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When you think about the best choice for driving in freezing temperatures on ice and snow, an EV might not be the first thing that comes to mind. Sure, there are some negatives in extreme winter conditions, such as reduced range, but an EV's fast-acting motors can react and adjust to variable traction a lot quicker than an internal-combustion engine or a stability-control system. To get a better idea of exactly what benefits EVs confer when the going gets snowy, Lucid invited us to join a group of its vehicle dynamics and controls engineers at its winter testing site in the tiny town of Baudette at the tippy-top of Minnesota.
TRC Minnesota is a sprawling winter proving ground used by various automakers to test vehicles on 20 or so different snow and ice courses. Winter temps here regularly dip deep into the negatives; on the day we were there, it was 15 below zero Fahrenheit in the morning with a high right around ol' goose egg.
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When the Air sedan first launched with a dual-motor powertrain, its motor-control and traction/stability-control systems were separate. The rear-motor Air Pure and the three-motor Sapphire that followed featured motor control that handled the traction-control duties directly. The benefit is that the more closely coupled system can react more quickly to changes in grip.
The latest system in the Gravity SUV is even better integrated with the Bosch stability control: As long as the vehicle and wheel dynamics are within an acceptable zone, the Lucid first reacts to a slipping tire by using the motors, which can be adjusted a mind-boggling 1000 times per second. If more intervention is needed, Lucid's software then requests the brakes to step in. The benefit of starting with the motors is that they react lightning fast. The brake control, on the other hand, is 20 times slower, and there's the initial delay of building pressure and moving fluid to actuate the calipers. This way, each system better plays to its own strength. Some of the speedy responsiveness is based on the hardware too; Lucid's compact motors feature a tiny differential integrated into the motor, upstream of the torque-multiplying gearing, and that compactness makes for less inertia.
All Lucid's cars use a six-axis accelerometer, which measures acceleration in the side-to-side, front-to-back, and up-and-down directions, plus the rotation around those axes (pitch, roll, and yaw, respectively). The system acts based upon those signals—plus individual wheel speeds and the driver's inputs through the steering wheel, brake, and accelerator—to determine how and when to step in.
Our favorite part of TRC Minnesota was the Camber Course, a roughly 0.8-mile snow circuit with more elevation and (true to its name) camber than we've ever seen on a snow-handling course. An Air Sapphire riding on Michelin Pilot Alpin PA5 winter tires proved nothing short of magic. It was great fun to chuck that 1234-hp beast over a blind crest that drops into a yaw-inducing off-camber corner, but perhaps the most memorable spot was the tightest hairpin, where the front bumper was moving at a walking pace around the inside corner marker while the rear tires were wildly shooting snow. It felt Gymkhana-esque, and we were shocked by how precisely we could place such a large, heavy luxury sedan in slippery conditions.
The Sapphire's two rear motors allow for an incredible amount of vehicle control. Switched into its more lenient Track mode, the Air responds to the driver's steering inputs by immediately working the rear axle for phenomenal cornering balance. In the Off mode, it gets more tail-happy when you jump off the right pedal. "Think of Track as rally mode, and Off as drift mode," said director of vehicle dynamics engineering John Culliton. The most impressive thing is that it all feels natural—the car is simply doing what the driver wants. Also, 1234 horsepower can sling a hellluva lot of snow. This further deepens our respect for the Sapphire, which already blew us away in high-grip conditions, nabbing the record for the fastest sedan we've ever run at our annual Lightning Lap track test.
Without the benefit of a motor at each rear wheel, the Gravity doesn't have the breadth of authority that the Air Sapphire does. But it still uses the brakes to direct torque side to side, and having a motor at each axle is very helpful for recovering from slides. We also drove a Tesla Model Y and a Porsche Macan 4S—both on their factory all-season tires—that were perfect bookends to the Lucid. The Tesla is so hamstrung by its tight controls that it hinders its maneuverability and steerability and never wants to have fun, even in its Slippery Surface mode. That's exactly why we installed an aftermarket system from Mountain Pass Performance on our long-term Model 3 before taking it to an autocross on a frozen lake. The Porsche's Continental tires didn't seem happy in this frozen environment, and it was far too easy to invoke an irrecoverable slide. Even on all-season tires, the Gravity felt miles ahead in these conditions.
But even Lucid's lightning-fast responses can't prevent regenerative braking from initiating too much oversteer on ice in the rear-motor Air Pure, an issue we've noticed with various rear-drive EVs lately. The fix is to make sure you turn off regen braking when driving in slippery conditions.
After poring over data with some of Lucid's most razor-sharp minds, and getting a taste of how they make it all work, we were blown away all over again by the complexities that make modern automobiles perform the way they do. It also made us wonder: What could Lucid do with a four-motor car?
Dave VanderWerp has spent more than 20 years in the automotive industry, in varied roles from engineering to product consulting, and now leading Car and Driver's vehicle-testing efforts. Dave got his very lucky start at C/D by happening to submit an unsolicited resume at just the right time to land a part-time road warrior job when he was a student at the University of Michigan, where he immediately became enthralled with the world of automotive journalism.
