Can Aston Martin Survive in the Electric Vehicle Era?
Discussion
Well I’ve run out of popcorn.
I have an ICE Aston, and 2 EVs.
Both have their pros and cons.
If you only want an Aston as a toy then an EV aston isn’t going to scratch that itch.
If you only want an Aston because it looks the dogs danglies and makes you feel good, then an EV isn’t out of the question.
There is a middle ground between “EV over my dead body” and “EVs are the only game in town” for most people, I think that’s where I am. If AM bring out a sexy Rapide/DBX esque EV I’d be tempted to have one as the daily, why not, it would be better than the mercs I currently drive. I have boring things to do like the school run and being a dad taxi, I’d enjoy doing that in an Aston that isn’t contributing to air pollution and only costing me pennies per mile. Conversely I would get no joy from grabbing the fob for an Aston EV to go for a drive out on the weekend.
Whatever they do with EVs I think they need to crack on, if they want to win new customers (as the old ones seem reluctant) then they need to deliver a great product, I’m not so sure that’ll happen but hope it does.
I have an ICE Aston, and 2 EVs.
Both have their pros and cons.
If you only want an Aston as a toy then an EV aston isn’t going to scratch that itch.
If you only want an Aston because it looks the dogs danglies and makes you feel good, then an EV isn’t out of the question.
There is a middle ground between “EV over my dead body” and “EVs are the only game in town” for most people, I think that’s where I am. If AM bring out a sexy Rapide/DBX esque EV I’d be tempted to have one as the daily, why not, it would be better than the mercs I currently drive. I have boring things to do like the school run and being a dad taxi, I’d enjoy doing that in an Aston that isn’t contributing to air pollution and only costing me pennies per mile. Conversely I would get no joy from grabbing the fob for an Aston EV to go for a drive out on the weekend.
Whatever they do with EVs I think they need to crack on, if they want to win new customers (as the old ones seem reluctant) then they need to deliver a great product, I’m not so sure that’ll happen but hope it does.
moktabe said:
I've run out of troll food.
Just ordered some from Amazon.
Hope they deliver it in an electric van.
Had a little browse and you're a big fan of popping into EV threads to educate everyone on how rubbish they are. Just ordered some from Amazon.
Hope they deliver it in an electric van.
In these interjections you're rude and ill-informed (as you've been in here), which gets noticed and pointed-out, so you never stay long.
Why not leave this thread to people who are interested in the question? You've no interest in anything EV, including Aston Martin, as you've said repeatedly.
Why not do me the courtesy of discussing the question, or leaving me alone?
SpeckledJim said:
Had a little browse and you're a big fan of popping into EV threads to educate everyone on how rubbish they are.
In these interjections you're rude and ill-informed (as you've been in here), which gets noticed and pointed-out, so you never stay long.
Why not leave this thread to people who are interested in the question? You've no interest in anything EV, including Aston Martin, as you've said repeatedly.
Why not do me the courtesy of discussing the question, or leaving me alone?
Typed an answer but deleted it as was wary of hurting your feelings.....or getting a ban.In these interjections you're rude and ill-informed (as you've been in here), which gets noticed and pointed-out, so you never stay long.
Why not leave this thread to people who are interested in the question? You've no interest in anything EV, including Aston Martin, as you've said repeatedly.
Why not do me the courtesy of discussing the question, or leaving me alone?
So, do I have my own personal stalker now?
Edited by moktabe on Tuesday 18th April 21:11
Piston Ted said:
Perhaps not to you, but I’m not dropping 100k on an Aston Martin with an electric motor in it no matter how beautiful it looks.
This goes back to the very first posting in this thread ....Piston Ted explained this aspect succinctly when he said;
"... stepping into a two seater performance car and firing up the battery - what a depressing thought".
Power, Beauty and ..... Nothing
Edited by Octavarium on Tuesday 18th April 21:30
Can Aston Martin Survive in the Electric Vehicle Era?
Below is my opening post of this topic
Jon39 said:
For many of us, the Aston Martin sound is an integral part of our ownership experience. Driving an electric version, might be less of an occasion and perhaps the actual driving experience quite similar to all other electric cars.
Piston Ted explained this aspect succinctly when he said;
"... stepping into a two seater performance car and firing up the battery - what a depressing thought".
Aston Martin may introduce beautiful designs, but presumably if the electric driving experience does become generic, there would be other electric cars at a fraction of the hand built cost. It might not be long before the low-cost Chinese cars are on sale in Europe.
