Aston Martin CEO wants to transform brand into ‘the British Ferrari’…

By: CAR magazine

Aston Martin’s CEO says he wants the Gaydon-based firm to “try to become the British Ferrari” by building fewer sportscar units but selling each for a higher profit.

Speaking to Autocar, Andy Palmer said Aston Martin planned to produce fewer sportscars in 2020 than it did in 2019.

“We expect in future to make materially fewer sportscars but to make every one of them solidly profitable. We built 5 800 sportscars for wholesale last year [2019]. We’ll do fewer in 2020,” he revealed.

“We’ll have to swallow hard. And change what we do. It’s time for us to make good and try to become the British Ferrari, asking customers to spec their cars individually and wait for them to be built.

“The DBX is already showing how we mean to go on. We’re building those cars only for retail and our order book for 2020 is full,” Palmer explained.

The 56-year-old pointed out the brand’s new investor (and executive chairperson) Lawrence Stroll “has been the Canadian Ferrari importer a long time so he understands the Ferrari model very well”.

Palmer’s latest comments echo those he made in February 2020, when he said he wanted to control “supply and demand in a way that Ferrari has demonstrated can be so effective”.

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