Sustainability goes beyond zero tailpipe emissions. It extends to the way a car is designed and the materials that those parts are constructed from. The new Lucid Gravity battery-electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) was designed to be an environmental champion.
In addition to cutting down on the amount of brightwork in the Gravity compared to what is in the Lucid Air sedan, Derek Jenkins, senior vice president of design and brand at Lucid told Newsweek that the company is utilizing more sustainable materials throughout the cabin, like wood.
"All the wood has either been sustainably grown on a farm or we're using what would normally be wasted wood, and we're putting it into composite forms," he said.
While some automakers refuse to change over to "vegan" interiors reasoning that there's nothing more sustainable than harvesting a hide from a natural born cow, Lucid is taking a different approach, offering customers new options in the Gravity.
"Yosemite and Mojave are non leather interiors. Everything is done using recycled fiber woven fabrics. We have a higher percentage of woven fabrics in this car than we did with Air. Bringing more fabrics into the interior, there's a big win there," Jenkins said.
Gravity, which has up to three rows of seating, wears just one carpet color and that carpet is made of 100 percent recycled fiber content.
Gravity was designed as a "wellness space", the company says, using wording to similar to how Bentley characterizes the Bentayga.
Jenkins is conscious of the balance between materials and perception, nothing that Lucid customers are paying for a luxury level product and have high expectations.
"All of that comes back to the supplier and how we can make the most out of that connection with the supplier to get get these things optimized and make them work without sacrificing from the consumer standpoint. I don't want the interior to feel plasticky. I always want a good, and then a tactile feel throughout the interior. There's always this give and take.
Finding the right material is a balance between expectations, supplier materials availability and cost. "Some of the things that [suppliers] come to us with are more coarse by nature, and they just don't feel inviting, like a nice couch. And then you push the suppliers to get a finer weave. It's still fully recycled, but it just feels better to the touch. So, finding that balance that the consumer is going to pick up on is really, really important."
Lucid isn't the only automaker taking things up a sustainability notch in the cabin. As Kia was pushing toward premium with its new EV9 electric SUV, the company opted to explore similar themes.
As sustainability becomes even more of a talking point, experts see the trend toward greener materials continuing, and expanding to become major talking points of vehicle construction, exactly how MINI referenced lifecycle design during the introduction of its new Cooper and Countryman SE ALL4 earlier this year.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Eileen Falkenberg-Hull leads the Autos team at Newsweek. She has written extensively about the auto industry for U.S. News & ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
