Times are tough at the top of the auto industry these days, especially for Aston Martin . The British ultra-luxury maker finds itself in a strange situation. Its lineup has never been fresher, every model either new or substantially updated within the last two years. Yet the brand has struggled with sliding sales and mounting losses .
Road & Track had the chance to sit down with Aston Martin's CEO, Adrian Hallmark , at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last weekend for some high-level perspective on both the challenges the brand is facing, and the plans being made to tackle these.
Hallmark admits that Aston was in a crisis when he arrived in his role nearly two years ago, having previously been Bentley's CEO. "When I first got here, I thought we could fix it in about 18 months," he said, "Now I reckon we're about six months away from where I thought we would have been about a month ago. So it's maybe 24 months instead of 18."
The big change is resizing the business to make fewer cars. "The party of 2023 is well over for everybody, that boom in luxury is behind us," Hallmark said. "Instead of banking on a growth to 10,000 sales a year as the way to make the company work, we looked at where Ferrari was before it hit the big time, making 6500 to 7000 cars a year and very successful. And thought, why don't we reverse engineer that for the next couple of years, make the business strong at 6500 cars a year? We've done that, and taken the overheads down by about 30 percent."
Moving forward, that strategy seems certain to result in a reduced portfolio. "Having three front-engined, two-door cars is confusing, even for us," Hallmark admitted. "I'd rather we had maybe one less, and I'm not saying which one. But then we would have more bandwidth within the remaining cars."
With the distance in size and price between the Vantage and the Vanquish , that suggests the DB12 that sits in the middle would be the most likely to go un-replaced at the end of the current generation. Especially as Hallmark was quick to add reassurance that Aston's V-12—currently only fitted to the Vanquish—has a long-term future. "Engines are a differentiator, and we're committed to 12 cylinder until at least 2035, and we think we could probably go further than that. Not in all markets, but in enough to justify continuing the engine."
But there will be a significant number of new variants within model ranges, something Aston has already begun with the recent introduction of S versions of the Vantage , DB12 and DBX SUV. More of these are coming. "With our core products, our main cars like the Vantage, we will definitely take them in a more sporty direction," Hallmark said. "It won't be a road-legal GT3 car, but it will certainly be more extreme than we've ever done before."
But Hallmark also suggested there will be more luxurious derivatives, these seemingly aimed at the part of the market occupied by the more laid-back Bentley products. "We'll show you one by the end of the year," he said. "I won't give the game away, but I'll give one taste: our suspension system takes one component set, and we only use about a quarter of the capability of that in the way we've set up the regular version ... there's nothing stopping us from having a car that's more orientated to the bottom two-thirds of [that comfort range], with different seat and trim and more sound insulation. With the same products, we can create massive differentiation."
Another likely change is the arrival of all-wheel drive on at least some of Aston's GT cars. "The Vanquish is hilarious, isn't it?" Hallmark said, when asked about the traction limitations of using just one driven axle. "I just got one and it's phenomenal, but we're definitely at the kind of power that is at the limit of two-wheel drive. I'm not confirming or denying all-wheel drive, but if we do want to be more powerful, it is certainly on the consideration list, and not just on the DBX."
Hallmark acknowledged that Aston's SUV remains its big problem. "Being very open, the only product we haven't achieved our true potential with, in my view, is DBX," he said, "We launched it during Covid, and there was not enough innovation quickly enough. I think we peaked at around 3600 sales. If we were doing 4000 a year—which is only half of the Lamborghini Urus —we'd be an 8000-a-year car company, with Valhalla volumes on top of that."
Again, there will be more versions. "Every time we do a derivative, we get the customers excited," Hallmark said, "then it gives all those people who have had one a reason to look at it again."
Having put its EV program on ice, Hallmark's Aston remains skeptical about electrification, with no plans to follow rivals like Bentley into plug-in hybrids. "We've studied this deeply, there's no benefit in going PHEV," he said. "What we're doing with the next generation is protecting for plug-in hybrid in case we need to. But looking at the legislation and our status as a small manufacturer, we actually get no benefit, especially with the weight penalty and the cost penalty ... we will electrify, but it will not be plug-in."
Aston Martin finished eighth overall at Le Mans with the No. 007 Valkyrie, with the No. 23 Vantage GT3 finishing third in the LMGT3 class. When asked where he would like the brand to be this time next year, Hallmark didn't hesitate: "Absolutely on track to a small profit, definitely not burning cash, and on the podium here."
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