Aston Martin strengthens ties with Saudi Arabia with £182m electric car deal

Aston Martin will buy battery systems from Lucid, which is backed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. Credit: REUTERS/Alamy Stock Photo

Aston Martin is deepening its ties with Saudi Arabia following a deal with U.S. luxury electric car company Lucid.

The British manufacturer will buy battery systems from Lucid, which is backed by the kingdom, while Lucid will take 3.7 pc from Aston, which is also partly owned by car companies Mercedes and Chinese Geely.

Aston, which is going to develop a new generation battery-powered luxury cars, said that in addition to transferring Lucid's stake, the £182m deal would also include cash payments to the US company for its electric vehicle (EV) technology. /p>

The merger comes after the collapse of Britishvolt, an independent UK gigafactory start-up with which Aston had an early-stage agreement, although no firm orders were placed.

Last year, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) made major a £575m investment in the automaker as part of a rights issuance to help Aston pay off its debts. This meant that PIF became Aston's second-largest investor after Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll's consortium.

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Mr. Stroll, Executive Chairman of Aston Martin, said: “The proposed supply agreement with Lucid is a game-changer for Aston Martin's future growth through electric vehicles. Based on our strategy and requirements, we have chosen Lucid to gain access to the highest performance and most innovative technologies in the industry for our future battery electric vehicles.”

This follows months of questions about how Aston Martin will make the transition from internal combustion engines to batteries, at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds. The company said it plans to launch its first battery-electric vehicle in 2025.

Lucid, created by former Tesla executives, has run into financial difficulties of its own, as have many new electric vehicle companies. as traditional car manufacturers start producing their own models at a lower price.

However, he has received a lot of financial support from PIF, which owns most of his shares. Earlier this month, Lucid said it plans to raise $3 billion (£2.4 billion), of which $2 billion will come from the fund.

Lucid plans to build its first overseas factory in Saudi Arabia, and The kingdom agreed to this. buy 100,000 of their cars in the next decade. The company cut its workforce by 18% in March as it slashed its production target for this year from a $87,000 14,000 Air model to 10,000 vehicles.