Aston reshapes future product plan
Fresh cash for firm, but delays for Lagonda and Vanquish
ASTON Martin Lagonda has secured a £500million investment that has helped to guarantee the firm’s future. Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll has taken a 16.7 per cent stake in the company, becomes chairman and will rebrand his Racing Point Formula One team as the Aston Martin works team for the 2021 season.
Andy Palmer, Aston’s CEO, told Auto Express that the investment was “a big moment for the company,” and that “we’ve got what we need to deliver a luxury strategy.”
However, the new investment doesn’t come without difficulties, and redundancies are likely at the company’s Gaydon HQ. There will probably be a net gain in the workforce, though, with new staff joining at the DBX factory in South Wales.
Aston’s future product plan has also been rocked by the new investment. The major setback is the relaunch of Aston’s all-electric Lagonda brand. “Our Lagonda strategy isn’t dead, it’s just delayed,” Palmer told us. The project has been shoved back beyond 2025, rather than the 2022 launch originally planned.
The all-electric Rapide E project – in spite of deliveries being expected this year – has also been ‘paused’. The official line is that investment in EVs will be delayed beyond 2025, although Palmer is still bullish about electrification in general: “All our vehicles will still feature some form of electrification by the middle of the decade,” he said.
Aston’s mid-engined programme also gets a reshuffle; the £1million Valhalla is still on target for customer deliveries in 2022, but the return of the Vanquish has been pushed back to 2023. The car is intended as Aston’s rival for the Ferrari 488.
The added investment guarantees production of the Valkyrie supercar for the second half of 2020, with the faster Valkyrie AMR Pro still scheduled for 2021. However, these are the last cars to benefit from Aston Martin’s relationship with Red Bull Racing, which finishes at the end of the 2020 F1 season; Palmer confirmed that Red Bull will not be involved with the Valhalla project.
He also admitted to a tinge of sadness that his relationship with Red Bull Racing was drawing to a close. “When I walk through the Red Bull Hall of Fame and see many of the cars with Infiniti and then Aston Martin liveries, those cars mean a lot to me,” said Palmer. “I count Christian [Horner] as a friend, but this is business.”
When the Aston Martin works team takes to the F1 grid in 2021, it will also use new Mercedes-sourced engines – just like its V8 road cars. Aston has signed an agreement to appear on the F1 grid for the next 10 years – meaning it will return to the sport as a full factory operation for the first time since 1960.
“It’s a big moment for the company. We’ve got what we need to deliver a luxury strategy” DR ANDY PALMER Aston Martin CEO