Lucid didn't like it when I said that Hansjörg von Germmingen-Hornberg had bought an Air to escape his problems with Tesla just to discover the startup is also getting sued in Germany. It said it was not true that the man who drove a Tesla Model S for more than 1 million miles had purchased its electric sedan. That is only partially right. Von Gemmingen made a reservation but gave up on the Lucid Air.
In a short chat with me, he clarified what happened.
"I have ordered it but given up. I've decided to drive both my Tesla cars. I really don't need a third one."
The way Von Gemmingen drives, his Model S will soon hit 2 million kilometers (1,242,742 miles) – it reached 1.8 million km (1,118,468 miles) on July 30. I don't doubt the 2 million miles (3.218.688 km) will arrive if the battery pack and the motor can stand that much. With the Model S out of warranty, all (hefty) expenses will be out of Von Gemmingen's pockets.
The one-million-mile Model S owner was recently in Morocco, leaving the country shortly before the massive earthquake hit that country. In recent pictures shared on his Facebook page, he disclosed that his Roadster had 733,333 kilometers (455.672 miles), which is not much more than it had the last time I wrote about it. In June 2022, it had 700,000 km (434,959 miles) on the clock. That's easy to explain: the Model S is a more practical vehicle, which must leave only a few occasions in which driving the Roadster is a better call.
Photo: Hansjoerg Eberhard von Gemmingen-Hornberg
Von Gemmingen shared another reason for him not to purchase a Lucid Air.
"My wife has Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). That means that she gets very ill from new cars for two years."
I did not know about this condition. According to a study available at the National Library of Medicine, it is "a controversial disorder in which patients claim to become ill from environmental exposure to low levels of largely petroleum-based and often unrelated chemicals, including cleaning products, detergents, diesel exhaust, formaldehyde, plastics, carpets, epoxy, pesticides, and some synthetic and natural fragrances."
The reason for the controversy is that "no clear link has emerged among self-reported MCS symptoms and widely accepted objective measures of physiological dysfunction, and no clear dose-response relationship between exposure and symptom reactions has been observed." In other words, scientists were not able to objectively establish what triggers the symptoms, the chemical quantity that is necessary for that, and why the body has these responses to these stimuli. Regardless of the medical concerns about the situation, Von Gemmingen's wife does not feel well in new cars, which is enough of a reason for him not to buy anything with less than two years of use.
Photo: Hansjoerg Eberhard von Gemmingen-Hornberg
Waiting that much could also help Lucid iron out all the issues the car is having. I have written about them in October 2022. Some of these problems are so similar to what Tesla vehicles presented that merely describing them will make someone aware of them that the conversation is about a vehicle made in Fremont or one of the three other car factories the American battery electric vehicle (BEV) maker has.
One of them is thin paint. According to what a detailer told one owner, "the paint application (in his EV) is erratic, troublingly thin in some places, and never better than minimally acceptable in others." Kyle Conner reported similar concerns in his YouTube videos. His father recently sold his Lucid Air because of several problems with the BEV.
One of them was that "some trim pieces have snapped out of place," something that Tesla vehicles are also famous for. The "Turtle of Doom" problem relates to the rear motor, which needs to be replaced to fix it. Several Teslas have faced a similar situation – caused by inverter problems. As the Lucid Air's drive unit includes the inverter and the transmission, it would not be a surprise if the inverter was also the reason for the failures. When I wrote the article, the "Turtle of Doom" cause still needed to be identified (or disclosed).
Photo: HC_79
Another concern that Lucid and Tesla vehicles share relates to 12V batteries. When they fail, the cars do not open their doors, do not start, and the screens are not available. Several Air units had these issues, which are relatively common in electric cars. As they do not have an alternator to keep the 12V batteries charged, they have to rely on a DC-to-DC converter. It is not clear why BEV makers have not solved that yet, and Lucid is no exception.
Von Gemmingen is quite a patient guy. He has replaced "11 or 12" drive units in his Model S. It has also used three different battery packs. Luckily, the last one is proving to be quite reliable. Depending on how much more the Model S will hold up, the Lucid Air may get a shot as a used vehicle in 2025.
Google News