Josh Lefkowitz/Getty Images Officially, Lucid Motors is not for sale or about to file Chapter 11. It does, however, desperately need the upcoming Cosmos launch to give it a big sales boost like Rivian saw when it launched the R2. If that doesn't happen, it's hard to see how the California-based electric automaker wouldn't have some incredibly tough decisions to make. In theory, fixing the software problems that have plagued some of their previous cars is doable, but convincing buyers to trust that software is probably much more difficult. And if things do go south, someone's got to buy Lucid. That someone should be Aston Martin. It's natural to jump right to the big names with the most money, but I don't think Ford, Hyundai, BMW, or most others would bite since they're already so heavily invested in their own EV programs. Toyota doesn't have a ton of EVs at the moment, but not only does it usually prefer to do things itself, it's been in the electric motors game since the 1990s, and its solid-state batteries will reportedly be ready late next year. Volkswagen's partnership with Rivian would make a lot of what Lucid could offer redundant. Chinese brands won't care. Aston Martin, on the other hand, knows it can't keep borrowing AMG engines and kicking the can down the road forever. At some point, it's going to have to develop electric cars. The problem is, developing EVs is expensive. If Aston Martin picked Lucid up at a discount, though, that could be the shortcut it needs to stick around building beautiful grand tourers that may or may not corner as well as we wish they did. On top of that, it's not like EV startups with tech worth acquiring go bankrupt so frequently that Aston Martin can just pick up the next one. China's a potential option if Aston passes on Lucid, but the current political climate in the West is pretty hostile toward Chinese tech, which makes that a riskier option. Lucid is too new to be truly prestigious, but ultra-luxury buyers have at least heard the name and know it makes EVs that are nicer than Teslas. Gotta spend money to make money Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images The obvious objection here is that Aston Martin is too small and couldn't afford to buy Lucid even in the middle of a fire sale. Respectfully, I disagree. Lawrence Stroll is a billionaire. One of the wealthiest people in the world. He probably doesn't have enough cash to buy Lucid on his physical person at the moment, but what's the point of being a billionaire if you can't can't find the financing to acquire the tech needed to futureproof one of your companies? Even today, it's not like Lucid's that valuable, either. Its market cap is about $2 billion, and if the Cosmos flops, it'll be worth a fraction of that. If Elon Musk was able to finance most of his $44 billion Twitter purchase, but Stroll can't get anyone to hand him enough money to buy Lucid, he should give up on being a billionaire. But wait, what about those software problems that are going to make the Cosmos a hard sell when it launches? That's the beauty of this entire plan. Aston Martin owners are already used to owning incredibly expensive cars with unreliable electronics. The problems that caused Lucid to buy back Jason Fenske's Air would tank Porsche in two years or less, but Aston owners are a tolerant bunch. If the door on one car won't open, they'll just drive one that does and check back later to see if the problem fixed itself. Aston Martin isn't just Aston Martin, either. Throw different badging on Lucid's current lineup, and you've finally got something to do with that Lagonda name. Current Aston owners might still need some time before they'd buy an electric Aston Martin, but an electric Lagonda should be a much easier sell. It's not like Lagonda's history includes dozens of beloved models and a clear brand identity. The original Lagonda does have a reputation for being an electrical nightmare, though, so even if Lucid can't debug its software before the Cosmos launch, rebadging its cars as Lagondas would still be appropriate. Do I think the chances of this happening are high? Not at all. But come on, tell me it doesn't make more sense than it should. If the Cosmos isn't the hit it needs to be, Aston Martin should buy Lucid.
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