2025 Lucid Gravity First Drive: A New Benchmark for Electric SUVs

• The new Lucid Gravity might be the best-handling full-size SUV in existence.
• The Gravity has more passenger and cargo space than larger competitors.
• It has the longest EPA range of any electric SUV, at an EPA-estimated 450 miles.
• The Gravity Grand Touring comes with 828 horsepower and a 0-60 mph time of 3.4 seconds.

Luxury SUVs are a tough breed. They need to be spacious and practical, but also super comfortable and packed with high-tech features that help them appeal to a discerning audience. Add in the demands of an electric drivetrain — range, efficiency and charging speed — and you’re faced with a challenge as massive as, well, a full-size luxury SUV itself. Enter the 2025 Lucid Gravity — an all-electric seven-passenger luxury SUV and the second vehicle from the California-based start-up. After spending some time behind the wheel, I am happy to report that the Gravity may live up to its lofty name, impressing with its practicality, innovation, and a surprising amount of athleticism.

Engineered to defy expectations — maybe even physics

If space, comfort, technology and opulence aren't enough to pack into the demands of a vehicle, the best luxury SUVs are also expected to not feel too floppy on a curvy road and be able to traverse various terrains. Lucid seems determined to not just meet those expectations but blow some minds. My initial test drive might've been relatively brief and done in a preproduction development vehicle, but it's enough to convince me that this SUV may soon be setting some new benchmarks for the class.

The Gravity I'm driving — a dual-motor Grand Touring — delivers an impressive 828 horsepower and 909 lb-ft of torque. It starts at $96,550 including destination, and the optional Dynamic Handling package tacks on $2,900. This package is a must-have and includes a trick rear-axle steering system and adjustable triple-rate air springs. The upgraded springs allow for three selectable levels of stiffness, and when paired with the Gravity's standard adaptive Bilstein dampers, it makes for an SUV with a highly adaptable personality.

Selecting the Smooth drive mode, the Gravity glides over the road, delivering the kind of plush, pillow-soft ride you’d expect from a luxury SUV. Dual-isolation motor mounts virtually eliminate motor whine, while acoustic glass provides excellent insulation against airborne ambient noise. Switch over to the sportiest Sprint mode and things sharpen up; the suspension stiffens, more feedback percolates up from the surface, and the Gravity seemingly tightens its grip on the road. If straight-line speed is your jam, how does 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds sound? Just be sure to warn the fam before dropping the hammer.

If you're more about handling performance, as I am, it's here that the optional rear-steering system begins to warp perceptions. With independently controlled actuators allowing up to 3 degrees of rear-wheel articulation, the Gravity carves corners with an agility that feels natural yet completely at odds with its size. The Gravity's steering is responsive and precise, likely due to the fact that it shares hardware components with the Porsche 911 and Cadillac's Blackwing sedans. Like a Great Dane expertly weaving through an obstacle course with Pomerainian speed, the Gravity is impressive and a little mind-boggling. Lucid says the split rear-steer design was necessary to afford the maximum amount of third-row passenger space, but it also opens up some creative tuning opportunities.

The Gravity’s chops allegedly extend to off-roading, too, though I didn't have a chance to put that to the test. The Gravity has exactly zero locking differentials, but Lucid says its incredibly sophisticated traction control system — which was developed in-house and operates at 1,000 cycles per second — has been tuned to provide the same level of magical wheel control off-road as you'll experience on-road. And whether you choose to get the optional Dynamic Handling package or not (you really should, though), the Gravity Grand Touring comes standard with an air suspension that has 4.2 inches of height adjustment, maxing out at 9.6 inches of ground clearance. Not bad, but a far cry from the Rivian R1S' 14.9 inches of ride height, and the Gravity's front and rear overhangs suggest some fairly tame approach and departure angles too. Lucid says the Gravity will likely be in the same league as a Land Rover Range Rover Velar — solid for weekend adventures but probably happier on a gravel trail than clawing up a rock face.

