Lucid Space Concept | Tech Talks | Lucid Motors

hi everyone it's peter here again from lucid  motors and here i am standing by two great   examples of lucid air we have a grand touring  here resplendent in stella white and a touring   here in this zenith red now lucille has broken  so many boundaries it's been the first car   to achieve over 500 miles range on an epa it's  been able to charge 300 miles in just 21 minutes   and it fuses two distinctly disparate  attributes it's got the interior space   of a luxury german grand marquis automobile and  yet it's got the handling dynamics of a sports   car how on earth did this come about was this  chance was this happenstance no it's truly been   a labor of love for the whole team here at lucid  for many years and it was born of a clear vision   of how we were going to truly advance the  state of the art of an electric car and i've   been waiting for this moment a moment when  lucid air is now in the hands of customers   to feel that we've kind of earned the  right to explain how we achieve that so let me take you through this story it  started many years ago when i was approached   by a little company called ativa about 20 people  uh would i join and want to do an electric car   and i didn't want to just join the bandwagon a  lot of people were doing evs for the sake of it   i feel passionately about the environment  and i feel passionately about the scope   for advancement of evs and those two things are  synergists by advancing the state of the art   of an electric car we can lead to catalyze the  mass adoption of sustainable mobility we can   drive the prices down through the technology  and in order to do that i felt passionately   that we needed to move the technology  on and to do that we'd have to do   all the tech in-house in-house technology more  advanced technology than ever anyone had achieved   and to make more compact more energy dense and  power dense drive units to have a sculpted battery   pack around the interior space of the car to  create more efficiency because efficiency is   the key driver to drive down costs in nav and lead  to a more widespread international adoption of evs   so here i am reveling in the luxury comfort and  sheer spaciousness of the rear seat of lucid air   and in this instance it's a grand touring with  an epic santa cruz interior and i'm indulging   in my little 3d classic wooden puzzle here which i  find absolutely fascinating but more of that later   now you may say with my mere six foot frame  i'm not best equipped to to judge the space   of an interior so luckily today i'm joined by  two dear colleagues mr mike bell who heads up   digital here at lucid and mr zach edson who heads  up sales and service gentlemen you look better   qualified how tall are you six seven six foot  six you're qualified please take your seats okay okay i'm settled and comfortable up front  how is it in the back it's fantastic i may   fall asleep it's so comfortable hey  study on mike there's work to do do   you find it satisfactory it's  wonderful yes please thank you so i find that a fascinating proof point six foot  seven six foot six two former basketball players   finding the interior space  of a lucid air satisfactory   so back when the space concept  was conceived this whole notion   of a car which was smaller on the outside and  bigger on the inside i can't tell you the number   of people said to me well why do you want to make  it small on the outside yeah people like big cars   don't they it's going to be a big limousine and  i said look i want to create more of a driver's   focus machine but i confess there was an ulterior  motive i wanted it more agile so it could do this and this and this so how do we even start conceiving a car  which is smaller more compact on the outside   bigger on the inside let's look at some of the  core geometries of that car the overall length   the position of the wheels the available space  for the cabin and then we can start wrapping in   some of the other factors like a miniaturized  advanced electric powertrain let's take a   look at some of these these variables that we  can adjust and really things that we can use   as tools to our advantage so we have the overall  length of the vehicle that's a consideration   and it was important to minimize that but also  we need to consider the wheelbase of the vehicle   which is the distance between  the front and the rear wheels   maximizing that is important in order to create  maximum cabin space but not going too far   generally speaking longer wheelbase creates  more stability shorter wheelbase can give   more agility and how can the people then fit  into this space we need a driver to sit here and a rear occupant here so we start looking at some of these core  fundamentals and the rear occupant may want to   adopt a more upright position here or may want to  adopt a more reclined position like that so these   are the fundamentals that we start laying into the  car and we look at the eye lips and the legal eye   angles the vision angles and we look at the reach  for the driver and the steering wheel position   these are key factors to consider and we generally  design for a 98th percentile occupant size here   at lucid which means that only two percent  of the population is larger statistically   so really to minimize the overall length  maximizing the wheelbase and maximizing the   space for the occupants within that wheelbase  there are some critical sort of touch points   that we need to consider in the packaging of  the vehicle clearly it's important to have   reduced overhangs at the front and rear  minimize this overhang distance which   gives great proportion front and rear overhangs  maximize the wheelbase here which we'll refer   as wheelbase and then the overall length see  if we can reduce that as much as possible to   create this super compact sporting luxury sedan  and really the search was on how do we optimize   key points one was the relationship between the  rear occupance h point there which is the hip   point of the rear occupant and the rear axle  line here the center of the rear wheel that   relationship is absolutely critical and we looked  at the three-dimensional package how to minimize   this and maximizing safety considerations noise  and vibration and body engineering packaging with   rear suspension and the other critical area is  the relationship of the front