I haven't looked at Tesla, Lucid, and NACS closely for a long time, but from afar, to me it seems logical that Lucid would adopt NACS immediately, even offering a competent retrofit option. Is their board ruled by logic, by any chance? I have no insight into that. Hopefully, there's enough space on their socket panel to allow both NACS and CCS receptacles.
I look at this purely from a product point of view, which is always my guide for how a company will do: what does the customer want? If I were a Lucid owner of a (supposedly) very nice vehicle, would I want to stick up my nose at Tesla by slumming with a bunch of crappy cars in crappy slow charging areas using a hunky plug that is poorly designed and getting terrible charging stats on my car because I'm forced to use an outdated charging standard and my local area hasn't yet upgraded to 150kW, just because theoretically if I do find a 150kW or 350kW charger my car charges the fastest out of any brand? One session like that, and I'll be pretty upset as a Lucid owner.
But let's say most Lucid owners live where there's plenty of 150kW and 350kW chargers. Ok, then, does it matter? Why should I have the clunky chunky plug? Why are all my buddies at the restaurant already eating while I'm across town? Ooops ... no go. I lose. I am not in the company. I don't have a job. But wait, you say, Lucid owners should be owners of companies. Ok, let's limit that market share, then. Let's say only CEOs and company owners own Lucids. Fine. I'm trying to have a business meeting with my potential huge customer, and I have to mysteriously show up from across town after charging elsewhere while my customer is already in the customary spot having his car parked at the Supercharger. How do I look compared to his buddy that also showed up on time also parked at the Supercharger while he was considering competing with me? How compatible with my potential customers' needs do I look showing up not early and somewhat disheveled while he's looking for a great supplier relationship? If I even breath a word of owning a Lucid as an excuse why I didn't show up to my potential customers' meeting early (which might be hard if my car isn't tucked away in the Supercharger somewhere), I'm going to sound like a money grubbing snooty piece of crap.
But wait, you say, Lucid owners aren't even working any more! They've won the life game! They are all retired! Ok, let's try that, then: ditto showing up late and disheveled as above, but now while out on town looking at farms, wineries, whatever my retired interests are. I'm the one who can't charge in the same places, goes to the out of the way holes in the wall that might be good but also have never been reviewed much, etc. A few times this will be fun, but after a while, being a "special case owner" doesn't sound too good as a retiree. Why can't I charge in the safe neighborhood with the Teslas when I want to? (If I also have the CCS plug, being able to skip that dangerous or busy SuperCharger neighborhood to go to the CCS charger across town would be nice, though.) To me, having both NACS and CCS seems like something a retiree would value.
But if I have NACS, I'm as much part of the crowd as I want to be. If I have both NACS
and CCS, then I can stay away from more of the crowds more often.
The question gets trickier if only NACS was offered by Lucid. I still think NACS is a better standard, so have the same opinion, but then the transition has to be by choice of the buyer, and retrofit options become even more important. The better pathway is allow retrofit to have both CCS and NACS, put CCS and NACS on all new cars, then drop CCS if the marketplace stops offering CCS chargers.
Are you looking for a place to fit the NACS charger during retrofit (or on new cars)? Look at the mirror side. Now, which side should have the NACS and which the CCS charger? Mercedes owners are used to the gas fill on the right, which I consider the correct answer.
Also, a sleek adapter might work out for retrofit options, if it is light enough. That Chademo adapter for Tesla was clunky and very annoying to use.
My background research:
Awesome charging curve for Lucid:
Lucid Air Dream Edition Fast Charging Comparison: 350 kW vs 150 kW
Lucid Air uses CCS:
FAQ | Lucid Motors
Knowing what it's like to shop near a nicely placed SuperCharger while on a workday;
Seeing several good looking Lucid Airs driving around Silicon Valley and one even commonly in my own county;
Using Chademo stations which were often connected to CCS chargers in 2016 and 2017 (and being stranded more than once causing me to miss work due to the station not working); using Tesla SuperChargers in the same period of time;
Researching announced Lucid Air specs when they started the company.
driveteslacanada.ca
and this:
www.carscoops.com
Is 4 fires that are not during charging or driving, a lot for ~10k cars? (This don't look like drive battery fire, look same as recent Rivian fire with out the EA)
