Aston's brave new world

Senior Aston Martin executives these days have the same air of suppressed excitement as kids looking forward to Christmas.

One reason for the buzz was due to become apparent in early December, when chief executive Ulrich Bez was expecting formally to open a ritzy new design centre at Aston’s Gaydon HQ (the approval for which was given within just 24 hours of Kuwaiti investors buying Aston from Ford earlier this year).

Bez had a surprise in store for the opening – the unveiling of a car which has been developed in secrecy over the past few months, and which stands to be the fastest road car Aston has ever built. It is small. It has 12 cylinders. evo can say no more. But it is emblematic of the rapidly broadening horizon of opportunities opening up to one of Britain’s most iconic car makers that has already resulted in three years of profits after a previous, 90-year unbroken run of losses.

Aston Martin is on the brink of a transformation beyond anything that could have been envisaged by its patron, David Brown, from whom Astons get their DB designation.

Once struggling to make a few dozen cars a year, Aston Martin will within the next three years be almost certain to rise above a production threshold of 10,000 cars a year. That would put it almost on a par with that other great British luxury car success story, VW-owned Bentley, whose own sales will rise above the 10,000 threshold this year.

But it means that, for the first time for this most ‘British’ of all companies, one of the most important models it has ever launched will not be made in Britain. Instead, the Rapide, the eagerly awaited four-door saloon due to be launched in late 2009, will be made somewhere in Continental Europe by one of its several ‘boutique’ automotive design, engineering and manufacturing companies; in the same way that Valmet of Sweden makes the Boxster for Porsche.

While company executives have flatly declined all comment, evo has seen papers showing that Italy’s Pininfarina, Valmet itself, the Austrian-based Magna group and Germany’s Karmann have all been invited to bid for the project. Indeed, the choice may already have been made; it could hardly be long delayed if the first Rapides are to be in showrooms by the target date.

So, yet another vote of no-confidence in Britain as a manufacturing base, then?

Wrong – in part, because the Rapide is a far more ambitious project than anyone outside the company has hitherto been led to believe. Far from being the widely-expected ‘flagship’ selling a few hundred cars a year, production plans are being based on annual sales of 3000 or more. In part, too, it is because Bez believes that by then, thanks to a rash of other new DB9, DBS and V8 Vantage derivatives, the Gaydon plant will be bursting at the seams even without the Rapide.

This year, Aston expects to build and sell 7300 cars. Two years ago it sold 5000 – itself a number which a decade ago would have been regarded as inconceivable. The order banks are still piling up for the current ranges. And with luxury car sales now soaring in China, India and Russia, Aston is adding 40 dealers to its global network, each planning to sell around 50 cars a year. But the most Gaydon can squeeze out of its production lines is 8000 a year. Even without the Rapide, there are plans to take on up to 200 extra Gaydon workers. For the Rapide, then, there is simply no room at the inn – not least because the inn itself can’t be expanded because of planning constraints.

Bez could also hardly be blamed for not investing in an additional plant elsewhere in the UK. Aston might have a giant reputation but it’s a pygmy in car company size terms. To shell out umpteen millions on a plant is simply too financially risky.

But is Bez being wildly unrealistic about the Rapide’s sales prospects? Not really. While prices have yet to be indicated firmly, he is determined that it should be not be beyond the reach of a V8 Vantage owner. And 3000 a year would still be only around 10 per cent of the sales to be sought by Porsche for its own first four-door saloon, the Panamera, due in 2009.