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EVs With Thin Paint, 12V Battery Problems, Trim Issues? They're From Lucid, Not Tesla

The Air is often called the Model S 2.0. With more range delivered thanks to impressive engineering solutions that the company keeps explaining in YouTube videos, Lucid’s electric sedan seemed exempt from Tesla's mistakes. An autoevolution investigation on forums about the new electric sedan shows that being a Model S 2.0 made it actually repeat some of the problems Tesla vehicles present.
This is the message the Lucid Air presents when it has issues with the drive system 13 photos
Photo: Minnesota Mike
This is how you jump the 12V battery in the Lucid AirThis is how you jump the 12V battery in the Lucid AirThis is how you jump the 12V battery in the Lucid AirMaddraven's Lucid Air was delivered with loosen trim componentsMaddraven's Lucid Air was delivered with loosen trim componentsMaddraven's Lucid Air was delivered with loosen trim componentsMaddraven's Lucid Air was delivered with loosen trim componentsMaddraven's Lucid Air was delivered with loosen trim componentsThis is what a coolang leak in the Lucid Air looks likeWhen diagnosing the drive system in zkhan2's Lucid Air, technicians broke the windshield and the frunkWhen diagnosing the drive system in zkhan2's Lucid Air, technicians broke the windshield and the frunkThis is the message the Lucid Air presents when it has issues with the drive system
Thin paint job became a problem with the Model 3 and Model Y: there are Facebook groups about how fragile it is. It seems the Air has the same issue. Model S owners learned how to jump the 12V battery because the electric sedan constantly presented failures related to it. So does the Lucid EV. There are plenty of examples.

A quick look at the Lucid Owners forum shows the most pressing concern they have was nicknamed “Turtle of Doom.” There are at least three threads there reporting “drive system fault.” When it happens, a turtle icon appears on the lower right corner of the main screen, as well as the message “Drive System Fault – Pull over and contact customer care.” You can see it in this article’s main picture, shared by the user Minnesota Mike.

Apart from him, the “Turtle of Doom” also affected the users Abidbaig1, smead, MikeTz, Pete44, Lfegerber, and zkhan2. The user KySerenity warned that several owners have already faced the problem and that it is generally related to the rear motor, which has to be replaced. In a thread called “From Turtle of Doom to Turtle of Destruction!,” the user zkhan2 disclosed the front motor caused the problem in his car. What called our attention was what the “destruction” bit of his thread relates to.

When diagnosing the drive system in zkhan2's Lucid Air, technicians broke the windshield and the frunk
Photo: zkhan2
When Lucid tried to “perform the electrical readings on the motor” of zkhan2‘s Lucid Air, the technicians had to have it “opened in service mode, which apparently opens the frunk much farther up than normal.” In zkhan’s EV, it went way beyond what it should and hit the windscreen. The result? “The frunk is bent on both corners, the windshield is cracked in several places, and the A-pillar trims and other trims are damaged.”

Some other owners reported a loss of power without the “Turtle of Doom” warning. The user SM_NCarolina said they had gone for a drive with their kids and the electric sedan “suddenly started losing speed in the middle of the highway.” The speed limit was 55 mph (89 kph), but SM_NCarolina was driving it a bit faster to “flow with the traffic.” The speed dropped to around 30 mph (48 kph), and the car maintained it for the next 1.5 miles (2.4 km). The accelerator pedal went dead.

SM_NCarolina stopped the car on top of an exit and selected park. When the Air was back in drive, it started working again. The user bunnylebowski described the same issue: “It was almost like the car mistakenly thought the battery pack was going to die and was trying to save that last kW.”

This is how you jump the 12V battery in the Lucid Air
Photo: HC_79
The 12V battery issue seems to be even more common. In a thread started by BJR, the user Michael Greenberg reported a similar issue. For him, Lucid said the problem was “a wiring harness from someplace in the front to the Wunderbox.” It was “correctly attached, but it was faulty. When they moved the contact as it was connected, the car died again.” In another thread, the users Tesla2.0, RyeLucid, Alrug, HC_79, LuciPearl, Empty Nest, Percentage, and Pete44 (again) said they also had issues with the low-voltage system.

Electric cars frequently present this problem because they do not have an alternator: it is the DC-to-DC converter that feeds the 12V battery with the battery pack’s help. Tesla vehicles are famous for having them. At this point, and with the experience other carmakers already have with this, it was fair to expect Lucid would not present it. Yet…

The paint issue was brought up in a thread started by hmp10. This Air owner learned from a detailer that “the paint application (in his EV) is erratic, troublingly thin in some places, and never better than minimally acceptable in others.” In their Lucid's case, the paint was pretty thin on the doors.