A masterclass in efficiency of space

Step inside the Gravity and the first thing you'll notice is the generous amount of space. Lucid prioritizes interior packaging in a way that’s borderline obsessive. The battery pack carries over from the Air, but Lucid reorganized the 22 modules so that the extra hump moves from the rear to under the front seats, creating a completely flat floor in the second and third rows (where legroom matters most). As a result, the second and third rows each have more space than any full-size European luxury SUV and closely rival American land yachts for full-size human comfort.

What might be even more impressive than the Gravity's rear passenger accommodations, however, is its ability to haul stuff. That Gravity's second row can properly flatten, while the third row folds and retracts into the cargo hold, minivan-style. With the seats tucked away, the Gravity offers an absurd 114.3 cubic feet of cargo space, including the frunk's 8.1 cubic feet, in case you want to haul a bunch of moving boxes or maybe set up a mobile Airbnb. To put that space in perspective, that's a whopping 55% increase over the Mercedes-Benz EQS, despite the fact that the Gravity is nearly 4 inches shorter in length and 2.5 inches shorter in height.

When two become one

The Lucid Gravity also presents one of the more innovative and ambitious user interfaces I've seen of late. It isn't so much the sheer size of the curved 34-inch OLED touchscreen, serving as the focal point for all your controls and information, but how it also harmoniously integrates with the secondary 12.6-inch display below. The synergy of screens provides a user-friendly layout that's great for multitasking, or it can essentially sync and transform into an immersive media experience — perfect for passing time while parked.

The Gravity also features new dual-capacitive touchpad controls on the steering wheel, as well as an available head-up display that leverages augmented reality to help show you what the SUV sees on the road ahead, as well as digitally painting turn-by-turn directions in your field of view. If you prefer to navigate using your favorite smartphone apps, the Gravity offers wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. These platforms can run in parallel to the native navigation system, allowing you to compare a crowd-sourced, traffic-optimized route using Waze without having to abandon your AR nav prompts on your current route.

What about range and fast charging?

Lucid made headlines when it debuted the Air with a range of over 500 miles. So with that reputation to uphold, it's no surprise the Gravity Grand Touring clocks in with an official EPA-estimated range of 450 miles. Thanks to its efficient motors and class-leading aerodynamics, boasting a drag coefficient of just 0.24, the Lucid Gravity achieves its impressive range without the brute force of an oversized battery (we're looking at you, Hummer). Instead, a more reasonably-sized 120-kWh pack occupies the space underneath your feet and will likely outlast your bladder on a road trip.

If your journey extends beyond a 450-mile radius, Lucid says the Gravity's 924-volt architecture allows you to add up to 200 miles of juice in just 13 minutes, provided you’ve got access to the right charging station. It's worth noting that all Gravity models come with a NACS charging port, meaning the "right station" will be a V4 Tesla Supercharger.

What's maybe less well known is Lucid's ability to offload energy. Edmunds has already exploited the Range Exchange feature on our long-term Air Grand Touring, serving as a temporary EV charging support vehicle at our U-Drag races. Just like the Air, the Gravity has the ability to charge another EV at a rate of up to 9.6 kW, which is more power than some home wall chargers can pump out. This bidirectional charging capability can also serve to power your house and then some, supporting a power load of up to an incredible 19.2 kW.

A new benchmark for luxury EVs

The Lucid Gravity is an ambitious vehicle that manages to live up to much of its hype. Between the roomy, cleverly designed interior, surprisingly sharp on-road dynamics (thanks, rear steer!) and driving range that'll lay to rest even the highest anxiety, the Gravity seems poised as a serious competitor in the luxury electric SUV segment.

The unfortunate reality of EVs continuing to command a premium in today's market means the Gravity won’t be in everyone’s driveway. But if you can swing the nearly six-figure asking price, the Gravity could be the fuel-free family hauler you never knew you needed.