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Hyundai Motor Company's 'Genesis sports car' wins Lucid's heart... Two companies discuss motor cooperation
Lucid, an American electric vehicle company, signed a business partnership to provide powertrain and battery-related technologies to Aston Martin, a British luxury sports car brand, in June last year. Aston Martin will pay a whopping 300 billion won in stock and cash to Lucid as technology usage fees for three years. This amount is equivalent to 10% of Aston Martin's electrification strategy budget (2 billion pounds). It is assessed that cooperation with Lucid, which has a high-performance twin motor drive system, was essential in order to produce electric vehicles that run at ultra-high speeds.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor Company is also known to be interested in Lucid's high-performance electric motor. According to the industry on the 27th, Hyundai Motor Company CEO Jang Jae-hoon reportedly visited Lucid's headquarters in California, USA, early this year.
An industry insider familiar with Hyundai Motors trends said, “President Jang sent a photo taken with Lucid Donckerwolke, Hyundai Motors’ Chief Creative Officer (CCO), and Lucid officials, and reported details of the business trip to Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun.” “It was an opportunity to discuss related cooperation,” he said.
As Hyundai Motor Group plans to launch a sports car for its premium brand Genesis, it is interpreted as an attempt to join hands with Lucid to install a high-performance electric motor. Genesis plans to launch all models as electric vehicles by 2025. As it is a premium brand, it is assessed that a high-performance sports car model based on an electric vehicle is also needed.
According to our coverage, Hyundai Motor Company has begun development of the Genesis sports car, including recruiting in-house development personnel. The first open car produced domestically is expected to be produced based on the Genesis X convertible. The launch of the Genesis sports car became a fait accompli as CCO Donckerwolke announced plans for mass production of open-top cars at the Genesis dealer annual meeting held in the United States early last year.
According to the industry, the unit price of electric motors produced by Lucid is around 5 million won per unit. The price is expensive, but the problem is that it takes at least four years from the start of high-performance electric motor development to mass production.
There are rumors that the Genesis sports car will be produced in small quantities in 2026. The analysis is that time is running out to develop a new high-performance electric motor in just two years. Considering the development period for new electric motors, it is evaluated that Hyundai Motor Company's application of Lucid's high-performance electric motors is relatively efficient in terms of time and cost.
The electric vehicle motors produced by Lucid are considered to be one of the most power-dense products in the world. Lucid's Twin Motor Air has stood out in the luxury electric vehicle market, featuring long-distance driving and high-performance specifications. Aston Martin, which has established a cooperative relationship with Lucid, is expected to install Lucid's twin motors in future mass-produced electric vehicles.
It is said that the two companies are currently in the process of coordinating the details of the contract, such as electric motor price and applicable models. However, Hyundai Motor Company stated, “We cannot confirm this.”
The industry believes that there is a high possibility that negotiations will proceed smoothly due to the combination of needs between the two companies. Lucid plans to abandon the 'premium electric vehicle' brand policy that it has maintained so far and introduce an electric vehicle in the $50,000 (KRW 65 million) range as early as 2025, considering the vehicle development cycle (3 years and 6 months).
As competition for low-priced electric vehicles is intensifying due to the electric vehicle chasm (temporary stagnation in demand), it is believed that the market situation is not favorable to only pursue a strategy of selling only high-performance vehicles. If Lucid receives technical cooperation related to Hyundai Motor Company's electric vehicle platform 'E-GMP', the development cycle and costs are expected to be shortened.
Reporter Jeong Yong-seok
eletric-vehicles.com
