Several years ago, I was loaned a Lucid Air Grand Touring to use during Arizona Auction Week. I amazed my friends with the acceleration, reveled in the ride quality, pushed the Air’s handling to the limit, and waited longer than I anticipated for the car to charge (about one hour to go from 15 to 80 percent). My overall opinion of the car was that it was much nicer than anything made by Tesla, including the Model S. With the exception of the inconveniently long charge time, I walked away very impressed.

For auction week in January 2026, Lucid loaned me their new SUV, a 2026 Gravity Grand Touring.

First, let me get my rant concerning most electric cars — including the Air and Gravity — out of the way. Please give me a start/stop button! I dislike having to leave and lock the car just to turn it off. I know engineers and designers think this button is unnecessary, but this is a stupid omission in my opinion. Even my phone has an on/off switch; my car should have one as well.

Okay, rant over.

I picked up the Gravity at the press lot and, after spending a few minutes figuring out the control layout, headed to the Scottsdale Civic Center to pick up my credentials for the event, stopping on the way to collect my Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction credentials.

The Gravity drove like any other high-end SUV, and the controls were nicely laid out — though I had to get used to the transmission controls being on the right-side stalk. This is not that unusual, as Mercedes still has the transmission controls for most of their cars located there. It is somewhat of a fun throwback that Lucid decided to put those controls in the same place found on many older American cars.

The Gravity is very quiet on the road, and all the instrumentation was excellent. The entire dash was nice, though the square steering-wheel shape — designed to provide a clear view of the center display — was not familiar to me. The ability to customize the information on the dual screens was a nice feature. Interestingly, the Gravity dash layout reminded me a lot of the dash on the new BMW iX3.

The following day, I headed to the concours field at the Civic Center, where I hosted a panel on the state of the auction market. After the discussion, my panelists wanted to see the Gravity up close. They all praised the SUV’s interior design and its utility, as well as the immense amount of interior room in both the front and rear. They also liked the exterior design; one panelist felt it had the look of a 1960s Citroen, something that I felt was right on point.

Throughout the week, I used the Gravity to pick up people from the airport, ferry them to and from events, and get to those events myself. After about 300 miles of driving, my battery charge level was at 24 percent, so I headed to a Tesla Fast Charging station on the way back to my hotel from the Bonhams preview. I did not know what to expect, as my last time driving an electric car was with that Lucid Air, which took more than an hour to charge. I plugged in and, after 24 minutes, was at 85 percent. The ability to charge this fast is a game-changer — it turned an interesting electric car into something I knew I could count on as a daily driver. This would prove to be important, as my travel plans were not as simple as they had been earlier in the week.

You see, after Arizona Auction Week, my friend Dave Buchko at Lucid asked if I wanted to drive the Gravity back to Los Angeles. Since I had never gone on any kind of an extended road trip in an EV, this would be a good test of the Gravity’s viability in that scenario. This became an even better idea when I learned a forecasted East Coast snowstorm was going to close all the airports on Sunday and Monday, quashing my original plans to return home. Why not head to LA? I figured I could also stop by Universal Studios Hollywood to check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and maybe even drop in at the Petersen Automotive Museum for a quick visit.

On Sunday my driving partner Forrest and I drove the Gravity to a Tesla Supercharger near our hotel since the battery level was at 22 percent; we waited an hour to charge completely. It is important to note that it reached 80 percent after only about 35 minutes, with the remaining time needed to top things off. You rarely need to charge to 100 percent but, since we were driving to LA and were uncertain about the availability of charging stations, it was a “better safe than sorry” situation.

We merged onto the interstate and headed towards LA. The Gravity is a very nice interstate car — very quiet as well as quite smooth — with the suspension delivering an excellent drive regardless of quality of the road. With the windshield being an extension of the glass roof, the view from the driver’s seat provided a stunning panorama of the Arizona desert.

It looked like we had plenty of range, so we decided to push the car a bit by changing to Sprint mode (a performance setting). The Gravity Grand Touring is exceptionally quick, allowing you to pass cars in a way that even defies cartoon physics. There is a downside, though: After a few miles, we noticed our range estimate had dropped into the red, necessitating a recharging stop. We decided on the wild and wacky town of Quartzsite, Arizona.

We arrived at the Tesla Supercharging station and, after a gourmet meal at Carl’s Jr., went to a rock store, which had an amazing selection of stones and rocks laid out on tables that seemed to go on forever. Forrest and I each bought geodes, which the store proprietor helped us crack open. After an hour, the Gravity had charged to 88 percent — plenty to get us to our destination.

The rest of the trip was completely uneventful, with the miles passing quickly. The audio system is amazing, and the seats are epically comfortable. The Gravity was proving to be an excellent long road-trip car — it seems this EV can easily be used for cross-country road trips.

We arrived at the hotel around 5:30 p.m., checked in, and met Dave Buchko for dinner. Then it was early to bed, as we had plans for the next day.

On Monday, we hopped in the Gravity and headed to Universal Studios Hollywood to check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We started at Ollivanders, where we scored a wand (crucial to fully enjoying this part of the park). The Ollivanders experience shouldn’t be missed; the wands fly off the shelves much as they did in the Harry Potter movies.

After our wands chose us, we played around with them as we explored the park, casting spells, seeing a show presented by Durmstrang students, and even finding the Weasleys’ flying car. It is a pretty neat place to visit if you are a Potter fan.

We were hungry, so the obvious choice was the Three Broomsticks for some fine British lunch fare. The portions were large and delicious — and, of course, we ordered Butterbeer.

We had a little more time before Forrest’s plane was to depart, so we decided that a quick visit to the Petersen Automotive Museum was in order. I called friend Leslie Kendall on the way, and he had tickets waiting for us at the front counter. We took in the BMW exhibit in the basement, as well as the ’80s supercar exhibit. If you have not gone to the Petersen, you need to put it on your list of must-see car places.

We left the museum and headed to the airport, returned the Gravity to the press lot, and then I flew home to Connecticut the next morning.

What I learned on this trip is that electric vehicles are completely suitable for long-distance road trips —as long as you choose the right one. I would recommend any EV with a range of 300 miles or more. Keep in mind that the range is dependent on a number of factors, including the speed you travel and how aggressively you drive, as well as the terrain. If you are motoring up a lot of steep mountainous roads, drive the EV like you stole it. If you cruise at speeds above 75 mph, you will reduce your range, but it is not at all linear. Drive an EV on interstates at, say, 75 mph while using cruise control and you will match the range claims the manufacturer gives. Doing this makes an EV very practical for long-distance travel.

Driving an EV for long distances also requires a bit more planning. We mapped our route carefully, noting a number of charging stations along the route. (Most EVs will actually do this for you if you use the onboard charging station location tools and display them on the NAV system.) We planned our stops at the same time we wanted to take a break for meals, which made the trip as seamless as it would have been in a standard gasoline-fueled vehicle.

The Gravity is an interesting vehicle, somewhat like an SUV with the utility of a minivan. I am still not sure how I feel about the styling, but it is definitely interesting-looking, plus the interior materials are top-notch. The example we drove would set you back $98,900, which is quite a bit of money, but this is truly a top-tier luxury EV. The starting price for the standard touring edition is a bit less, at $79,900 (both of these prices are before any incentives). It certainly fits the bill of having the proper range ability to use as both an everyday driver and a road trip car, and it certainly is a very interesting alternative to the competition.