Aston Martin locked in $18.5 million legal battle over Valkyrie payments

Two Swiss car dealers are being sued by Aston Martin Lagonda for allegedly withholding over GBP£10million (AU$18.5m) of deposits which had been put down for the Valkyrie hypercar.

It is understood some of the deposits were used to finance the car but not all made it back to Aston Martin, triggering legal action to recover the lost funds.

Valued at GBP£2.5m (AU$4.63m), the Valkyrie was financed in part by Andreas Baeziger and Florian Kamelger who formed Nebula Project AG – a company based on the Valkyrie's codename which handled deposits from some customers in Switzerland.

The British marque has filed both civil legal proceedings against Nebula Project AG and, with the support of a group of its customers, criminal proceedings against the two men.

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According to a statement from the company, Aston Martin will take a GBP£15m (AU$27.8m) drop in profits this year, partly due to the missing deposit money from Nebula Project, with the other GBP£5m (AU$9.2m) coming from the termination of the AF Cars AG, Nebula-run, dealership in St Gallen, Switzerland – though it will no longer have to give Baeziger and Kamelger a cut of the Valkyrie sales.

The investment from Nebula came amid financial uncertainty for Aston Martin, though the company is said to be in a much better position now after Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll bailed it out for GBP£540m (AU$999m) last year. In the deal Stroll became chairman and led Aston Martin to rebrand the Racing Point Formula One Team – of which his son, Lance, is a driver.

The statement from Aston Martin said there are no other agreements such as this one currently in place, meaning all future deposits for its special vehicles will not be taken through third parties, rather through Aston Martin directly.

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As the flagship model for Aston Martin, the Valkyrie will be limited to a production run of 150 units, designed by 10-time Formula One World Championship winning car designer, Adrian Newey, with a 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine developed by Cosworth powering it.

Deliveries were initially expected to start in 2020 but the project experienced testing and stock procurement delays brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, causing delays to the Valhalla and Vanquish supercars which will use some of the Valkyrie's components. It is now expected that the first cars will be delivered in the second half of 2021.

"Both Aston Martin and its customers have been impacted by Nebula Project AG's and its board members’ behaviour," a statement from the carmaker said.

"Aston Martin is fully committed to supporting and working with those customers affected to ensure that they will still receive delivery of their Valkyrie programme vehicles as scheduled, prioritising customer relationships, despite the company not having received all the deposited funds."