Tag: Electric Cars

Flash Drive: Lucid Air Dream Edition R

A Quick Drive and More Tech Announcements

The ride was short, but provided the essentials—time split between the driver’s seat and the spacious back seat, the two defining spaces in the Lucid Air, the latest luxury electric car to arrive on the market.

This was a pre-production Dream Edition Range model, the actual car used by Lucid execs and Motor Trend magazine staff to demonstrate the car’s range by driving from LA to SF on a single charge. Customer cars are now flowing off the production lines at Lucid’s Arizona factory, so real world test drives are coming soon. Consider this a quick preview.

Lucid Air Dream Edition
Compact outside; spacious inside

Quick is the operative word. Lucid’s two motors and 966 horsepower (in the Range model; the Performance version boasts more than 1,000 horsepower) move the Air smoothly and swiftly to the maximum speed allowed on any road. Road feel is solid and my relatively low-speed run barely teased the potential out of the car.

Lucid Air Dream Edition

Real luxury feel and giant glass 

That’s from the front seat. The ride in back is another world. It’s designed for comfort, part of the car’s goal of making a market in China, where chauffeured high end cars (the initial Lucid models will retail for more than $160,000) are relatively common. Lucid makes a point of the Air having a full-size car’s interior packaged in a midsize car’s exterior. That design sleight of hand, made possible by an electric car’s flat floor reduced need for engine space, is evidently in the spacious leg and headroom.

An additional comment I would add is that the Lucid presents itself as a traditional luxury with full instrumentation in front of the driver and auxiliary controls and information on a hidden tablet that can be summoned with a quick touch. The trim pieces have all the right look and feel to impart to the buyer that he/she has purchased a six-figure car.

One feature struck me as particularly distinctive. While panoramic glass rooms are becoming quite common in the automotive community, the Lucid takes a slightly different approach to the idea. The sweep of the glass from the touchdown point on the hood is uninterrupted (other than by two seemingly floating sun visors) until it reaches a crossbar above and slightly behind the driver. It made for an expansive view of the exterior and enhanced the spacious feeling of the car’s interior.

More Tech

The battleground for the next round of EVs (the Lucid is only one of a dozen either just introduced or coming soon) has numerous fronts. Lucid has addressed two of those with its 1,000+ horsepower performance model and its companion 528-mile range model. The third area, another one in which Tesla has set the bar, is advanced driver assistance technology (ADAS).

The week after my brief test drive Lucid Group announced details on its DreamDrive driver assistance platform, a suite of technologies that will be standard on the high-end models like the Dream Edition I drove and optional on other models. Like Tesla’s misnamed Autopilot, it’s designed to allow hands-free driving under certain conditions. Unlike Tesla, which appears to be moving to a completely camera-based system, Lucid’s systems uses 32 on-board sensors, including the first use of lidar on a production vehicle.

Lucid Air DreamDrive

Surrounded by sensors

The extensive variety of sensors will allow Lucid to offer more than 30 driver-assistance features, including collision avoidance, Traffic Jam assist and Highway Assist.

The sensors feeding the system include 14 visible-light cameras, five radar units, four surround view cameras, ultrasonic sensors around the vehicle’s exterior and a solid-state lidar sensor. Lucid describes the ultimate system, which will be able to grow in capability via over-the-air software updates, as an “invisible co-pilot.”

The DreamDrive system relies on the car’s proprietary on-board Ethernet Ring to enable quick response and will use the Lucid Air’s 21-speaker audio system to deliver directional alerts while presenting information on the graphic display.

Story by Michael Coates. Photos courtesy of Lucid Group.

More Lucid News:

News: Range Milestones Hit by Lucid

Feature: Lucid’s Studio Approach to Sales

News: Lucid Finally Unveils the Whole Air Package

News: Lucid Announces 500+ Mile Range

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News: Cadillac Sings a New Tune with Lyriq

Electric Crossover Heralds New Direction for Brand

We may not see the production version for more than a year, but Thursday Cadillac took up the gauntlet in luxury electric crossovers that’s been laid down by Tesla, Jaguar, Audi and Mercedes, introducing the Lyriq. While presented as a concept, the model appeared ready for production, promising a variety of new benchmarks for General Motors’ luxury brand:

Cadillac Lyriq EV
It’s almost two years away, but the Lyriq is designed to make luxury EV buyers want to wait
  • Lyriq will herald the future design of Cadillac according to Andrew Smith, executive director of global Cadillac design.
  • Range for the vehicle is expected to be more than 300 miles on a single charge.
  • Lyriq will be the first GM vehicle to take advantage of the new modular EV architecture and Ultium batteries.
  • A 33-inch (diagonal) advanced LED display presents a new approach to presenting vehicle information and infotainment options.
  • Lyriq will feature the latest version of Super Cruise, GM’s advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) that will allow some hand-off driving, automated lane-changing and remote parking.
  • It will come in rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive versions
  • Lyriq will be capable of fast-charging at rates up to 150 kilowatts.
  • It will feature an augmented reality-enhanced head-up display
Cadillac Lyriq EV
The Lyriq marks a new design direction for the brand

In a virtual introduction, Cadillac presented the first product that will use both its flexible new EV platform and the Ultium batteries being produced in a partnership with LG Chem. It appears to be a midsize crossover coupe in the vein of the Jaguar I-Pace and Audi E-tron Sportback with a sloping roof and blacked-out B-pillar and high beltline to give it a sporty profile.

