Aston Martin has a vision 2020 plan…..a plan like some country to bring a higher level of earnings and market control by the year 2020. For Aston Martin, the 2020 plan is a complete new model range of new versions of previous models and also a couple of cars going into totally fresh territory for the company. These include a crossover and an all-electric car.
Boss Andy Palmer has a plan to ensure that each of the new models is visually distinctive to stand on its own. He has a perhaps unusual yardstick to measure the effectiveness of the styling: ‘The brief is to make each model look like an Aston and any average bystander must be able to recognize it as an Aston.
Vantage
We should see the new Vantage next year and it ought to be on sale by the end of the year. Palmer calls the design ‘the love child of DB10 and DBX’. The plan is to make the next generation Vantage much racier and edgier. It will be based on a shorter version of the DB11’s aluminium architecture and should feature Mercedes-AMG engines in the form of the 4.0-litre turbocharged V8. There should also be a 5.2-litre V12 for the top of the range. As a sign of sporting intent, the Vantage will form the basis of Aston’s Le Mans racer in two or three years’ time.
Vanquish
The next Vanquish is going to have a lot of horsepower. What is currently in the DB11 is going to be upgraded most definitely. That should be a V12 worth exploring. Aston could be looking at 750bhp or more, but at present Aston are deciding whether to put this in a more GT-based package or go all out for a supercar. Whatever the outcome, we’ll have to wait until 2018 to see it.
Rapide EV
Aston has decided not to buy in the all-electric technology, but to develop it itself along with a Chinese tech company, Letv. Aston feels it needs to learn this stuff, not just buy it. Inevitably, this will then be used in developing new hybrids, which they see as an inevitable market requirement. The RapidE will be built on the old VH platform, and when production ends they will look to move on with a new platform.
DBX Crossover
The new factory in Wales will build Aston’s crossover, starting in about three years’ time. Before then, Aston need to get all the other core cars into production, including those above. The DBX will use the same techniques, such as aluminium bonding, as used in the DB11, but the crossover will have a different architecture. Palmer says: ‘The DB11 is punch one for the sports cars and the DBX is punch two for the new models. Punch three is the Lagonda saloon.’
Lagonda Saloon
The new Lagonda will also be built on the architecture first used in the DB11, that aluminium bonded platform. Palmer calls this ‘three platforms and two Meccano boxes’. The Lagonda Taraf was only envisaged as a Middle East model, but now it is going global. That way the Lagonda name, which had disappeared, can come back into the market ready for future iterations. The Taraf will only be built in limited numbers, just 200 of them, and then around 2020 there will be a new Lagonda, probably built at the factory in Wales.
The aim is to produce 7000 vehicles a year by 2020 with waiting lists intact to keep demand high.