If EVs do become a prelude to a different better innovation, manufacturers still need to survive the EV period.
Do you foresee Aston Martin having good demand for their electric cars ?
Present AM enthusiasts might not be looking forward to an electric Aston Martin, but will there be a new group of customers who love electric sports cars.
What are your thoughts ?
Thank you everyone for continuing a long and most interesting discussion.
Through this topic, I have certainly learnt much more about the practicalities of purchase, ownership and use of EVs.
The general opinion now seems clear, that Piston Ted's quote above, is certainly one important aspect in the attraction to buy an Aston Martin.
Many present AM owners have said they have no intention of buying an Aston Martin EV sports car, so it does appear that the AML board have thinking to do.
The same presumably will apply to other sports car manufacturers.
Porsche seem to have a plan for the future of their 911, but that special fuel can only be produced in limited quantities.
AdamV12V said:
This ^^
8% of the UK housing stock is leasehold and I would warrant that the vast majority of those are faced with either impossible hurdles to overcome to install an EV charger in their home carparking space, or extra ordinary costs imposed by the management company or by the national grid to upgrade infrastructure. Many blocks of flats have private substations and the cost of upgrades to those falls on the leaseholders wanting the EV's not the national grid, unlike suburban resi areas where the grid will step in and pay for an upgrade with a station nears capacity.
Landlords renting their property out are also unlikely to want to run to the expense of installing a EV charge point in their property for zero additional rent until such point as renting out a home without one becomes impossible - many many years away yet thankfully I suspect.
Add onto the the freehold housing where people have no parking other that on street (as an example the endless rows and rows of back to back terrace houses found in the less affluent areas of every single city in the UK, and you're into a huge chunk of the national housing stock for whom installing an EV charger is near on if not actually impossible.
Alternatively, just like a petrol car, you refuel at a public charging station.8% of the UK housing stock is leasehold and I would warrant that the vast majority of those are faced with either impossible hurdles to overcome to install an EV charger in their home carparking space, or extra ordinary costs imposed by the management company or by the national grid to upgrade infrastructure. Many blocks of flats have private substations and the cost of upgrades to those falls on the leaseholders wanting the EV's not the national grid, unlike suburban resi areas where the grid will step in and pay for an upgrade with a station nears capacity.
Landlords renting their property out are also unlikely to want to run to the expense of installing a EV charge point in their property for zero additional rent until such point as renting out a home without one becomes impossible - many many years away yet thankfully I suspect.
Add onto the the freehold housing where people have no parking other that on street (as an example the endless rows and rows of back to back terrace houses found in the less affluent areas of every single city in the UK, and you're into a huge chunk of the national housing stock for whom installing an EV charger is near on if not actually impossible.
I can't understand how many detractors start with the "I can't charge my car at home so we need to give up on EV's"
Jon39 said:
Thank you everyone for continuing a long and most interesting discussion.
Through this topic, I have certainly learnt much more about the practicalities of purchase, ownership and use of EVs.
The general opinion now seems clear, that Piston Ted's quote above, is certainly one important aspect in the attraction to buy an Aston Martin.
Many present AM owners have said they have no intention of buying an Aston Martin EV sports car, so it does appear that the AML board have thinking to do.
The same presumably will apply to other sports car manufacturers.
Porsche seem to have a plan for the future of their 911, but that special fuel can only be produced in limited quantities.
- Can Aston Martin survive without an EV? I think “no”.
- Can Aston Martin do an EV to reach new customers without offending the existing customer base? I think “yes”.
And you have the question if Aston Martin can carve out a market and a USP for it to be worthwhile and to help them survive. Which is questionable but let’s assume people will want EV super luxury and Aston Martin will be one of the players in that. If I were them I would start somewhere eg DBX kind of territory and see how it goes.
NMNeil said:
Alternatively, just like a petrol car, you refuel at a public charging station.
I can't understand how many detractors start with the "I can't charge my car at home so we need to give up on EV's"
Indeed.I can't understand how many detractors start with the "I can't charge my car at home so we need to give up on EV's"
Also, as someone that has a rental in the UK, if my tenant wants an EV charging point installed, I'll happily pony up the money. It future-proofs the house a little and I'd actually do the same with solar if the grant was right. We've not charged at home for 4 months because of the fear of blowing through the Dutch energy cap, we've had no issues at all. The cap is now lifted with our current provider and we've got solar incoming so back to the house we go.
