The Lucid Gravity is the ultra‑cool EV SUV of the future

Let’s examine these aesthetics. Is anyone else getting more of a jacked-up wagon vibe, than that of a full-on SUV? And more the better for it too. Obviously a lot of the Air’s very clean-cut, monolithic cues have carried over, with blade-like lights, sprawling contours and topped by that ‘floating’ roof at the rear. It looks incredibly smooth and it is incredibly smooth – how does a 0.24 drag coefficient sound? It’ll be big, with its 198-inch length making it an exact match for the new Range Rover. It’s got a couple more inches in the wheelbase though and indeed, it is much lower, giving it that lifted wagon look.

“Lucid’s design and engineering philosophy has always prioritized doing more with less," said Eric Bach, Senior Vice President of Product and Chief Engineer at Lucid.

"Gravity applies this principle to offer customers more of what they need – more space, more utility, and more range – while avoiding excess battery cells, added cost of ownership, and unnecessary weight.

“We believe in pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, and with a battery pack about half the size of some competitors, Gravity is an environmentally friendly, versatile electric vehicle with the spirit of a supercar.”

On the inside it’s similarly ‘Star Trek’, with swathes of leather, metal and metal-effect materials and of course, pixels. The enormous 34-inch curved panoramic driver’s display is OLED – giving true blacks and less screen-meets-bezel awkwardness. Below that is the enormous infotainment display that frustratingly contains almost all the controls, but has enough pixel real-estate to make everything accessible. Very nice is the ‘Sanctuary Mode’ which displays one of a number of natural scenes across both screens, giving Vegas Sphere energy. Very utopian…

The wheel is… a curiosity, we’ll admit. More or less a cuboid but with rounded corners, it’s the result of some extensive research from Lucid, with the company saying 27 versions were tested, with even a Tesla-style yoke among the rejected proposals. That wheel also has touch controls with haptic feedback.

In terms of interior room, as an SUV, it should certainly be a bit more spacious. In terms of seating you have the option of a more luxurious two-row five-seat setup or a more family-oriented three-row seven-seat setup. Available will be a ‘Surreal Sound’ Dolby Atmos-equipped 22-speaker sound system.

Lucid is known to do three things well. We’ve talked style and cabin, now we need to talk guts. The platform is shared with the air, albeit with upgraded motive hardware within the 900-volt architecture. The proprietary motors – already celebrated for their compactness, power density and efficiency – are revised, with Lucid projecting the Gravity to be available with ‘over 800hp’ and be able to get to 60mph in ‘under 3.5 seconds’.

Okay… but the really important one is range. The Air is available as a 500-mile range monster. The Gravity won’t quite manage that, being a bit more draggy, a bit taller a bit bigger and a bit heavier. As such Lucid is giving a conservative projection of ‘over 440 miles’. Still outstanding given the competition and charging should be epic too, with Lucid claiming you'll be 'able to add 200 miles of range in 15 minutes'. Of course, we're talking about EVs here, so conditions – the amount of charge it has at the time, what the charger is able to give, what the temperatures are both outside and in terms of the battery – need to be ideal for that.

So what about availability? Lucid has rather publicly struggled to bring the Air to full production but it’s been revealed as a 2025, which is (confusingly as we know) next year’s model year in the US. They reckon it’ll start at under $80,000, too though that's US-only, subject to change and is not considering options, taxes or any external expenses. You know what they say about best-laid plans... And still, we suspect like with the Air and indeed, many high-end EVs, it’ll be the fast expensive ones that arrive first.