Aston Martin's Electric Sports Cars Will Be Powered By Lucid

Jun. 26, 2023 6:49 AM ET bySebastian Cenizo Industry News /Comments

清醒的中欧ology will find its way to powertrain components for hypercars, supercars, GTs, and SUVs.

Aston Martin has announced its plans for a slew of all-new electric vehicles that will sit atop a single modular platform, and this platform will include "select powertrain components" from Lucid Group "for initial and future BEV models." The supply agreement has not yet been finalized, but if it is, Lucid will supply Aston Martin with EV technologies and battery systems, and Aston will develop the platform in-house so that it can work on everything from exclusive hypercars to volume-boosting SUVs.

As part of the deal, Lucid will become a 3.7% shareholder in a deal worth around $100 million in shares and $232 million in total. Executive chairman Lawrence Stroll's Yew Tree Consortium remains the majority owner with 21.1%, ahead of Geely International (approximately 17.6%) and Mercedes-Benz (approximately 9.4%).

Aston Martin also announced that its collaboration with Mercedes-Benz will continue, the German automaker continuing to supply powertrain and electric architectures for current and future models, including those powered purely by combustion, hybrids, and all-electric vehicles.

Aston Martin

"The proposed agreement with Lucid forms a significant pillar of our electrification strategy, providing Aston Martin with access to the industry's leading powertrain and battery systems technology," said Roberto Fedeli, Aston Martin's chief technology officer. "Combined with our internal development, this will allow us to create a single bespoke BEV platform suitable for all future Aston Martin products, all the way from hypercars to sportscars and SUVs."

阿斯顿·马丁将继续发展其内部powertrain capabilities with the assistance of Aston Martin Performance Technologies, the F1 team's consulting arm. AMPT will help Aston Martin to quickly develop technologies and precisely tune torque controls for individual wheels on future EVs. Aston willapproach road car development like the F1 team, too, fighting for every modicum of performance it can possibly find.

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant

Aston says that active aero and drag reduction will be a big part of future EVs, but it will also leverage new ideas from technical partners. For example, Brembo is working on a new brake-by-wire system that can control the compression and retraction of brake pads electronically, which can contribute to increased driving range, better braking performance, reduced pad wear, and lower particulate emissions.

Another new innovation to be showcased by Aston Martin is the Pirelli P Zero R withPirelli Cyber Tyretechnology, which features an array of sensors that can provide a reliable estimate of the load going through each individual tire to calculate a more accurate real-world range estimate.

CarSpyMedia/YouTube

All of these announcements are part of Aston Martin'sRacing.Green strategy, which has the long-term goal of electrifying every vehicle in the Aston Martin lineup by 2030. Before then, Aston Martin is expected to deliver its first plug-in hybrid supercar in 2024 in the form of theValhalla. By 2026, every new Aston Martin model range will have at least one electrified powertrain option.

We're glad to see that Aston Martin is expanding the scope of its technical partnerships, and Lucid seems like a good call. The startup has had many of the hiccups that typify the electromobility sector, but it also has loads of excellent technology to call on, some of which is even better than that of industry stalwarts like Tesla.

The 1,200-horsepower-plustri-motor setup in the Lucid Air Sapphiresprings to mind, as do itsdrive units supplied to Formula E. Combined with its recently announced long-term partnership with Geely, Aston will have access to a wide variety of components and technologies from EV giants.

We expect to receive more details on Aston's new cars tomorrow after itscapital market day event.