2022 MotorTrend Car of the Year
Postat: 18 nov 2021 07:48
The Lucid Air Is the 2022 MotorTrend Car of the Year
The tiny, power-dense motor that generates those headline-grabbing specs does so with an innovative new stator winding consisting of 24 square copper wires "woven" into a convenient assembly requiring minimal bonding. To better manage the intense heat these wires generate under full power, Lucid moved the cooling passages down to the narrow spaces between winding channels, utilizing magnetic-field "dead zones" in the stator body. The rotor squeezes more reluctance torque out of the same amount of rare-earth magnets by optimizing their positioning.
Then, instead of multiplying the motor's torque and then sending it through beefy differential gears, Lucid packages a small, light diff inside the rotor. Yes, this design requires two reduction gears, but placing a compact planetary unit on each side of the motor keeps things light and results in a complete drive unit with triple the power density of the leading competitors.
While the chemistry of the cylindrical batteries is conventional, the pack is designed to simplify automated assembly in a patented and award-winning injection-molded case that incorporates all the power-conducting bus bars. The cells connect to these bars via new lower-resistance ribbon connectors instead of wires, and heat gets conducted away from the ends of the cells instead of from the sides. Lucid says this results in more efficient cooling and easier installation, and it eliminates heavy, costly adhesive in the pack.
The entire electric powertrain was designed and developed in-house, including the "wunderbox" electronic controller that manages the Air's 900-volt electrical system. It's bi-directional, so it can provide "jump charging" to other EVs. It can manage 19.2 kW of level-2 home charging, it upconverts DC fast-charging power from 400 volts in older stations, and it can accept 300kW (or more) of the latest 800-volt "juice." That makes the Lucid Air today's fastest charging EV, capable of adding 300 miles in 20 minutes.
Efficiency
The initial Lucid Air Dream and Grand Touring models will deliver 451-520 miles of range from just 118 and 112 kWh of battery capacity, respectively. Later, a 92-kWh pack will provide 400-ish miles of range (and several more inches of foot and legroom in the back seat). Lucid is squeezing a remarkable number of miles from each kilowatt-hour in this S-Class-competitive luxury sedan, thanks in part to Formula 1 racing-derived aerodynamic tricks that contribute to a drag coefficient of just 0.200.
These include leveraging the low-pressure properties of vortex airflow to help suck extra air into the front cooling ducts and to keep air attached to the smooth underbody's diffuser fences. The wing shape of its fascia air curtain ducts actually produces negative drag, and its hood ducts exhaust high-pressure air from the front. Narrow tires and a low roofline minimize frontal area to lower overall drag enough to allow most models to achieve higher efficiency on the highway than in the city—that's rare for EVs and plug-ins.
With EPA combined ratings that range from 111-131 mpg-e the Lucid Air is America's most efficient large electric sedan, ranking just ahead of the Tesla Model S (96-120 mpg-e), and well in front of the Audi E-tron GT and Porsche Taycan (70-79 mpg-e). The Mercedes EQS is rated for 97 mpg-e.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/lucid-a ... f-the-year
Engineering ExcellenceAutomotive progress usually happens in baby steps. Slowly, like a white oak sapling growing in a forest. But every now and then a new car jumps off the automotive forest floor like a rainbow eucalyptus, advancing like crazy while making a colorful splash. The Air sedan from startup EV-maker Lucid is just such a car, and its level of innovation and sophistication are as fresh and unexpected as multicolored tree bark.
The tiny, power-dense motor that generates those headline-grabbing specs does so with an innovative new stator winding consisting of 24 square copper wires "woven" into a convenient assembly requiring minimal bonding. To better manage the intense heat these wires generate under full power, Lucid moved the cooling passages down to the narrow spaces between winding channels, utilizing magnetic-field "dead zones" in the stator body. The rotor squeezes more reluctance torque out of the same amount of rare-earth magnets by optimizing their positioning.
Then, instead of multiplying the motor's torque and then sending it through beefy differential gears, Lucid packages a small, light diff inside the rotor. Yes, this design requires two reduction gears, but placing a compact planetary unit on each side of the motor keeps things light and results in a complete drive unit with triple the power density of the leading competitors.
While the chemistry of the cylindrical batteries is conventional, the pack is designed to simplify automated assembly in a patented and award-winning injection-molded case that incorporates all the power-conducting bus bars. The cells connect to these bars via new lower-resistance ribbon connectors instead of wires, and heat gets conducted away from the ends of the cells instead of from the sides. Lucid says this results in more efficient cooling and easier installation, and it eliminates heavy, costly adhesive in the pack.
The entire electric powertrain was designed and developed in-house, including the "wunderbox" electronic controller that manages the Air's 900-volt electrical system. It's bi-directional, so it can provide "jump charging" to other EVs. It can manage 19.2 kW of level-2 home charging, it upconverts DC fast-charging power from 400 volts in older stations, and it can accept 300kW (or more) of the latest 800-volt "juice." That makes the Lucid Air today's fastest charging EV, capable of adding 300 miles in 20 minutes.
Efficiency
The initial Lucid Air Dream and Grand Touring models will deliver 451-520 miles of range from just 118 and 112 kWh of battery capacity, respectively. Later, a 92-kWh pack will provide 400-ish miles of range (and several more inches of foot and legroom in the back seat). Lucid is squeezing a remarkable number of miles from each kilowatt-hour in this S-Class-competitive luxury sedan, thanks in part to Formula 1 racing-derived aerodynamic tricks that contribute to a drag coefficient of just 0.200.
These include leveraging the low-pressure properties of vortex airflow to help suck extra air into the front cooling ducts and to keep air attached to the smooth underbody's diffuser fences. The wing shape of its fascia air curtain ducts actually produces negative drag, and its hood ducts exhaust high-pressure air from the front. Narrow tires and a low roofline minimize frontal area to lower overall drag enough to allow most models to achieve higher efficiency on the highway than in the city—that's rare for EVs and plug-ins.
With EPA combined ratings that range from 111-131 mpg-e the Lucid Air is America's most efficient large electric sedan, ranking just ahead of the Tesla Model S (96-120 mpg-e), and well in front of the Audi E-tron GT and Porsche Taycan (70-79 mpg-e). The Mercedes EQS is rated for 97 mpg-e.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/lucid-a ... f-the-year
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