occupant's foot with   the front wheel now normally in a gasoline curl we  don't really consider that so much because there's   an engine here and a transmission so we have a  gasoline engine here and a transmission housing   and really that's what tends to drive the  the driving position rearward rather than the   relationship of the driver's foot to the front  wheel now to explain that i can best do that   on the leap platform itself so come  with me and i'll show you that for real so here we are with the lucid electric advanced  platform and first obvious point is we don't have   a gasoline engine we don't have a big  transmission so what really constrains   the position of the front occupant the driver  relative to the wheel really is the structure   that runs through here and why is that important  it's critical because this is the transition point   this very point here between the safety cell of  the car which needs to be rigid and to protect the   occupants and the crumple zone here which needs  to be something very different it has to be soft   compliant just as a mattress if you were to jump  out of a window you need that softness of the   mattress to absorb the impact this needs to be  soft and impact absorbing this needs to be rigid   to protect the occupants and at this particular  transition point we really need to make that super   strong because this is where the key loads  that are imparted through the crumple zone   into the safety cell and this is where the maximum  forces are seen and this is why we have this   triangulated structural feature here it is the  relationship between that structure as ability to   absorb loads and the occupants feet and the wheel  which is a key determining factor in how we can   get maximum interior space for a given wheelbase  an interesting sort of fun fact here we even   use the wonderbox here not just as a electronic  masterpiece but we use it as a secondary bulkhead   structurally to enhance the triangulation at this  interface let me explain in more graphic detail so let's take another look at this crucial  interface between the crumple zone and the safety   cell and how that influences foot position so here  we have at this crucial interface the triangular   forces the forces coming in from the croppal zone  triangulated by both the cross member augmented by   wonderbox and what we call the talkbox casting  and this determines effectively how far forward   safely we can position the front occupants in the  space concept so arms with these relationships   the relationship between the driver's foot and the  front wheel and the relationship between the rear   h point occupant and the rear wheel we can have  a determined relationship between cabin space   and wheelbase what else can we do we need to  minimize overhang particularly front overhang   and that leads to the next piece of the puzzle  the front end module let me show you that now so here i am with a lucid  air front end module this is   super compact super complex  assembly of so many systems   all combined and housed in this large expansive uh  injection molded element let's take a closer look so there's so much to tell you about the front  end module maybe i'll start with the multi-lens   array headlamps nearly 9 000 micro lenses the most  homogeneous light field on the market today with   digital switching technology and then we've  got the sensing capability long range radar   for adas here augmented and complemented by 120  degree solid state lidar system and we've got   local short range stitch radar in the corners  here the bumper system is central it's an aluminum   bumper with an energy absorbing foam cover  but a feature i'm particularly proud of here   is this vortex induction system for our cooling  these vortices let air in through the active   grill shutters computer controlled shutters and  the air spools up in this vortex and spins out   onto the radiators on either side let me  take you around the back to show you that   and around the inside here we see the rear  surface of the aluminum bumper and we see   the vortex duct and how it leads to a radiator  now we've removed the radiator from the right hand   side for clap visual clarity to see the shape  of that vortex duct and how it flows the air   into the radiator and this is all  housed in this expansive black plastic   injection molding and in order to enhance  the rigidity of that molding in the high   stress areas we've encapsulation molded plastic  around this laminate of composite which we call why was it so important to  minimize the space occupied   by all these systems not just to minimize the  front overhang but to provide space for the   largest frunk of any sedan in the world and that  leads me to the frunk lucids please display franxx and here we see the expansive frunk of lucid air  and we've created a two layer effect here with   this shelf which gives easy access for heavier  payloads but if i remove this top cover you can   take a look down here and just see the expansive  frunk of lucid air the largest front of any   car and it's class in the world and just see the  space that's enabled by the miniaturization of the   powertrain through this bulkhead behind and the  miniaturization of the front end module in front   everything's been designed to the last millimeter  and if we look at the white car here we can get   uh an amazing insight as to how this has been  achieved you see here behind the bulkhead which   has been removed the front drive unit this super  compact drive unit we see the compressor for   the hvac unit here we see the inverter  here and we see the twin blowers for   our cabin ventilation system here and this is  all enabled between the two crush rails for   frontal crash and the super compact front end  module so let's go and grab a franc shall we here it is single injection molded  plastic part but hey it won't quite fit   why is that we've actually created a shape which  is undercut it won't actually fit into the car   without it being flexible we actually squeeze it   into a smaller shape drop it in and then it  springs out into its final shape and we've   achieved this through a two shot injection molding  process which has won a prize and it really is   commensurate with our philosophy of eking  out every last millimeter of available space so we've seen how these core relationships  which define the space concept have been   