A week or so ago Kim Reynolds got a deep dive with no photos on the “Secret Tesla rival” from Silicon Valley, now known only as the Lucid Motors sedan. Today on the eve of the media days at the L.A. auto show, the Lucid swung by the Technology Pavilion for a photo op. We caught up with design veep Derek Jenkins who gave us a little update on the car.
Alpha Dog
What we see here is the very first running full-body prototype, which has only been in use testing the battery pack, powertrain, and chassis for a few weeks now. It is fitted with the 100-kWh battery pack (which is composed of the cylindrical “2170 cells” with special chemistry optimized to tolerate frequent fast recharges as described in Kim’s initial piece). The batteries are not situated in a single monolithic pack, but are distributed low around the car, under the console and seats, but not the foot wells so as to preserve the low seating position.
Design Direction
Jenkins assures us this is not the final look of the car, but it represents the basic status of the design as of about five months ago. It is still directionally correct, but many details will be revised. Obviously the LED light bars planned for the front and rear are not yet implemented here, for example.
Slim Grille
Kim described the aero cooling trick devised by former Red Bull aerodynamicist Jean-Charles Monnet which uses a slim air intake in front to inhale high-pressure air before directing it into twin vortex chambers that optimize the air flow before sending it through the twin radiators located ahead of each wheel. This design is great for reducing aerodynamic drag and for keeping the mass of the cooling system down nice and low.
Air Curtains
Monnet has extensively modeled the sedan’s aerodynamics in the computer, and a full scale wind-tunnel model has been constructed in preparation for wind tunnel time in the near future. The vertical slots in the outboard edges of the front fascia will direct air out just ahead of the outer surfaces of the front tires to smooth the flow past this typically turbulent area.
Clamshells
Note the interesting cut-lines for the trunks front and rear. They are designed to ease loading of wide items into the wide trunk and onto its low load floor. The front trunk also has a clamshell design, which cleans up the look of the front of the car by moving the shut-lines down onto the body sides.
Glass Mirrors
These ill-fitting units are off-the-shelf items, but Jenkins has tailored “analogue” glass mirrors to fit the final design, instead of the aero-sleeker cameras. Camera mirrors are not yet legal, though the industry expects them to receive approval at some point. Even if they do become legal, however, Jenkins is loath to reserve space for the screens they require inside the car as these disturb the aesthetics of the interior design.
No Interior
Alpha dog here has no interior trim whatsoever, and seeing it naked like this makes it look even larger. Jenkins is proud of the packaging, which he claims will deliver long-wheelbase S-Class legroom and passenger “couple” (the distance between hip points), in a vehicle with nearer an E-Class footprint.
Chassis Work
Representatives were pretty tight-lipped on chassis development, aside from stating that the car is meeting their expectations at this point in its development. We can report that unlike the top-dog Teslas, the Lucid sedan is (for now) running equal size tires front and rear, and on this Alpha prototype they’re Pirelli P Zeros, size 245/35ZR21, wrapped around forged alloy rims framing vented, slotted brake rotors.
The post 8 Highlights From our Walkaround of the Lucid Motors Sedan appeared first on Motor Trend.
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