Photo: Aston Martin / Mercedes-Benz
This year has been troublesome to say the least for just about everybody, from persons to the largest worldwide corporation. Amid so many sad news, every now and then we also have a beacon of hope. The latest ray of sunshine comes from both Mercedes-Benz and Aston Martin as the two companies have reached another mutually beneficial agreement.
Mercedes-Benz AG and Aston Martin Lagonda have decided to further expand their ongoing technology cooperation, with a new “Strategic Cooperation Agreement” giving the British manufacturer access to recent technologies and components from Germany in exchange for a larger shareholding stake.
Aston Martin will provide the new shares to its German partner over several stages during the upcoming three years, and at the end Mercedes-Benz AG will end up owning up to (but no more than) 20% of Aston Martin Lagonda. The total estimated value will be of 286 million pounds, which is around $371,536 million at the current exchange rates.
The relationship between the two companies seems to have been cultivated over the years, and not the usual corporate power grab war – Aston Martin first started using Mercedes-AMG V8 engines back in 2013. Since then, the former CEO of the German sports division became the chief executive of the exotic automobile maker from UK, while Formula 1 team owner Lawrence Stroll also took a chunk of shares and became executive chairman.
Meanwhile, Mercedes’ parent company Daimler is firmly setting its sight on high-tech proficiency in the large commercial vehicle business, announcing back to back with the Aston agreement that it also signed a partnership with U.S. autonomous tech firm Waymo.
The new couple’s marriage will deal on a global level with the development and market deployment of SAE Level 4 autonomous technology in the trucking sector. Their first order of business is the creation of a Freightliner Cascadia version equipped with Waymo’s latest automated driver technology (“Waymo Driver”).
No word on the actual deployment timeline, though – except for Daimler promising the autonomous Freightliner Cascadia truck featuring the Waymo Driver tech will become available for the U.S. market “in the coming years,” while the two companies will jointly “investigate expansion to other markets and brands in the near future.”
Aston Martin will provide the new shares to its German partner over several stages during the upcoming three years, and at the end Mercedes-Benz AG will end up owning up to (but no more than) 20% of Aston Martin Lagonda. The total estimated value will be of 286 million pounds, which is around $371,536 million at the current exchange rates.
The relationship between the two companies seems to have been cultivated over the years, and not the usual corporate power grab war – Aston Martin first started using Mercedes-AMG V8 engines back in 2013. Since then, the former CEO of the German sports division became the chief executive of the exotic automobile maker from UK, while Formula 1 team owner Lawrence Stroll also took a chunk of shares and became executive chairman.
Meanwhile, Mercedes’ parent company Daimler is firmly setting its sight on high-tech proficiency in the large commercial vehicle business, announcing back to back with the Aston agreement that it also signed a partnership with U.S. autonomous tech firm Waymo.
The new couple’s marriage will deal on a global level with the development and market deployment of SAE Level 4 autonomous technology in the trucking sector. Their first order of business is the creation of a Freightliner Cascadia version equipped with Waymo’s latest automated driver technology (“Waymo Driver”).
No word on the actual deployment timeline, though – except for Daimler promising the autonomous Freightliner Cascadia truck featuring the Waymo Driver tech will become available for the U.S. market “in the coming years,” while the two companies will jointly “investigate expansion to other markets and brands in the near future.”
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