American electric carmaker Lucid Group has unveiled the powertrain and charging technology which will feature on its Gravity SUV, which will deliver up to 725 kilometres of range (EPA) and will be the first non-Tesla to be sold with a NACS charging port.
Lucid unveiled in November of last year that it would adopt the North American Charging Standard (NACS) for all vehicles starting in 2025. At the time, Lucid also announced that all existing Lucid vehicles with the current Combined Charging System (CCS) charging port would also be able to charge at the Tesla Supercharger network by using an adapter in 2025.
Fast forward to the end of January, Lucid confirmed that from January 31, all Lucid Gravity’s built with the NACS charging port as native, would also gain access to the Tesla Supercharger network in North America.
“Lucid Gravity offers next-level fast charging speeds and seamless access to the top charging networks including Tesla Superchargers and Electrify America,” said Emad Dlala, VP of powertrain at Lucid.
“To enable this experience for our customers, we developed new, unique technology to allow the 926V Lucid Gravity to charge seamlessly at up to 400kW on 1000V charging equipment and at sustained speeds of up to 225kW on 500V architecture fast chargers, including Tesla V3 Superchargers.”
Enabling this development is a technique using the car’s rear motor drive unit to boost the charging voltage of 500V to match the 926V of the Lucid battery pack.
“Unlike the pack splitting solutions used by some competitors, this high-tech solution permits charging with the highest voltage that a charging station is capable of outputting and therefore enables the efficient utilization of electrical current and consequent reduction of cable heat,” the company boasted.
The Lucid Gravity has also been upgraded with a new Panasonic battery cell which, combined with Lucid’s drive units, a low 0.24 coefficient of drag, delivers up to 725km of EPA-estimated range.
Additionally, the Lucid Gravity is capable of bi-directional charging and supports up to 80A to 19.2kW with the NACS charge port.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.