I've said in this thread before; the biggest sources of misinformation, 'what about' / 'what ifs' and pitfalls are none EV owners, by all means challenge and ask questions but dismissing without reason seems petty. I can imagine people with horses many a year back saying "they've got to take that silly Ford thing 15 miles to get petrol, it won't catch on". ICE is moribund, its progressed about as far as it ever will, we love it and can continue to do so for a long long time to come.
dbs2000 said:
I've said in this thread before; the biggest sources of misinformation, 'what about' / 'what ifs' and pitfalls are none EV owners, by all means challenge and ask questions but dismissing without reason seems petty. I can imagine people with horses many a year back saying "they've got to take that silly Ford thing 15 miles to get petrol, it won't catch on". ICE is moribund, its progressed about as far as it ever will, we love it and can continue to do so for a long long time to come.
I'd much rather that the people who plan our future on this planet engage in a lot of "what about" and "what if", as opposed to prematurely embracing underdeveloped technologies. This is particularly important when said technologies are not capable of replacing existing sources of energy, which are being legislated to be increasingly expensive or outright banned.A cautious, measured and skeptical approach strikes me as sophisticated, intelligent and mature, the exact opposite of what you characterize as "petty" and unreasoned. It is ironic that you characterize this approach as "dismissing without reason", when abundant and substantial reasons for being cautious about EV and renewables have been listed in this thread. In fact, there are multiple ways in which the current forced approach to EV and renewables demonstrates an almost religious ignorance of basic science and dismissal of reason. "Petty" is a weak and completely inadequate criticism of the mindset behind this movement: I would characterize it as condescending, arrogant and malevolent, the latter in particular due to the detrimental economic and social effects of these policies not only on our Western society and economies, but worse on developing economies that still rely more heavily on fossil fuels.
As for the ICE being "moribund" and able to progress no further, do you have a crystal ball? Or is it just that you understand that there will be no further efforts to develop the technology once it has been banned / legislated into oblivion?
On a more narrow bandwidth, and one more specific to the Aston Martin subject in this thread, NMNeil do you really think that concerns about whether people can plug in their EV Aston Martin at home overnight are a significant reason they wouldn't buy one? If so, you have missed the forest for the trees and need to reread the posts.
Edited by quench on Wednesday 19th April 17:28
Edited by quench on Wednesday 19th April 17:32
quench said:
dbs2000 said:
I've said in this thread before; the biggest sources of misinformation, 'what about' / 'what ifs' and pitfalls are none EV owners, by all means challenge and ask questions but dismissing without reason seems petty. I can imagine people with horses many a year back saying "they've got to take that silly Ford thing 15 miles to get petrol, it won't catch on". ICE is moribund, its progressed about as far as it ever will, we love it and can continue to do so for a long long time to come.
I'd much rather that the people who plan our future on this planet engage in a lot of "what about" and "what if", as opposed to prematurely embracing underdeveloped technologies. This is particularly important when said technologies are not capable of replacing existing sources of energy, which are being legislated to be increasingly expensive or outright banned.A cautious, measured and skeptical approach strikes me as sophisticated, intelligent and mature, the exact opposite of what you characterize as "petty" and unreasoned. It is ironic that you characterize this approach as "dismissing without reason", when abundant and substantial reasons for being cautious about EV and renewables have been listed in this thread. In fact, there are multiple ways in which the current forced approach to EV and renewables demonstrates an almost religious ignorance of basic science and dismissal of reason. "Petty" is a weak and completely inadequate criticism of the mindset behind this movement: I would characterize it as condescending, arrogant and malevolent, the latter in particular due to the detrimental economic and social effects of these policies not only on our Western society and economies, but worse on developing economies that still rely more heavily on fossil fuels.
As for the ICE being "moribund" and able to progress no further, do you have a crystal ball? Or is it just that you understand that there will be no further efforts to develop the technology once it has been banned / legislated into oblivion?
On a more narrow bandwidth, and one more specific to the Aston Martin subject in this thread, NMNeil do you really think that concerns about whether people can plug in their EV Aston Martin at home overnight are a significant reason they wouldn't buy one? If so, you have missed the forest for the trees and need to reread the posts.
Edited by quench on Wednesday 19th April 17:28
Edited by quench on Wednesday 19th April 17:32
Getting motion from burning things necessarily creates huge amounts of waste heat. Getting rotating power from something that’s hammering up and down is deeply yucky in engineering terms. Pumping losses are horrible.
