First Drive: Lucid's Gravity Electric SUV

The automaker has established a vibe.

May 2, 2025

Roberto Baldwin

The 2026 Lucid Gravity continues the automakers desire to build luxury vehicles with efficiency and performance. (Lucid Motors)

It's not unusual for vehicles from the same automaker to have a completely different feel on the road. Behind the wheel, the Chevy Corvette and Chevy Malibu might as well be from different planets. But there is something to be said about an automaker that creates a driving dynamic and establishes that across its lineup. Even if the lineup is only two vehicles.

On the road, the Gravity displays some of the same characteristics as the Air with a comfortable ride combined with impressive handling. (Lucid Motors)

Lucid's electric sedan, the Air, has garnered praise among the automotive press for its smooth yet taut driving dynamics. It's a luxury sports sedan. Quick around curves while pampering the driver and passengers. The SUV Lucid Gravity, the second vehicle from the startup, continues the automaker's ability to deliver performance driving in an opulent package. Lucid pulls this off in a well-packaged vehicle that that builds on what the automaker learned from its sedan.

Efficiency is the Brand

At the core of the Gravity is the updated motor. Emad Dlala, Lucid's senior vice president of powertrain, told SAE Media that the new motors have received significant improvements in reducing drive unit noise by doubling the isolation and skewing the internal rotor., which has a new rotor architecture than what's found on the Lucid Air. This includes Lucid using what it learned from the high-performance Sapphire trim level to improve thermal performance by adjusting the winding of the stator. The automaker even swapped out the magnets, for again, better thermal performance and higher efficiency.

Lucid's latest infotainment system is speedier and supports true multi-tasking. (Lucid Motors)

All this thermal efficiency is great for an EV, but it's doubly important for the Gravity. SUV's are expected to be able to tow. The optional towing package will support up to 8,000 pounds.Thermal efficiency in conjunction with a new charging system and next-generation battery pack also increases the NACS-enabled 3-row SUV's charge rate. Lucid says at a compatible 800-volt or higher charging station, the vehicle will charge at up to 400kW. At a Tesla 500-volt charging station, it will charge at up to 225kW. Lucid – like Hyundai – is using the rear motor to step down the vehicle to charge at lower-voltage charging stations like those offered by Tesla.

Connected to a 1,000-volt charger, the Gravity's native up to 926-volt platform (depending on battery pack and other trim level factors) will add 200 miles of range in about 11 minutes. That's from a vehicle with up to 450 miles (724 km) of EPA-estimated range. The charging speed is helped by a flattened charging curve. Dlala told SAE that the automaker increased the temperature bandwidth significantly. Optimized charging ambient temperature can be about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Most vehicles require about 70 degrees Fahrenheit to hit peak charging.

That move to J3400 and support for Tesla Supercharging stations wasn't without its issues. Dlala said that development of the vehicle was about 60 to 70 percent complete when Ford announced support for NACS. Questions about charging port location and whether or not to add a separate box to boost volage to support the slower Tesla chargers came into play. Then it came down to adjusting the rear motor. "The rear drive unit is the high-power drive unit. It can also do higher power boosting because of that. So it's a capable 500 kW traction peak, it does 200 kW plus continuous. So it's able to do 200 kW -plus boosting. And we made a decision to just change the charge board, make this compatible." In a little over a year, the team was able to put that into production.

Lucid wondered if Tesla would be able to upgrade its Supercharger network to the 1,000-volt v4 charging stations before the Gravity came to market. "They have so many legacy key V3 (charging stations) in key locations. We don't think they're gonna upgrade them anytime soon," Dlala said. For upgrades, Tesla would have to pull those locations off the grid, which would be a huge setback for Tesla and its customers.

Packaging for Activities

The Gravity has an impressive amount of cargo space. (Lucid Motors)

The Gravity is available as a five- or seven-seater and has 120 cubic feet (3398 L) and 114.3 cubic feet (3236 L) behind the first row (and including the frunk), respectively. The sleek design actually resembles a cross between an SUV and a wagon (in the best way). The design language of the Air is clearly visible. It's just larger with an impressive amount of room. Unless you're taller than six-foot two-inches and you want to sit in the third row. There is leg room, but your head may bump the roof. The rest of the seats are comfortable and stylish and the second row fold-out tables (similar to what you see on an airplane) add function without reducing room.

The innovative clamshell opening of the back and frunk make adding cargo to the vehicle a breeze. The front can be outfitted with an optional cushion for seating while tailgating or just relaxing. The rear has an impressively low load height which should make adding heavy objects to the cargo area easier. It also helps that the ride height can be adjusted from 5.2 inches (132 mm) to 9.3 inches (236 mm). For context, the Mercedes G550 has a ride height of 9.5 inches (241 mm).

At the end of the day, the Gravity drives like a Lucid. It's smooth yet aggressive for its size. You can't completely erase the heft of the 123 kWh capacity battery pack and the higher center of gravity, but Lucid's chassis engineers have done a great job reducing its effect on road performance.

Lucid is promising a terrain mode later this year. (Lucid Motors)

With 828 horsepower (618 kW) and 909 foot-pounds (1232 Nm) of torque, the Gravity was capable of impressive acceleration at any speed. It's unlikely most buyers will ever use all that power, but it's there if needed, with a zero to 60 mph time of 3.4 seconds.

The steering was tight in sprint mode without being over twitchy. In comfort mode, the lighter steering and malleable suspension reminded us that at its core, Lucid is still a luxury brand aiming its sights at the high-end German automakers.

Tow and terrain modes will be available later this year. We had a chance to try a development build of the terrain mode and found ourselves drifting a luxury electric SUV on an off-road course with ease, something you don't usually experience. It'll be great for tricky dirt roads, but this is not an off-roader in the vein of the Bronco or Wrangler.

The latest infotainment system, Lucid UX 3.0, builds on the upgrades found in the latest Air sedans. The dual touchscreens highlight the most used features, while digging into the system can offer up additional fine-tuning and information about the vehicle. It's best to dive into those settings while parked.

Overall, the Lucid Gravity continues the Lucid tradition of impressive engineering coupled with luxury refinements and a whole lot of cargo space. But now, you can bring along six of your friends.