Aston Martin appears to no longer have a set date for the introduction of its first electric vehicle, reported Autocar. Its first EV will not launch until 2033 at the earliest, while the British luxury marque has a roadmap in place to ensure it can continue to offer cars with V8 and V12 engines until at least 2035, it said.
The British luxury carmaker had previously indicated that it would launch its first electric vehicle by 2030, however that target has since been pushed back.
Customer demand for EVs and legislation are “changing way faster than any car company can cope with”, and Aston Martin is continuing to test scenarios for specific markets and regions, therefore the company no longer has a set date for the launch of its first series-production EV, said Aston Martin CEO Adrian Hallmark.
“We only need BEVs to be compliant for legislative reasons [in certain markets] just before 2035. I’m not going to give an absolute date, because it’s imprecise. It could be 2035, it might be 2033, but it’s in that three-year-window. It’s not 2031,” he told Autocar.
Currently, Aston Martin has a deal with Lucid for access to its EV technology and a partnership with Mercedes-Benz for the supply of its engines. However because of the EV timeline, major investment into EVs could be delayed over the next three year, Hallmark said.
“We have the deal with Lucid, and the interesting thing is, because we delayed, by the time we activate that deal, the technology that we will get is totally different to what we signed up the original contract for. We’re also working with Mercedes-Benz on powertrains and electronic systems, and that partnership will be deepened,” he said.
“[Even if we launch our first EV in] 2033, we have three years where we can keep looking, keep thinking and keep evaluating different technologies and how they’re changing, and the markets and the legislation. And it’s only then that we would need to kick off investment. So today we’ve got very low-level investment, but it’s research and study, not even single-digit millions of investment,” he added.
In the meantime, Aston Martin will focus on its current, ICE-powered models. “We have a roadmap to keep the bigger and smaller engines [V12 and V8 respectively] alive and compliant all the way through to the end of that period,” Hallmark said.
Hybrid electrification will be a part of Aston Martin’s plan, however it is “probably not plug-in, because we don’t need it; we don’t need the 200 kg penalties,” the carmaker’s CEO said, adding that everything in its product line-up will be replaced between 2030 and 2035, and “the attributes, performance and quality of the vehicles will take them up a level.”
comedy car. you must absolutely hate yangwang or denza to buy this rubbish. If you buy this car vs a GT9 or U9 at that price you better go back to pre-school and redo your education.
I once tried to race against a family in an Aston Martin. Of course, I was left in the dust. That’s when I realized what level Aston Martin works at. But they do have poor sales in Malaysia – hardly see any and I am also wondering how their after sales are like.
EV Aston Martin? Please god,no! It’s like a gay James Bond.