ICE is characterful and noisy and we like it for those reasons but it’s inherently inefficient and wasteful.
quench said:
Stuff
Did you actually read my post or or is you ivory tower so high the letters can't be seen? Let me help you,.....I said:
I've said in this thread before; the biggest sources of misinformation, 'what about' / 'what ifs' and pitfalls are none EV owners, by all means challenge and ask questions but dismissing without reason seems petty
"dismissing without reason" is the key to what I said, there is nothing about shutting down healthy topical debate, with sources and fact.Yes I can see into the future with ICE. Its not hard. Its taken over 100 years to get to about 25% efficiency for every litre of fuel burnt. That is not including refining. EVs are already at 90%+ efficiency,
I have a DBS and I love it, I'll probably have another Aston or scratch the McLaren itch, current EVs are not sports cars in my opinion. However I've now covered 70,000km in our EV, including 1200km in one day (back from skiing in the Alps) its easy to see in the next 15 years how the landscape will change. The gen one EV products are good, probably good enough for 70% of people, battery capacity has doubled in 15 years, and now amprius have just broken the 500wh/kg barrier, the horizon for EV development has a long way to run.
Can Aston survive the transition, yes, only with good products, probably an Electric DBX or Rapide supporting the "fun car" business. Will they survive? Well thats up to Mr Stroll.
Edited by dbs2000 on Wednesday 19th April 19:55
dbs2000 said:
"dismissing without reason" is the key to what I said, there is nothing about shutting down healthy topical debate, with sources and fact.
Yes I can see into the future with ICE. Its not hard. Its taken over 100 years to get to about 25% efficiency for every litre of fuel burnt. That is not including refining. EVs are already at 90%+ efficiency,
I have a DBS and I love it, I'll probably have another Aston or scratch the McLaren itch, current EVs are not sports cars in my opinion. However I've now covered 70,000km in our EV, including 1200km in one day (back from skiing in the Alps) its easy to see in the next 15 years how the landscape will change. The gen one EV products are good, probably good enough for 70% of people, battery capacity has doubled in 15 years, and now amprius have just broken the 500wh/kg barrier, the horizon for EV development has a long way to run.
Can Aston survive the transition, yes, only with good products, probably an Electric DBX or Rapide supporting the "fun car" business. Will they survive? Well thats up to Mr Stroll.
A variety of sources and fact have been put forward by posters in this thread, in both the ICE and EV camps. There are clearly positives and negatives to both. I am not sure why you used the phrases "dismissing without reason" and "petty" in the first place, unless you really believe that the only facts that are 'correct' or worth considering are those you, or people you agree with have provided. I have no difficulty in agreeing with you that EVs are substantially more efficient than ICEs. This however is not the only marker of their suitability for a variety of roles, so I still disagree with the heavy-handed dismissal of ICE as "moribund".Yes I can see into the future with ICE. Its not hard. Its taken over 100 years to get to about 25% efficiency for every litre of fuel burnt. That is not including refining. EVs are already at 90%+ efficiency,
I have a DBS and I love it, I'll probably have another Aston or scratch the McLaren itch, current EVs are not sports cars in my opinion. However I've now covered 70,000km in our EV, including 1200km in one day (back from skiing in the Alps) its easy to see in the next 15 years how the landscape will change. The gen one EV products are good, probably good enough for 70% of people, battery capacity has doubled in 15 years, and now amprius have just broken the 500wh/kg barrier, the horizon for EV development has a long way to run.
Can Aston survive the transition, yes, only with good products, probably an Electric DBX or Rapide supporting the "fun car" business. Will they survive? Well thats up to Mr Stroll.
Edited by dbs2000 on Wednesday 19th April 19:55
Going back to the original thread topic, it is also abundantly clear that to forum members, EVs in general, and Aston Martin EVs are two very different propositions. A few people have said they will never drive EVs, but there a lot of posters who have simply stated they are not interested in Aston Martin EVs, without saying they will never drive an EV of any sort. That group includes me. It's a subtle distinction to some, perhaps, but the only reason I buy performance or luxury ICE cars is because I am an enthusiast, and the ICE is central to that. When the time comes that there are no ICE vehicles for me to choose any more, and only EVs, I will still need to get around, but that's all it will be: a simple task to get from A to B, with no interest in the actual driving part. So the most basic EV that is reliable will be my choice.
