But Aston reckons it has nailed the production issues that have been dogging it of late. “Seventy per cent of the value is coming from outside so we have decided to have suppliers as partners, not only as suppliers,” Amadeo Felisa, Aston Martin CEO, said on a call to analysts on Wednesday. The company met with 40 of its biggest suppliers earlier in February, Felisa said, with the aim of strengthening its relationship as it rolls out the three upgraded front-engined sports cars. “The production phase of the new cars will be better than it was for the 707,” Felisa said.
Production of the first of the three models – Aston’s traditional core – begins on 1 April ahead of deliveries in the third quarter, with the second model making its move in the second half. The whole process to bring all three of the cars to production will take 18 months, meaning it will be well into 2024 by the time this phase finishes.
Aston will reveal the cars, as well as its full electrification plan, to investors and the wider world at a capital markets’ day in the summer, chairman Lawrence Stroll said on the earnings call. “You’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel of how we get to 10,000 cars a year,” Stroll said. The 10k target is a “medium-term” goal for the company as it fleshes out its range and targets a wider audience, helped in part by ongoing exposure to Formula 1.
Ahead of that, the company reckons it can grow to 7000 sales this year, a tough call given its core sports cars are mostly on run-out and achieve an EBITA (earnings before interest, tax and amortisation) margin of 20%, up from 14% in 2022.
Aston Martin last year raised £654 million from investors, including £78m from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the PIF, giving it a 16.7% stake in Aston Martin and two board seats.
The raise was partly used to pay down debt, which had ballooned as the company kept itself afloat during the Covid crisis while working to refresh the range and sort through production issues related to the Valkyrie hypercar.