Aston Martin teams with Lucid to create ultra-luxury, high performance EVs

As might be expected from one of the world’s most iconic luxury carmakers, Aston Martin has announced its plans to create what it describes as “industry leading ultra-luxury high performance electric vehicles”.

The core for Aston Martin’s battery electric vehicle (BEV) future is a new landmark supply agreement with American EV manufacturer Lucid.

The proposed agreement was announced on Monday and would see Lucid provide Aston Martin with EV technologies as well as access to Lucid’s current and future powertrain and battery technology which will be core to Aston Martin’s new in-house BEV platform.

Backing this supply agreement is an investment of over £2 billion in advanced technologies over the next five years, with investment phasing from ICE to BEV technology.

“The supply agreement with Lucid is a game changer for the future EV-led growth of Aston Martin,” said Lawrence Stroll, executive chairman of Aston Martin.

“Based on our strategy and requirements, we selected Lucid, gaining access to the industry’s highest performance and most innovative technologies for our future BEV products.

“We will not only leverage the significant investments Lucid has made to develop its world-class technologies but will also further enhance and differentiate the drive experience through the work Roberto Fedeli and his teams are already developing, aligned with our ultra-luxury, high-performance strategy.”

The partnership with Lucid Group comes at the same time as Aston Martin has amended its strategic cooperation agreement with German automaker Mercedes-Benz.

The original partnership between the two companies was signed in October 2020 and gave Aston Martin access to Mercedes-Benz technologies and componentry while seeing Mercedes-Benz take a 20% stake in Aston Martin.

Mercedes-Benz will continue to provide Aston Martin with access to its range of technologies, including powertrain and electric/electronic architectures for current and future generations of Aston Martin vehicles, including internal combustion engine, hybrid, and electric vehicles.

“Along with Mercedes-Benz, we now have two world-class suppliers to support the internal development and investments we are making to deliver our electrification strategy,” said Stroll.

“With the recently announced long-term partnership with Geely, we will also gain the opportunity to access their range of technologies and components, as well as their deep expertise of the key strategic market of China.

“Overall, today’s announcement is a further significant step towards delivering our ambition for Aston Martin.”