Aston Martin reveals future product plan

Aston Martin is about to undertake the biggest product offensive in its 104-year history, planning seven models in seven years, with a new derivative every nine months.

Since the appointment of CEO Andy Palmer in October 2014, the focus has been on stabilisation – Aston Martin has been profitable in only two of its 104 years of operation – with a series of limited-run specials such as the GT12, GT8 and Vulcan keeping the company afloat while Palmer formulated his ‘second century plan’.

With the company now on a more solid financial footing, plans are in place to release one new model per year, each having a seven-year life cycle to create a constant rollout of fresh metal, which will in turn allow the profits from each new model to feed the development of the next.

In addition to these new models and their derivatives, Aston plans to create two highly profitable special-edition models, such as the Vantage GT12 or Vanquish Zagato and two bespoke cars, such as the GT12 Volante or CC100, each year.

The first step in this plan was the launch of the Aston DB11 in 2016, which will be followed by a new Vantage in 2017 and a successor for the Vanquish in 2018.

With its core sports car range replaced, Aston will then turn its attention to expanding its product portfolio with the DBX, a new mid-engined sports car to build on the success of the forthcoming Valkyrie hypercar and two large luxury sedans, currently dubbed Lagonda 1 and Lagonda 2.

Speaking to MOTOR in Aston Martin’s new Melbourne showroom, Palmer said: “There’s a much greater degree of confidence in what we’re doing, and we’re starting to do things that we would never have done in the past, like Valkyrie and an SUV.”

Palmer stated that each new model “has to be the most beautiful thing in its segment” and that sports car production will be capped at 7000, with a new facility in Wales able to add another 7000 SUVs and large sedans once and up running, which leaves plenty of room for growth for a company that only sold 3700 cars in total in 2016.