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EV Loses Power After Making 'Startingly Loud Bang,' Has to Be Towed Twice
"[T]he instrument cluster lit up with warning lights and error messages including 'Drive System Fault, Contact Customer Care.'"
Ole Braatelien By Ole Braatelien October 19, 2023News
October 19, 2023 at 12:26pm
An electric car’s “loud bang” and loss of power ended a day at the track for MotorTrend test drivers, and they would later watch their vehicle get towed away — twice.
The staff was driving the Lucid Air Grand Touring luxury car as part of a rigorous yearlong test at the hands of MotorTrend’s editors. The electric vehicle, which won the auto magazine’s 2022 Car of the Year award, starts at $125,600 brand new.
Writer Erick Ayapana detailed his account of the EV fail — which he said happened months ago — in an article published Tuesday.
“What was supposed to be a fun and routine test of our Lucid resulted in an hours-long ordeal,” Ayapana wrote.
The editors were testing the car’s recently fitted Michelin tires after it had passed the usual brake tests, he said.
But the rubber would meet the road during the acceleration phase.
To maximize results, the driver activated the car’s launch control system by holding the gas and brake pedal down at the same time. This software allows the driver to build engine power without spinning the wheels or destroying the engine and is usually used in racing.
The car cannon-balled forward — but not for long.
“Suddenly, somewhere between 40 and 60 mph, we heard a startlingly loud bang, followed by a sudden loss of power,” Ayapana wrote. “The Lucid coasted to a stop (brakes and steering were still operable), and the instrument cluster lit up with warning lights and error messages including ‘Drive System Fault, Contact Customer Care.'”
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The review team members were OK but were stranded 20 to 30 minutes before track workers could tow the Lucid to a nearby lot.
Once the car was unloaded, however, Ayapana said it seemingly fixed itself, though one warning light was still on.
A few hours later, at the recommendation of a Lucid Motors representative, the car was towed again, this time to a service center in Los Angeles. It was returned nine days later.
Though it has been months since the incident, Ayapana said Lucid has not issued a diagnosis for the failure.
But associate editor Justin Banner believes it is similar to a problem Ford had with the connectors in its Mustang Mach-E electric cars, which resulted in a recall of nearly 50,000 of the vehicles.
“Ford concluded that the issue was caused by repeated use of DC fast charging and driving at wide-open throttle,” Ayapana wrote. “Ford released a software update to resolve the recall.
“At this point we can only hope Lucid is working on a similar solution to prevent what we went through.”