established the relationship between the  occupant space and the wheels the wheelbase   the front the front-end module and we see  effectively we started to design the car   from the inside out and i can't tell you how  this breaks the mold this is a revolutionary   methodology most cars today are designed from  the outside in and in so doing from this inside   out methodology designing around what is possible  from electrification really breaks the mold   so the next step is for me to take you into the  lucid design studio to meet with our head of   design derek jenkins and derek will explain how he  took some of this core packaging data and closed   it in the beautiful exterior and super aerodynamic  shape that we know and love as lucid air today so here i am in the lucid design studio we've got  design downstairs we've got advanced engineering   upstairs and i'm surrounded by some models that  we used in the development of lucid air we have   some one-third scale models here and we have  a trusty old friend that we dug out of storage   this is the original clay model full-size clay  that we used in the development of lucid air   and there's no one better to explain this in  detail than derek jenkins himself hey hey man hey   derek hey so so this is an old friend of yours  this is this is the original development model   for lucid air we only had one clay model which is  pretty unusual in the car business but that we did   all the development work on this model so we broke  the rules we didn't design from the outside in we   designed from the inside out but we still use a  traditional technique with clay that's right i   mean it's still the best tool i think to really  get the proportion right do a lot of iteration a   lot of changes a lot of refinement but of course  we started on the inside and we did that with the   the original seating buck if you remember  that oh yeah yeah a lot of experimentation   we did yeah and so we we positioned uh the the  front occupants close to the front wheel the rear   occupants close to the rear wheel that's right  and then we had a sliding book that's right and   that really allowed us to optimize the the layout  allowed us to get the the head position correct   so we can still have a very sleek low cabin  get the rear seating position all the way back   and we just iterated until we we got and  that finally determined exactly the wheelbase   that we determined in the end that's right and  throughout that process i think as we were working   from the inside out the design team was  sketching and working on what the theme   of the car would be like and that it just  iteratively turns into scale models and then   eventually full-size models so let's take a look  at some of these one-third scales and some of the   processes that you use here that's right you  know this is our cnc milling process so once   we've created the data in the computer we'll come  in with a cnc mill and machine this out overnight   and then sometimes alter it by hand and bring it  back into the computer and just repeat the process   over here you've just got some rough cuts taking  around the back yeah yeah that's right when the   clay is applied and then we bring the machine in  and machine it smooth then you see this and then   we run it again with a finer tool path and then  that's when you end up here and then the rest   is by hand right so here in the studio we use  this modeling clay and this is an engineer with   a piece of clay there what am i doing wrong  this is this stuff for our car how did you   do that what am i doing wrong you need to get it  nice and warm we have oven for you super pliable you apply it accordingly and it's been a few years  since i had to do this myself but uh yeah and then   then that cools down and then you cool it down  or you can hand shave it it has a completely   different character and texture this is room  temperature and that's oven temperature and look   yeah it's oil based and that's what gives you  this nice um slick surface that when it once   it cools down and you and the value is that  unlike modelling something in marble or stone   where you could only remove material that's  right you can add back you can go both ways   and you can recycle the material so once the  shavings come off you gather it up as long as   they don't get contaminated you can heat  them back up and reuse it it's fantastic   so remind me derek uh what am i looking at  here well again once again a clay model a   representation of the lucid air interior just  like the exterior we use clay model to validate   all of our data and all of our digital creation  and this is of course critical to get all the   ergonomics the seating the posture of the  steering wheel the displays all of that is   figured out in the physical along with all of  our cad work but we're not using clay for the   seats in this video no they tend to get your jeans  dirty yeah they're clay you have it from the man   i've learned this over many years um no of  course but we do do develop the seat in a   clay model as well it's a combination of foam  prototypes and as well as early clay modeling now let's take a moment to talk about aerodynamic  efficiency and the space concept so although   the coefficient of drag is widely quoted as the  measure of aerodynamic efficiency the ease of   the car to cut through the air there are actually  two factors there's the coefficient of drag or cd   and we have to multiply that by area the frontal  area to give the drag force that is the amount   of resistance that the car faces cutting through  the wind and here's a great example we've got this   one-third scale model here and we've got  the full size clay here and they are the   same shape right they're identical shape so  therefore although this model is one-third size   one-third scale it has the same coefficient  to drag the same cd number as the full size   car but because it's a one-third scale model it  has a one ninth of the frontal area so of course   this induces 1 9 of the cda or drag force of the  total car and because of the work we've done on   the space concept the car is smaller and has a  smaller frontal area and therefore a smaller cda   so whilst derrick and his team were developing  the design theme of the lucid air this exterior   form another team within lucid was developing the  most advanced most compact electric powertrain   imaginable