• AMG seems to be unwinding its romantic relationship with Aston Martin.
• The British model could be scooped up by Geely.
• U.S. EV startup Lucid may well be the best pairing of all.
Aston Martin’s good friends-with-rewards romantic relationship with AMG is coming undone. Previous AMG main Tobias Moers was pushed out as Aston CEO previous year, and the makeshift R&D satellite he established up close to the corner from AMG in Affalterbach was shuttered before it could even get started operation. The British brand name even now takes advantage of AMG engines and Benz’s former-gen infotainment systems. And Mercedes will honor all contracts and give Aston with know-how and parts right up until the very last of Aston’s current fuel-driven versions bites the dust in 2026 or 2027.
Nonetheless, according to several resources, Aston’s planned all-new EV lineup, which was to see replacements for Vantage, DB11, DBS, and DBX in the 2026-2029 timeframe, will no lengthier use the Mercedes AMG 59X matrix. Quips a German insider: “AMG and Pagani—that’s true friendship. AMG and Aston is merely a small business scenario with a mounted expiration date.”
Though it is feasible for Aston to increase the everyday living cycle of its existing portfolio, the marque is more and more desperate for pace-location fresh metallic. Topping the checklist is a hanging all-new EV coupe/convertible aimed squarely at the 2026 Ferrari F8 Tributo/Roma substitution. Executive chairman Lawrence Stroll, the Canadian billionaire who led a consortium to choose a controlling stake in Aston Martin in 2020, slotted in previous Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa to substitute Moers. The chief gross sales and internet marketing supervisor Marco Matteacci, the CTO Roberto Fedeli, and other Italian high-flyers have been recruited from the deep Ferrari/Lamborghini/Maserati talent pool, but it is really ever more obvious that talent isn’t really ample. Aston requires a strategic spouse.
Aston Martin DBX.
Aston Martin
Geely Having Intrigued?
Soon after Stroll’s group, and Mercedes-Benz, the subsequent most significant shareholder in Aston Martin is Geely’s Li Shifu. The acquisitive Geely main is reportedly interested in adding Aston Martin to his combined bag of brands, which includes Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus. The Anglophile Shifu is a true Aston aficionado who allegedly created a routine of giving his daughter a bespoke English sports car as a birthday current. To get hold of management of Aston Martin, the Chinese tycoon could both just take benefit of the British concern’s modest market cap of $1.2 billion and engineer a easy buyout or try a helpful takeover with potentially considerable two-way synergy results for Aston, Lotus, and probably some of his Chinese brand names.
Lucid Could Be a Win-Acquire
So much, however, Stroll has overlooked Geely’s courtship. As a substitute, Stroll has began flirting with the Saudi Arabian government fund PIF. The Saudis are in the place to present clean funds as very well as a tech partnership with Lucid Motors, in which they possess a 60.5 p.c managing interest. Stroll has also just lately begun conversing once more directly to Lucid’s Peter Rawlinson and Eric Bach. Why Lucid? Since cooperating with the U.S. EV startup may possibly very well direct to a acquire-gain scenario. The original notion conceived in late 2021 was for Lucid to deal with cars up to $200,000, while Aston would cater to the $225,000-furthermore clientele including the supercar/hypercar section. At the identical time, the Individuals would terminate their very own patchy and underfinanced distribution plan and be part of forces with the 134 founded Aston dealers.
Aston’s traditional fortes incorporate light-weight architectures, head-turning structure, and sector-primary personalization. The important strengths of Lucid are electrification and digitalization. But as considerably as bending sheetmetal, placing the parts alongside one another, and turning it into anything that drives rather effectively and lasts, Aston has a apparent edge over the startup. So, in an odd way, these two unlikely associates could basically be a very good match.
In an suitable earth, both models really should benefit from and inspire each other. Imagine the Lucid Air 2. spawning an Aston Martin Lagonda, or the Lucid Gravity SUV sharing its genes with the next-gen DBX. Already, Aston allegedly agreed in late January to get electrical motors from Lucid (and, pointedly, not Mercedes). This circumstance is even now overshadowed, having said that, by Aston’s major debt stress and Lucid’s quick hard cash melt away amount, to identify only two complicating variables.