Luxury EV maker Lucid (LCID) announced a new partnership with British automaker Aston Martin June 26 to supply James Bond's favorite car brand with "industry-leading" EV tech. Lucid will provide Aston Martin with electric powertrains, battery systems and software under the terms of the agreement, in exchange for an approximate 3.7% stake in the company in addition to several rounds of cash payments. The total value of the deal is estimated to be more than $230 million.
Though the move provided a significant boost to Aston Martin's plans to have its first fully-electric model available by 2025, it also represents a stepping stone to a whole new business for Lucid: technology supply.
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"This (deal) really kicks off that wing of the Lucid Group's business," Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson told Reuters June 28.
The early stages of this new "wing" will involve selling the kind of technology that is not suited to the mass market, Rawlinson said, adding that, as the business grows, the company will eventually evolve to encompass mass-market offerings.
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"Do we ever want to make a $25,000 car because that's what it's going to take to change the world?" Rawlinson said. "I'm not sure if we want to be in that business, but licensing our tech to a company that could do that makes more sense."
Lucid, which didn't start selling cars until 2016, has a market cap of $12.7 billion, compared to Tesla's $814 billion. Tesla's cheapest car, the Model 3, goes for around $32,000 after applying federal tax credits; Lucid's cheapest model, the Air Touring, starts at $107,000.
Lucid shares jumped as much as 4% as of noon on June 28.
