Lucid Group Issues its First Recall for Front Suspension Issue on the Electric Air Sedan

author: FutureCar Staff    

California-based luxury electric automaker Lucid Group is issuing its first recall to inspect the front suspension damper on roughly 200 Lucid Air sedans. 

The first customer deliveries of the Lucid Air sedan, which is Lucid's first model, began in October.

The recall is to inspect a part of the Air's front strut dampers, which may have been improperly installed due to an error by a supplier, Lucid said in an email to Air sedan customers. The email was seen by Bloomberg.

The recall affects 203 Air sedans, but the company expects only about 1% of those vehicles have the incorrectly installed part. The cars were assembled at Lucid's factory in Arizona. 

In an email to customers, Lucid wrote, "This condition may result in a sudden loss of ground clearance, vehicle vibration and front brake line damage, increasing the risk of a crash." 

Lucid will inspect the vehicles involved and make any needed repairs free of charge. Lucid added that its not aware of any problems caused by the front suspension damper.

The news of Lucid's first recall sent its stock price down by nearly 6% to $25.04 on Tuesday. The stock is already down 38.8% since the start of the new year as the company deals with slower than expected production ramp up at its newly constructed factory in Arizona.

Lucid's primary rival Tesla also faced a similar recall two years ago which prompted an investigation by the NHTSA in Nov 2020 to investigate customer complaints of failing suspension control arm components. 

The NHTSA investigation involved 115,000 Tesla models. The U.S. safety agency received 43 complaints about failure of the left or right front suspension links in 2015-2017 Tesla Model S and 2016-2017 Model X SUVs.

Out of the 43 complaints the NHTSA said it received, 32 of the control arm failures occurred during low-speed parking maneuvers and 11 occurred while driving at higher speeds. In many cases, the defect leads to the integrated ball joint separating from the control arm housing.

A class-action lawsuit was filed against Tesla in the U.S. District Court in California on Nov 20, 2020 over suspension issues in Model S and X vehicles claiming vehicles have defects that can result in the front and rear suspension control arm assembly components prematurely failing.

Ford Motor Co also issued a recall of roughly 775,000 Explorer SUVs in July 2021 for problems with the rear suspension. The automaker announced its was recalling 774,696 Explorer models to inspect rear cross axle ball joints which may seize up. The Explorer models affected are 2013 through 2017 model year vehicles.

Ford said that affected vehicles may experience a clunking noise, unusual handling, or a misaligned rear wheel due to the seized ball joint. However if the tow link breaks as a result, a driver may experience significant steering control issues, which could increase the risk of a crash.

The Lucid Air Dream Edition is the world's longest range EV with an EPA estimated range of 520 miles, which is over 100 miles more than Tesla's Model S.

The Lucid Air Dream Edition Performance variant and Lucid Air Grand Touring also achieved EPA estimated ranges far beyond any other EV, coming in at 471 miles for the Performance and 516 miles for the Grand Touring. 

The more mainstream version of the Air called the "Air Pure" is available to reserve now with a starting price of $77,400, before any EV tax credits. It has an estimated range of 406 miles.

Lucid expects to produce around 20,000 Air sedans in 2022. But a recall of just a few hundred vehicles can prompt EV shoppers to hold off on putting down a deposit for the Air, even though its fully refundable.

FutureCar Staff