There is a broader matter at hand, that several here have tried to point out. It is the element of misrepresentation of EVs, particularly as part of a grander scheme of renewables and climate change, and the forceful/legislated aspect to this approach, that we object to as misguided, harmful, inadequately debated and poorly/inadequately planned. On review of your posts in this thread, I see that you have had little or nothing to say on this broader matter, so if you took my remarks to refer to you personally, I retract them as specifically addressed to you, with apologies.
quench said:
.. There is a broader matter at hand, that several here have tried to point out. It is the element of misrepresentation of EVs, particularly as part of a grander scheme of renewables and climate change, and the forceful/legislated aspect to this approach, that we object to as misguided, harmful, inadequately debated and poorly/inadequately planned. ...
A couple of isolated examples (already mentioned) come to mind.
EV manufacturer claim - Real world range 320 mile.
Never any suggestion that if you want to tow a caravan, it might be 50 miles.
Radio presenter Iain Dale described his drive from Yorkshire to Tunbridge Wells.
My nearly £100,000 new Audi eTron GT (now sold) took 11 hours for that journey.
It would have been 4 hours in my old Audi diesel.
The public charging system let me down.
On the original question: yes, but....
By 2035, when electric becomes standard, many young people who have never experienced driving ICE (or manual cars for that matter) will become wealthier and will be able to buy the sports car brand they want at that time. Assuming Aston makes it that far, they may be buying the DBX version 12 , fully electric with accompanying fake exhaust note to warn pedestrians... . If you have never known about petrol V12 engines, you don't miss them... .
On another note, will EV save the planet: that depends on the rest of the world as the population growth and need for transport is many times higher in developing countries which don't have the facilities/money to set up an EV network... . In the end, the greenhouse gas gain in EU, US and other developing countries will be offset against the continuing use of ICE in the rest of the world... .
By 2035, when electric becomes standard, many young people who have never experienced driving ICE (or manual cars for that matter) will become wealthier and will be able to buy the sports car brand they want at that time. Assuming Aston makes it that far, they may be buying the DBX version 12 , fully electric with accompanying fake exhaust note to warn pedestrians... . If you have never known about petrol V12 engines, you don't miss them... .
On another note, will EV save the planet: that depends on the rest of the world as the population growth and need for transport is many times higher in developing countries which don't have the facilities/money to set up an EV network... . In the end, the greenhouse gas gain in EU, US and other developing countries will be offset against the continuing use of ICE in the rest of the world... .
Jon39 said:
A couple of isolated examples (already mentioned) come to mind.
EV manufacturer claim - Real world range 320 mile.
Never any suggestion that if you want to tow a caravan, it might be 50 miles.
Jon39 said:
Radio presenter Iain Dale described his drive from Yorkshire to Tunbridge Wells.
My nearly £100,000 new Audi eTron GT (now sold) took 11 hours for that journey.
It would have been 4 hours in my old Audi diesel.
The public charging system let me down.
I find this one interesting, I think its probably user error / lack of knowledge or the Audi software is trash, but that represents a problem that someone can't just jump in and figure it out. The fast chargers I've found to be pretty decent in the UK, behind France and NL for sure, their motorway systems and services have an abundance but I've not struggled in the UK, even when we've gone to none Tesla stationsMy nearly £100,000 new Audi eTron GT (now sold) took 11 hours for that journey.
It would have been 4 hours in my old Audi diesel.
The public charging system let me down.
An angle within this thread/debate I may have missed (if it has been touched on already) is perspective.
This forum is full of enthusiasts, most have always loved AM and bought one (perhaps most often second hand) because they wanted one, with a main draw being a big, fast visceral engine producing great noises and giving a great driving experience. Fantastic.
However… and I would wager that this is something Mr Stroll understands better than most, there is perhaps a larger cohort, certainly among those global elites wealthy enough to buy new, and that is the global rich, the buyers of high end luxury goods.
People will always want to differentiate themselves from the proletariat. The richer you are, the more you can differentiate, and in every way. From Property to clothes and cars, there will always be a market for the most upmarket ‘luxury’ goods. It’s why otherwise pointless brands like Patek Philippe and A Lange & Sohne exist. Some people can easily afford to drop £100k on a (very beautiful) watch.
To again try to answer/contribute to the OP’s question, for me at least, it’s necessary to make a few simple assumptions about the future. These would be that the world, rightly or wrongly, continues along the current path, and as a result, the availability of fossil fuels decreases, along with it all the necessary infrastructure necessary to run an ICE vehicle, even if not legislated off the road. It would be a gradual process, in fact it has already began. Slowly the filling stations disappear, then repair facilities and specialists, and finally the spare part supply dries up, with market forces first making spares costs absurd.
A I suggested previously, the rate that this happens will be considerably impacted by the speed that different parts of the world move down the development and decarbonisation route.
