Late last year, and just a few months after reviewing the most luxurious variant of the Lucid Air, the tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee — better known as MKBHD — reviewed the cheapest variant of Lucid’s debut model.
On Thursday, MKBHD published a new video reviewing a $122,000 spec’d Lucid Gravity, the brand’s second model.
The SUV, which can fit up to seven adults, was first unveiled by the former CEO Peter Rawlinson in late 2023 at the LA Auto Show, with the first small batch deliveries beginning a year later to employees, their friends and family members.
“This is Lucid’s first entry into a new vehicle category that may just be enough to save them … because this is an SUV. SUVs are very popular here in the U.S.,” he said.
The EV maker has previously claimed that the Gravity would allow Lucid to target a six times higher total addressable market (TAM).
The reviewed Gravity Grand Touring featured dual-motor all-wheel drive, rear-wheel steering, and a 900-volt architecture capable of up to 828 horsepower.
Lucid claims 450 miles of range on a roughly 100 kWh battery, though Brownlee said he never saw more than 386 miles in real-world driving, blaming larger wheels and added weight for the shortfall.
“When I read on paper that the Lucid Gravity Grand Touring … is going to have 450 miles of range … and 828 horsepower, that feels impossible for one vehicle to have both things,” he said.
“I never even saw 400 miles of range. The highest I ever got was … 386 miles,” he added while showing the mileage remaining after leaving the charging station.
The Grand Touring trim starts at $94,900 before options, plus a $1,650 destination fee.
The cheaper Touring variant is expected to follow as Lucid ramps up Gravity production at its Casa Grande, Arizona, plant while working through supply-chain bottlenecks that have been delaying some configurations.
The Gravity is Lucid’s first vehicle equipped with a North American Charging Standard (NACS) port, allowing direct access to Tesla’s Supercharger network without an adapter.
“So you can charge in with no adapter in the US at Tesla Superchargers, which is pretty sick,” Brownlee said. Existing Lucid Air sedans have not — yet — adopted the standard.
Brownlee repeatedly praised Lucid’s design priorities, calling the Gravity’s packaging and space “incredible” and “hyper-functional.”
“What you’ve ended up with, which is a crazy stat, is the same amount of interior storage space as the Cadillac Escalade IQ, but three feet shorter,” he said.
Inside, Brownlee highlighted Lucid’s dual-screen setup as “really good and intuitive,” saying the separation of functions between the upper driver display and lower 12.5-inch screen meant navigation was never interrupted.
He praised physical HVAC and volume buttons as “awesome,” but criticized the lack of Apple CarPlay integration.
“No Apple CarPlay, at least for now, out the box. It’s supposed to be coming with an OTA update, but as of right now, the car I’m driving does not have CarPlay, which is kind of a bummer,” he said.
Among luxury touches, he noted the Tahoe brown leather interior with heated, massaging seats — including lower cushion support — as well as a panoramic glass roof and a quiet, insulated cabin.
He did report small glitches using the keyfob but also on the interior.
“I had a couple of weird problems where it took two tries to open the door handle from the driver’s side only. Might just be a bit of a bug,” Brownlee said.
On styling, he described the exterior as having “a little bit more minivan-looking” inspiration, but added: “Not a bad thing. This is a three-row, very functional vehicle, and minivans are very functional, so I’m not complaining.”
Brownlee compared the Gravity’s third-row space favorably to some rivals.
“This is slightly, slightly better than the Rivian R1S. This is worse than the Cadillac Escalade IQ … but it’s not a bad space to be.”
“The two things that struck me most while daily driving and living with the Lucid Gravity … are the packaging and storage space, and that the software was actually really good and intuitive,” Brownlee concluded.
Motor Intelligence sales estimates showed earlier this week that the company sold 70 units of the Gravity model in the US in August.
However, the brand’s global head of Communications Nick Twork, quickly refuted the estimates on X, saying the number is false and that the figures are higher.
