.
Lucid will make several interior permutations available with seating for five, six or seven passengers in two- or three-row configurations. It will also feature the latest generation of the automaker’s glass cockpit and software. The company recently updated “Lucid UX” to make it easier and more intuitive to use, though in our test drives of three different Air sedans in 2022 we found it fairly intuitive already. By 2024, there will no doubt be further updates.
2024 Lucid Gravity Release Date & Price
Lucid says the order books will open in early 2023, which likely means deliveries will commence at the very end of 2023 or in early 2024. The company is still in the process of expanding its AMP-1 factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, where the Gravity will be assembled, which will affect timing. Final specifications should be released early next year, possibly in time for the January 2023 CES event.
Don’t expect it to be cheap, and don’t expect the least expensive version to be the first one you can buy. As with the Air before it, the best-performing and longest-range variations of the Gravity will be the first ones on the road, and they’ll all have impressive performance, ultra-long range, and high roller prices. The Air Dream Edition and Grand Touring Performance are both more than $170,000 in 2022, and the former sold out almost as soon as reservations opened.
Buyers can expect a pricing and trim structure similar to the Air, but potential figures are speculation for the moment. There will likely be an entry-level Pure edition, priced just below six figures, and then Touring, Grand Touring, and Dream versions of escalating prices similar to those of the Air. There’s no word on any potential Sapphire performance edition of the Gravity.
Of course, no other EV has the range to match the highest-end versions, and having sampled several Airs this year, Forbes Wheels can attest that the performance and range are both deeply impressive. Gravity should offer all that and more. “It is both a supercar in disguise and an SUV with flexible passenger and cargo space that seems impossibly big relative to the exterior size of the vehicle,” says Derek Jenkins, Lucid’s senior vice president of design.