A gentle change shook the oh-so-polite world of high-end European motorcars this week. Aston Martin introduced it will be taking on with startup electrical car (EV) firm Lucid Motors for future battery electrical car improvement and stepping away from Mercedes-Benz’s EV expertise.

Aston Martin issued fastidiously worded statements stressing the continued cooperation between the 2 producers. Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin’s government chairman, mentioned, “I’m delighted to proceed our long-term partnership with Mercedes-Benz and admire their ongoing assist of Aston Martin.”

Franz Reiner, Mercedes-Benz’s consultant on the Aston Martin board, mentioned, “As a long-term shareholder, Mercedes-Benz helps Aston Martin’s future improvement as an unbiased luxurious carmaker. At present’s revised cooperation settlement is the very best of each worlds: It ensures that Aston Martin continues to have entry to a variety of Mercedes-Benz applied sciences whereas on the similar time giving the long-lasting British carmaker the chance to discover new alternatives which match its particular wants.”

Mercedes-Benz owns roughly 9.4% of Aston Martin’s issued share capital.

A New EV Companion in Lucid

In a parallel announcement, Aston Martin revealed a brand new “strategic provide settlement to create industry-leading ultra-luxury high-performance electrical automobiles” with Lucid Group, Inc. The deal contains the difficulty of 28,352,273 new peculiar shares and phased money funds with a complete worth of round $232 million to Lucid, making the EV maker a 3.7% shareholder in Aston Martin. The settlement is topic to shareholder approval.

“The proposed provide settlement with Lucid is a recreation changer for the longer term EV-led development of Aston Martin,” mentioned Stroll. “Based mostly on our technique and necessities, we chosen Lucid, having access to the {industry}’s highest efficiency and most revolutionary applied sciences for our future BEV merchandise.”

Lucid Group’s CEO, Peter Rawlinson, mentioned, “This partnership will characterize a landmark collaboration between Aston Martin, a storied marque with a wealthy historical past, together with successful at Le Mans and its present successes in F1, and the easiest of Silicon Valley innovation and expertise from Lucid.”

Lucid Motors has roots at Tesla, as CEO Rawlinson and different firm leaders are former staff on the EV chief. Based in 2007 as “Atieva,” Lucid started delivering its luxurious sedan, the Lucid Air, to customers in late 2021. It boasts the longest vary of any EV sedan reported by the EPA — 520 miles.