The Gravity three-row SUV, based on the platform of the company’s awe-inspiring Air (but with all new part numbers!) is Lucid’s best hope to become a serious competitor to Tesla and the majors in the fast-paced world of EVs. Tariff watchers: It’s made in America (Arizona) but with 15 percent of its parts from Mexico (and a few, including the cupholders, from Canada!)

Yes it looks a little like a minivan, but don’t use that word! (Jim Motavalli all photos)

Lucid could become a port in the storm for customers fleeing Tesla because of Elon Musk’s antics, and an executive told me they are seeing a lot of defectors from that brand. Certainly, Lucid builds cars that meet the expectations of Tesla buyers, and in many cases exceed them. Lucid’s biggest challenge is price. The Gravity tested was as loaded as possible (with seven special-equipment packages) and the bottom line after a $94,900 MSRP was $127,150.

It’s fair to say that the Trump administration is no help with EVs. Trump campaigned to eliminate the $7,500 federal tax credit, and U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), along with 14 other GOP senators, introduced bills earlier this year to make that a reality, and even add a $1,000 tax on EVs as a substitute for the taxes on gasoline other motorists pay. Foreign-built EVs will face a 25 percent tariff. And Lucid will have a challenge selling its EVs in Canada, where there’s now a 25 percent tariff both ways. Some parts travel across the Canadian or Mexican borders several times as they become finished assemblies.

The three-row Gravity loses only a little range to the two-row (437 vs. 450 miles).

All this is happening as automakers build better and better EVs. Lucid started with the Air sedan, conceived at a time before total American SUV dominance. It’s making up for lost time with the Gravity, which David Lickfold, senior director of chassis and vehicle dynamics engineering, called a “seven-seat supercar” and Derek Jenkins, senior vice president of design and brand, called “tech forward and human centric.” The Gravity offers comfortable accommodations in all three rows, with better interior space (120 cubic feet for the two-row, 111 for the three) than the Mercedes EQS and BMW X7.

There’s a family resemblance to the Air sedan.

Range is 450 miles in the two-row version (437 in three-row) from a 123-kilowatt-hour battery pack (which sounds big but is smaller than the competition). It sits in a modified chassis with air suspension (standard on all Gravitys) and, available as part of a Dynamic Handling pack, three degrees of rear-wheel steering. The Gravity is quite efficient, able to deliver 3.6 miles of travel for each kilowatt-hour of battery. That compares to 2.82 miles for the Rivian R1S, 2.9 for the Mercedes EQS and 2.15 for the Cadillac Escalade IQ, said Eric Bach, a senior vice president for product and chief engineer.

The interior uses reclaimed wood and carpets made from fishing net waste.

The Lucid can charge at 400 kilowatts with its 1,000-volt architecture, and add 200 miles in less than 11 seconds.  It has a built-in NACS port so can charge at Tesla Supercharger stations.

The Gravity will reach 60 mph in 3.4 seconds, and access 828 horsepower and 909 pound-feet of torque in the highest Sprint mode. In Smooth and Swift modes, it’s 650 horsepower.

The commodious trunk is complemented by a “frunk” up front.

On the road, the modes proved their worth. Smooth offered a cushioning ride and a quiet cabin a la the Audi Q8. Swift is chasing the Porsche Cayenne and optimizes steering, braking and suspension without increasing power, and Sprint—shadowing the highest setting of the DBX 707 from Aston Martin, with which Lucid has a partnership—is best for short bursts of big power. The Gravity can be left in Sprint mode, but that will cut into range.

The Gravity drives more like a supercar than an SUV. The roads around home base in Los Olivos, California (near Santa Barbara) are not conducive to speeding but passing was effortless and stretches of open road and no traffic allowed thrilling acceleration. The Gravity is fairly big, but corners with only very slight body lean in Sprint mode.

Off-road use and the outdoor life are encouraged.

The trip included a visit to an off-road course, where we had great fun turning off the traction control and doing some controlled drifts on loose dirt. The car enables full traction, partial traction and traction totally off, which is where the entertainment comes in. But on the road, it is highly recommended to leave the traction on.

Our Gravity was in Aurora Green with a Tahoe leather interior (a $4,200 option). Inside, the midcentury modern space is in good taste, with a slightly subdued ambiance. The dark reclaimed wood is muted and doesn’t pop out as actually being timber. Other sustainable touches include carpets fashioned from fishing-net waste and textiles that started out as recycled water bottles.

The picnic tables are useful, and evoke British luxury of a bygone era.

The heated and ventilated seats were comfortable on a longer-than-intended drive—we got lost. A very nice touch is the folding “convenience tables” in the second row, usually seen only in high-end British cars (Jaguar, Rolls, Bentley) of a certain vintage. This is where the Grey Poupon goes; they’re also called “picnic tables.”

The controls are fairly intuitive, and the physical volume control and HVAC are appreciated, though opening the glovebox should be pulling on a latch, not pushing a virtual button on one of the two screens (a curved 34-inch OLED touchscreen that’s part of the “Clearview Cockpit,” meaning you can see the dash display; and a second 12.6-inch unit in the center console). There’s a “Hey, Lucid” voice assistant. Jean-Philippe Gauthier, Lucid’s interim digital VP, called the Gravity a “software-defined vehicle,” with a host of features and updates that can be downloaded after purchase. Our tester lacked Apple CarPlay, but it’s getting the tech.

A NACS charging port enables the use of Tesla Superchargers. The bear symbol evokes California.

An interesting note is that the car is set up for eventual Level Three autonomy with the optional DreamDrive ADAS system, which includes a sensor suite, LiDAR, 12 external cameras and two external. On our test car, it was an included $6,750 option. You’d have to really be thinking ahead to order that. Lucid doesn’t do everything in-house: the brakes were co-developed with Brembo, the power steering Bosch, and the rear steering via ZF.

An innovation I like on the Gravity is so-called e-fuses, which do away with the physical stand-by that’s been with us since cars were new. No more putting a 20-amp fuse in a five-amp slot! Gauthier also said that e-fuses enable the shutting down of systems while they’re not in use, extending range.

On the drive we experienced some minor glitches with the built-in GPS and with hearing incoming phone calls, but these were pre-production prototypes.

The rear view will become familiar to owners of slower cars.

The Lucid Gravity is available for orders and deliveries are beginning now. Initially, only the higher $94,900 twin-motor Grand Touring trim is available. The $79,900 Lucid Gravity Touring will begin deliveries later this year.

Up next from Lucid is an as-yet unnamed midsized platform, on which three lower-priced variants are going to be built. Lickford told me that pricing will be around $50,000, and that availability will be mid-2026. Not much more is known, but an affordable Lucid would really help the company’s sales volume.

The Gravity is very likely to raise Lucid’s profile in the U.S., in Europe where it’s establishing a dealer network, and even in Saudi Arabia, where a factory is going up in a complex that also includes a Hyundai plant and CEER, the Saudi national car company. The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) is Lucid’s principal backer. The Ayar Third Investment Company, an affiliate of the PIF, provided $1.5 billion to build the Gravity. Total investment in Lucid is $10 billion.

According to Reuters, Saudi Arabia has built an EV metals plant, and has a goal of producing 500,000 EVs per year by 2030. But as of last December, the country’s only auto plant (opened in 2023) had produced only 800 vehicles assembled from kits. Lucid will have to train a local workforce to get its Saudi plant up to full production. But a Middle East market is assured.