Dive Brief:
- Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Group announced new technical details of its Gravity SUV, including its powertrain and charging technology that allows for rapid battery replenishment, the company announced in a press release Jan 28.
- Lucid developed and patented technology that uses electronics in the vehicle’s rear drive unit to boost charging current to match the vehicle’s 926-volt battery pack. It allows the Gravity to charge at a rate of 400 kilowatts on 1,000-volt DC fast chargers and up to 225 kW on a 500-volt charger.
- The Gravity was the first EV sold in the U.S. with a factory-equipped North American Charging Standard port, allowing customers to plug in at over 20,000 Tesla Supercharger locations without using an adapter.
Dive Insight:
Level 2 public EV chargers in the U.S. typically deliver between 7 kW and 19.2 kW of charging power. In contrast, level 3 chargers, including Tesla’s V3 and V4 Superchargers, support currents from 50 to 350 kW using supply voltages between 400 and 1,000, according to the Department of Transportation. However, EVs can only accept this higher charging current if their electrical architectures are engineered to support it.
Lucid says its charging technology allows the Gravity to charge at a public station’s highest voltage output, according to the release. The electric SUV has a 400-volt system architecture that’s compatible with both Level 2 and Level 3 charging infrastructure. Lucid also located the Gravity’s charge port on the rear driver’s side for easier access to Tesla Superchargers, which is the same location as on the Model Y.
High-power DC fast chargers can add up to 200 miles of range to the Gravity in under 12 minutes, according to Lucid. The company also said it developed an advanced cooling system for the Gravity with increased thermal capacity to improve charging performance when plugged into a high-powered charger.
In addition, the Gravity’s charging speeds are further optimized by a new battery cell supplied by Panasonic that’s used in the vehicle’s 123 kilowatt hour battery pack. The battery delivers an EPA-estimated 450-mile of range and provides a long service life, according to Lucid.
The Gravity is also capable of bi-directional charging at 19.2 kW with its native NACS charge port. The EV supports vehicle-to-vehicle charging with a optional cable Lucid calls “RangeXchange.” Drivers can charge another EV directly from the Gravity’s NACS port by connecting the RangeXchange cable to both vehicles, which is sold on Lucid’s website for $125.
Lucid also provides Combined Charging System to NACS and SAE J1772 to NACS adapters with the Gravity for more charging flexibility. The CCS adapter is the first rated for 500 amps when plugged into a 1,000-volt DC fast charger, according to Lucid.
Lucid announced that Tesla Supercharger access for its Air sedan is expected in Q2, providing customers with thousands of additional charging locations.
Clarification: The amount of time it takes to add 200 miles of range to a Lucid Gravity, at peak charging rate, was updated to 12 minutes. A previous version of this story had rounded up the figure.
