The Rumor of a Potential Partnership Between Lucid Motors and Apple (AAPL) May Have Some Substance to It After All

Lucid Motors, the Saudi-backed manufacturer of luxury electric vehicles, has remained the subject field of a persistent rumor over the past couple of weeks. While the initial premise was flimsy at best, a contempo development has added much-needed brownie to this rumor.

We had previously reported that speculation regarding a partnership between Apple tree and Lucid Motors was rife over social media. Behave in mind that Apple tree is widely expected to debut its ain electric automobile by 2024. At the time of that mail service, we could not identify any solid ground for this speculation other than a link between the two companies via Sir Jony Ive, the former chief designer at Apple who currently serves equally an operating partner at the SPAC Churchill Capital Corp. 4 (NYSE:CCIV), which is slated to merge with Lucid Motors in Q2 2021. As is evident, this development solitary does non plant a solid basis for a broad-based partnership between Apple and Lucid Motors.

This brings us to the crux of the thing. A recent interview of Lucid Motors' CEO, Peter Rawlinson, with Guardian has provided substance to a potential tie-upward with Apple. In that interview, Mr. Rawlinson declined to comment when asked point-blank if his company had been approached by Apple. This refusal to comment has rightly go the subject area of interest in social media circles (read the splendid Reddit thread past the user u/fmios here).

As per the rules formulated by NYSE, a false rumor must exist promptly denied:

"If rumors or unusual market activeness indicate that data on impending developments has leaked out, a frank and explicit announcement is clearly required. If rumors are in fact false or inaccurate, they should exist promptly denied or clarified."

The fact that Mr. Rawlinson did not explicitly deny any contact between Lucid Motors and Apple over a potential partnership is very significant. In fact, this unmarried development has elevated this rumor from the rank of the flimsy to that of the probable.

Given the similar design philosophy of Lucid Motors and Apple, it is not difficult to imagine how the rumors of a partnership between the 2 began doing the rounds. After all, both companies claim to market refined products that scream luxury. Moreover, both view themselves every bit disruptors in their corresponding tech sphere. Equally to what shape this potential partnership might take is quite uncertain. Apple is expected to tap the joint venture between Magna International and LG Electronics every bit its key production partner for the Apple Car. Nonetheless, this development does non forestall other partners. Given Lucid Motors' expertise in batteries and powertrains, Apple is sure to leverage this strength should a tie-upwardly between the 2 companies materialize. We doubtable that this story is far from over at this stage. So, stay tuned!