Things at Aston Martin are looking a little touch and go right now as the legacy British automaker prepares production for its DBX SUV. The design and engineering behind the SUV has been incredibly expensive for the company, and everything hedges on its launch going well. If the DBX tanks, so too do the company’s profits. A rough European market for its cars has left the company down on its luck, reportedly taking in about half the profit it did in 2018.
News today from Reuters confirms that Chinese firm Geely Automobile Holding is currently conducting due diligence to purchase a stake in the 107-year-old Brit GT maker. Geely also owns Lotus, Volvo, the London EV Company, and a 10% stake in Daimler. Geely reportedly sees an opportunity to share platforms and technologies between Lotus and Aston, not to mention Daimler already owns 5% of Aston.
As a result of penny savings, Aston has allegedly dumped its plans for the electric RapidE directly into the trash bin. It’s a shame, because the RapidE would have fought directly against Porsche’s Taycan in the premium electric sports sedan market, as it was purported to deliver 200 miles of range and a sub-4-second 0-60 time.
Money troubles forced Aston Martin’s partner in the project Chinese tech gian LeEco to abandon ship in June. This meant Aston would be footing the bill itself, and the planned large production run was shrunk down to a 155 unit limited run. That was the plan, but now it’s been moved off to the scrap heap in the sky.
Trading the future of an electric sedan for a big, expensive, fuel guzzling, twin-turbo V8 SUV? Yeah, that seems par for the course in 2020.
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