In front it carries the now signature vertical headlights while the rear breaks new ground with a variety of tail lights running up the sloping C-pillar in a boomerang shape. As Cadillac’s designers noted, this will be a distinctive new look for Cadillac while carrying forward some themes they have been using for several years.

Light on Details

The Lyriq will boast prized 50/50 weight distribution courtesy of the EV platform structure that puts the battery weight under the vehicle’s floor. Other than the 100 kilowatt-hour battery pack and rear-biased configuration, no other details of the powertrain were offered. Cadillac did promise it would deliver “thrilling performance.”

Cadillac Lyriq EV
Not quite as big as Byton’s but still huge display

Melissa Grady, chief marketing officer for Cadillac, said the brand will be using Lyriq to “reimagine the entire customer experience with Cadillac.” She said mobile apps will be more prominent and applauded the return to named vehicles after Cadillac’s recent foray into alphanumeric nomenclature.

The crossover’s extended driving range is attributed to the advanced batteries as well as the use of an EV-dedicated platform, which used the batteries as a structural element of its architecture.

The Ultium batteries use nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum chemistry that reduces the use of cobalt by more than 70 percent compared to last generation of batteries. In addition to being capable of fast charging at up to 150 kilowatts, the batteries can charge at Level 2 at up to 19 kilowatts.

Cadillac Lyriq EV
The Lyriq will offer a functional rear

Introducing more microphones and accelerometers, the Lyriq will deploy new road noise cancellation technology, tackling an issue that comes to the fore because electric vehicles are so quiet on the road.

The Cadillac Lyriq is expected to go on sale in 2022, and will be followed by four other full-electric models. It enters the market seven years after the Tesla Model X and a few after Jaguar and Audi’s entrants. Pricing and powertrain details have not been announced, so there will be plenty more to come from GM’s luxury brand.

Feature: Summer Road Trip on Sunshine Now Possible

Solar-Powered Fast Charger Installed for True Zero Emission Driving

The vision of true zero emission transportation sounds simple. Produce your electricity from solar or wind sources and use it to power a fully electric car. Getting to that to happen in the real world is more difficult, but a main highway in California is leading the way.

Envision Solar EV ARC solar charger
Charging on sunshine on the road

The San Luis Obispo Air Pollution Control District and Caltrans partnered with Envision Solar to set up a solar-powered DC fast-charging system at a rest area on California Highway 46, a main east-west highway connected the Central Coast with the San Joaquin Valley. Envision Solar’s EV ARC system was installed at the Shandon rest area, near the junction of Highways 41 and 46, famous as the area where James Dean met his end in a fatal car crash.

Because the Envision Solar system doesn’t require any grid upgrade, it’s ideal for remote locations like this rest stop, where it can offer EV drivers the opportunity for a quick recharge. The system draws the majority of its power from the sun and was deployed with minimal construction costs since it’s a self-contained unit. The EV ARC can be deployed without trenching, foundations or any kind of installation.

Each individual unit in the Shandon deployment (which includes four units) has a six-kilowatt panel fed by the sun from a tracking array on top of the unit. Electricity is stored for use when needed. The tracking solar panel can generate 25 percent more electricity than a fixed array.

A similar deployment can be found on the side of U.S. Highway 101 north of San Luis Obispo at another rural rest stop. Envision Solar now has more than 100 customers for its products. The company has found a home with public and private electric fleets around the country and is expected to continue to grow, according to CEO Desmond Wheatley.

Game Changer Product Next

Wheatley added that the company’s game changer product just received a patent this year. Called the EV Standard, the product could be seen as a replacement streetlamp—or a new way to provide light and electric power.

Envision Solar EV Standard

EV Standard Up Next

Wheatley sees the EV Standard as the “transformational” tool that can provide ubiquitous charging for those who don’t have access home or work charging—or just need a boost while out and about. It combines solar, wind and utility-generated electricity in a bank of integrated batteries. Wheatley said most existing streetlamps don’t carry the capacity to provide a real charge for an EV without a substantial upgrade, but the EV Standard with its additional power sources and storage will be able to do the job.   

The EV Standard comes with a state-of-the-art high-lumens, low-consumption LED light and will provide Level 2 charging. Most of the juice for charging will come from the wind and solar part of the system. In the same way the EV ARC found a home in emergency services, the EV Standard also will be capable of providing lighting and power to IoT-connected devices, even if the grid is down.    

The EV Standard product promises to supply the volume that’s so important to the growth of a small public company like Envision Solar. Wheatley hinted that more is coming soon from the company as part of a rebranding move, so stay tune for the next chapter that may be bringing solar power and EV charging to a streetlamp near you.

Story by Michael Coates

Photos from Envision Solar

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