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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday August 12 2020, @06:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the 490-must-be-enough-for-anyone dept.

With the latest long range Tesla rated at 402 miles, newcomer Lucid Air demos one of their cars going 450 miles in real-world driving. An additional 40 miles were driven after the Motor Trend witness called it a day.

2021 Lucid Air First Ride Review: 450 Miles on One Charge!:

Lucid engineering is located close to Tesla in the Bay Area and the article claims they employ 1200 people at this point--not a small effort. A clipping from the end of the story:

Back on the road and heading north, we pass a milestone: 402 miles, or the highest rated range for which a Tesla model is certified. At this point, the Air's battery reads 16 percent remaining, and the range prediction has now dipped to 478 miles. An hour and a half later, we roll into Lucid HQ for a coffee, a stretch, and a shake of our foggy heads, then crawl back in and head out again. We cut west across the Dumbarton Bridge to lap up and down the 101 as it arteries along San Francisco Bay's east side, increasingly reddening on the traffic map. The day is starting its reverse transition to twilight, and we're experiencing range anxiety of the opposite type: Instead of worrying about running out of juice, we're getting anxious that we'll never stop driving.

At 6:20 p.m., 450 miles and almost 12 hours after we started, we pull back up to HQ. A stubborn 7 percent of energy is displayed on the screen, predicting a range of 484 miles—that's now probably very close to reality for this trip—and we sit silently for several seconds before I concede the battery has beaten us. That's enough; we're calling it a day. I slowly climb out of the car and straighten up. Later that evening, a fresh Lucid driver took out the car again, finally ending the experiment at 490 miles. Not the FEV laboratory's 517, but 95 percent of it, every mile demonstrated in the hills and heat of the real world.

Also noted in the article is that Lucid have developed their system in-house, not using available parts from suppliers. They make their own 900V battery pack which allows motors to be smaller, and charging (with the right charger) to be faster.

Getting closer, but still not enough range for this AC--I'm headed out for a 730 mile road trip tomorrow, it took about 12 hours when I did the same trip last month (didn't want to fly for viral reasons). I stopped to pee a few times and twice for gas, never pushed the ~400 mile range of the gas tank of my Impreza. Yes, it's a bit noisy, that's what ear plugs are for!


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  • (Score: 2) by dx3bydt3 on Wednesday August 12 2020, @11:32AM (4 children)

    by dx3bydt3 (82) on Wednesday August 12 2020, @11:32AM (#1035481)

    I could deal with a range of ~350km for the vast majority of my use, but when I'd need more it would probable be a lot more, 1000+ km.
    So this falls short of the occasional use case, and is overkill for daily driving. At this point for multi vehicle households, a cheaper short range electric, paired with a hybrid makes sense. For those with a single vehicle only, how would the cost of rentals for road trips compare with the cost of a really long range battery? It's tricky to get good figures because trim level varies with the range so it's hard to estimate what part of the incremental price difference is due to the bigger battery, but I'd bet the rentals would be cheaper.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 12 2020, @12:22PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 12 2020, @12:22PM (#1035488)

    That's my long term plan for our family, if I can talk my spouse into it. A hybrid for longer trips and an electric commuter vehicle.

    We have four kids. For our last round of vehicle shopping I tried to talk my wife into a Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid (plug-in seven passenger minivan hybrid, 30 miles / 50 km of pure electric range and then estimated 30 miles per gallon / 7.84 liters per 100 km) or a Toyota Highlander Hybrid (non-plug-in seven passenger SUV hybrid, 35 miles per gallon / 6.72 liters per 100 km). Instead we got a used seven passenger vehicle that was $20,000 cheaper than either one, and with the low cost of gasoline in the US that was the financially sensible if environmentally damaging choice.

    • (Score: 2) by dx3bydt3 on Wednesday August 12 2020, @05:20PM (1 child)

      by dx3bydt3 (82) on Wednesday August 12 2020, @05:20PM (#1035634)

      Depending on how your power is being generated the environmental impacts may not be that different.
      Where I live an all electric would probably cause a slightly higher net carbon emissions, as local power generation is coal fired. That said, an ever growing chunk of our power is being generated by wind, so there'll be a tipping point eventually. Even before that point comes, we may soon be getting power from a hydroelectric development, the link is complete, but the project isn't online yet.
      Another cost component to consider on electric vehicles is home electrical service. I will eventually need to upgrade mine from 100A service to 200A, in order to accommodate a reasonable charge rate of an EV, which I'll bet will cost me upwards of 5k Canadian dollars, combined with the headache of bringing the house up to current code, which is a requirement for upgrades like that.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 12 2020, @11:12PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 12 2020, @11:12PM (#1035860)

        I'm in Pennsylvania, and you pay your local power company a transmission fee per kwh but you can buy the electrical power you use from any supplier in the state. I don't know if it actually makes a difference in practice, but I pay a ~15% premium to buy 100% wind power. It's possible I'm stupid and I should just buy coal power and take the money that would have gone towards a 15% wind premium and buy stock in wind power suppliers.

        We may also look into getting solar panels, though those would only charge the car if we bought some kind of battery system like the Tesla Powerwall. Otherwise the solar makes its energy during the day, when the electric car is likely to be in use and not home getting charged.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2020, @01:25AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2020, @01:25AM (#1035920)

      This isn't going to be a popular comment, but,
      > We have four kids.

      That alone is (I believe) a bigger hit to the future of the environment than any combination of cars you might buy and use over your lifetime (assuming the cars continue to meet emission specs). Or looking the other way, you can be as green as you like, but it won't come close to balancing out the environmental cost of the kids.

      Too many people is the inconvenient truth at the bottom of environmental problems.