This is how you jump the 12V battery in the Lucid Air
Photo: Tesla2.0
A while later, hmp10 watched a Kyle Conner video that reported the same situation. The youtuber took the Lucid Air for a full paint correction and full coating. However, the paint job was so thin in some parts that the detailer said it was not possible to perform these services. Any improvement would have to be carefully planned.

If you think the thin paint was also on the doors, like in hmp10’s Air, sorry to disappoint you. The detailer said the upper part of the Lucid and “right on the front of the hood” are the areas with the low thickness readings. The doors were fine, which shows the paint thickness is not intentional. As hmp10’s detailer said, the paint job is erratic.

At this point, there are no reports of chipped or peeling paint with the Lucid Air. However, if even polishing a Lucid Air is a risk, we can only imagine sand or small rocks will do with these cars after a few miles. It took a while for Tesla vehicles with thin paint jobs to show what it could cause.

Maddraven's Lucid Air was delivered with loosen trim components
Photo: Maddraven
The electric sedan owners share other incidents with the car that frequently remind us of Tesla. One example comes from the user Lfegerber. In a thread, this person shared that their Lucid Air’s frunk was damaging the front bumper panels, which suggests panel alignment problems. Familiar, right?

Another forum user, Maddraven, said the car was filthy at delivery, which was far from being its main problem: his Air had trim defects. Before we proceed, it is worth remembering Lucid rejects Tesla comparisons because it would sell luxury vehicles. It even postponed the Air premiere from spring 2021 to the second half of that year to ensure everything in the car would be spotless.

In the video embedded below, Peter Rawlinson told Bloomberg on February 23, 2021, that Lucid decided to postpone production of the Air to “get the quality right,” “delight the customer,” and “make it perfect.” Make sure you watch it before you learn what happened with Maddraven’s car.

Maddraven's Lucid Air was delivered with loosen trim components
Photo: Maddraven
The first trim problem they experienced was that “the upper part of the trunk lining was hanging about an inch below the upper lip of the trunk.” It was also not properly seated, with the middle section of the liner “inserted about three inches to the left of where the glue for it was.”

The second and third trim problems raise even more doubts about Lucid’s quality control. Maddraven said that “the felt pieces that cover the interior A-pillars were loose.” The “exterior trim at the base of the driver-side backseat window was not attached.” The forum user prevented these parts from falling off “when going over bumps” with duct tape.

Maddraven qualified the experience as “a painful (and expensive) lesson” because never before had they “bought a car this expensive” or “had to use duct tape to hold parts of a car in the proper place.” But there is more.

This is what a coolang leak in the Lucid Air looks like
Photo: Sandvinsd
The user Sandvinsd reported a coolant leak, something that CLTGT also faced. According to this user, the problem was a “clamp/metal zip tie failure resulting in the hose rubbing on the axle and failing.”

Gap323 asked if anyone was having issues with the air conditioning of the electric sedan. Sandvinsd, CLTGT, CraZ8, Sam6062, Travelguy2500, bunnylebowski, and hmp10 raised their hands. In their discussion, they also discovered that their “ventilated seats turn off randomly, and the audio fails to load either Spotify, Bluetooth or the radio.”

These threads brought some consequences that the forum made more visible. The user Compy decided to cancel his order. In his words, “based on the 12V issues, among others, it is not time for us to take the risk that comes along with the Lucid.” He said he would “come back to Lucid in a couple (of) years to see if all is better.” When someone suggested Compy buy a Tesla, he said he didn’t “consider Tesla a safe alternative either.” Another user, rlhyde, started a thread saying he is annoyed with the company and demanding Lucid “be honest about their cars.”

Maddraven's Lucid Air was delivered with loosen trim components
Photo: Maddraven
The connection between Lucid and Tesla is not just related to making electric vehicles. Peter Rawlinson was the chief engineer at Tesla when the Model S was developed. If that was not enough, he hired several executives and engineers that worked with him at Tesla, which makes following the same procedures the older EV maker adopted even more plausible. In other words, perhaps what is happening now with the Lucid Air is not just a coincidence.

We contacted Lucid asking for answers about these issues, and the company did not get back to us so far. We’ll update this story in case it can tell us how it plans to solve these issues and what happened with delivering perfect cars. These Lucid owners show that, so far, the mission was not accomplished.

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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
Gustavo Henrique Ruffo profile photo

Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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