and with the belief that  we'd be able to pull all this together   to create the most advanced car let me  take you through how that was undertaken so in order to create lucid air we had  to do quite a crazy and radical process   we needed to create super  miniaturized electric drivetrain   and we needed to design a car around it and that  would have taken years if we'd done it in sequence   a traditional company would have done that  in sequence we'd have to do an r d program   on the drivetrain and then see how that could  fit inside the space concept conceived vehicle   instead of that we did the two  activities in parallel we split   the r d activity into two streams we designed  the car around the art of the possible and in   parallel same time we started miniaturizing the  electric powertrain going to ultra high voltage   super condensed powertrain the enabler  for the very space concept to work and   thankfully the two things came together to  create the lucid air you know and love today so from many years now i've been drawn  to the complexity and fascination   of these traditional 3d wooden puzzles and  really i'm almost simply an awe of the ancient   minds that conceived such things long before  computer aided design was available or invented   so why do i find this so relevant to today's world  and particularly the design of the lucid air well   really solving a puzzle like this is analogous to  designing a car because designing a car is solving   how three-dimensional entities fit relative to  each other supposing this is the front suspension   supposing this part is the battery pack supposing  this part is the front occupant package supposing   this part is the wonderbox conceiving how all  these parts fit together in a complex single   unified three-dimensional product is key and  is really the essence of vehicle design which   we call packaging now just imagine if i also  had the freedom to determine the precise shape   and size of each of these parts which we do the  battery pack could be a bit bigger a bit smaller   the drive unit could be slightly different  shape the suspension could be different types   would that make the puzzle easier to solve or more  complex perhaps i'll leave that to you to decide   so what if we could make crazy small motor  drive units electric motor transmission   with the all-important inverter as a  integrated unit like crazy smaller than   anyone else had ever done before that would  enable this space concept to come alive to pop   and really work we didn't have the technology  when we conceived this layout but what if we   could achieve that what if we could create a crazy  compact drive unit at the rear maybe lay it down   on its side and put the inverter here what  if at the front we could use the same unit   make it a little compact unit and pop the the  inverter on top there what if we could create   the most powerful the most energy dense the  most efficient drive units in the world off   the scale that no one had ever done before this  is what would enable this space concept to work   and so i'd like to introduce our lucid  integrated drive unit which i have here so unbelievably within this  classic aluminum flight bag   we have the lucid integrated drive unit  with a power capacity of 670 horsepower here we see the key element the motor the  inverter and the transmission stack either side   74 kilos up to 670 horsepower super miniaturized  and look at the size of those drive shaft flanges   there's a clue that this thing has monumental  torque output and to complete the picture we   need to integrate a battery pack which is truly  sculpted around those occupants around their   feet and their legs and we conceived a battery  pack which is already traditional for electric   car which runs the full length of the floor of  the vehicle but with the option to create this   footwell for the rear occupant and to gain  some extra capacity we're able to double   stack elements of that battery pack right  underneath the rear occupant's legs like that   and this can be seen very clearly this  configuration here on the leap platform behind me so here we see how some of the battery  modules are configured at the underside   of the leap platform we have an additional  module here at the front creating a shallow   tunnel we have two double stacked here  under the rear seat and what's going on   here well of course you don't actually have  a car like this with this split this is just   to demonstrate on the right hand side here we  demonstrate the option of a battery with this   uh footwell and here we show the flat floor  variant this enables a 500 mile range car   this configuration gives exceptional rear seat  ergonomics with 400 mile range and i've got a   a lucid air touring right here to  demonstrate this footwell advantage so here i am inside the lucid air touring with the  increased footwell enabled by the 18 module pack   and this car even with this exceptional ergonomic  package still enables over 400 miles range so i do hope you've enjoyed our little journey  through the thought process and the methodology   that led to the creation of lucid air and  moreover i really hope that we've been successful   in achieving our objective in creating the next  level electric vehicle and why is that important   it's important because by demonstrating what is  possible here today this technology can transition   down to ever more affordable forms of electric  vehicle and that in itself will make ev's more   affordable and more available to more people which  will have a meaningful impact upon global warming you

Channel: Lucid Motors

Views: 109,671

Keywords: lucid air, lucid motors, lucid air dream edition, lucid stock, lucid motors news today, lucid air dream edition delivery, electric car, lucid air 2022, peter rawlinson, lucid motors deliveries, lucid air test drive, lucid air delivery, lucid air customer review, lucid motors test drive, lucid air review 2022, lucid motors 2022, lcid news, lcid, lcid stock, lucid group, lucid air grand touring, lucid air touring, dream ahead, air pure, lucid air pure, tech talks

Id: nGan_iPPdqk

Length: 31min 53sec (1913 seconds)

Published: Thu May 26 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/majesticjg]

No matter what you think of Lucid as a company, you have to admit that Rawlinson is a really likable guy.

[u/rozzy27]

This is an absolute fantastic video