So, with that assumption, which is just an assumption, I would postulate that the answer to OP’s question is, if course, Yes, it can, but perhaps not as we know it.
The simple reason is that there will always be a market for ‘luxury goods’, for which very wealthy people will pay a premium.
Aston Martin, like Rolls Royce or Bentley is, like it or not, one of the true automotive ‘luxury brands’ - a fact that is clearly understood by the new owner who made his billions importing cheap chinese clothes and cleverly marketing them with fashionable labels in the west. One only has to read anything he says to see what the intention is.
As others have suggested, AML coming under the wing of a benevolent automotive giant that has the means to develop its own EV solutions and future tech is one potential outcome for Aston Martin, with the future AML products being badge engineered, uber luxury, slightly more sporting variants of Mercedes (or whoever) platforms, as happened already in the ICE era with Rolls and Bentley.
Sadly, there is perhaps a more likely future for AML, given the current ownership profile…
Just like the buyers of Michael Kors or Ralph Lauren stuff don’t care that they are actually buying cheap clothes made in a chinese sweat shop, it seems likely that it also won’t matter that much to those future customers of the electric Aston Martin that it is, ultimately, may be little more than a rebadged Asian built EV just trimmed with full leather and stuffed with the latest toys and some swarovski crystals studded into the headliner for the ladies. It will have ‘the label’.
The owners of the poor old and much maligned Cygnet will finally be able to feel proud that their cars maybe were, in the end, the Vanguard of the future
- just look at the new MG EVs for a little taste of one potential future for Aston Martin.
This forum is full of enthusiasts, most have always loved AM and bought one (perhaps most often second hand) because they wanted one, with a main draw being a big, fast visceral engine producing great noises and giving a great driving experience. Fantastic.
However… and I would wager that this is something Mr Stroll understands better than most, there is perhaps a larger cohort, certainly among those global elites wealthy enough to buy new, and that is the global rich, the buyers of high end luxury goods.
People will always want to differentiate themselves from the proletariat. The richer you are, the more you can differentiate, and in every way. From Property to clothes and cars, there will always be a market for the most upmarket ‘luxury’ goods. It’s why otherwise pointless brands like Patek Philippe and A Lange & Sohne exist. Some people can easily afford to drop £100k on a (very beautiful) watch.
To again try to answer/contribute to the OP’s question, for me at least, it’s necessary to make a few simple assumptions about the future. These would be that the world, rightly or wrongly, continues along the current path, and as a result, the availability of fossil fuels decreases, along with it all the necessary infrastructure necessary to run an ICE vehicle, even if not legislated off the road. It would be a gradual process, in fact it has already began. Slowly the filling stations disappear, then repair facilities and specialists, and finally the spare part supply dries up, with market forces first making spares costs absurd.
A I suggested previously, the rate that this happens will be considerably impacted by the speed that different parts of the world move down the development and decarbonisation route.
So, with that assumption, which is just an assumption, I would postulate that the answer to OP’s question is, if course, Yes, it can, but perhaps not as we know it.
The simple reason is that there will always be a market for ‘luxury goods’, for which very wealthy people will pay a premium.
Aston Martin, like Rolls Royce or Bentley is, like it or not, one of the true automotive ‘luxury brands’ - a fact that is clearly understood by the new owner who made his billions importing cheap chinese clothes and cleverly marketing them with fashionable labels in the west. One only has to read anything he says to see what the intention is.
As others have suggested, AML coming under the wing of a benevolent automotive giant that has the means to develop its own EV solutions and future tech is one potential outcome for Aston Martin, with the future AML products being badge engineered, uber luxury, slightly more sporting variants of Mercedes (or whoever) platforms, as happened already in the ICE era with Rolls and Bentley.
Sadly, there is perhaps a more likely future for AML, given the current ownership profile…
Just like the buyers of Michael Kors or Ralph Lauren stuff don’t care that they are actually buying cheap clothes made in a chinese sweat shop, it seems likely that it also won’t matter that much to those future customers of the electric Aston Martin that it is, ultimately, may be little more than a rebadged Asian built EV just trimmed with full leather and stuffed with the latest toys and some swarovski crystals studded into the headliner for the ladies. It will have ‘the label’.
The owners of the poor old and much maligned Cygnet will finally be able to feel proud that their cars maybe were, in the end, the Vanguard of the future
- just look at the new MG EVs for a little taste of one potential future for Aston Martin.Edited by Calinours on Thursday 20th April 09:57
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