Cash is the key for Aston Martin future

A cash splash of more than $1.2 billion will give Aston Martin the financial, and actual, horsepower to finally mount a serious showroom threat to Ferrari.

Lawrence Stroll, the Canadian multi-billionaire who bought the Force India team so his son Lance could be a Formula 1 driver, has now shifted his focus and investment to the troubled British sports car company.

The mid-engined Valhalla, the F1-fast Valkyrie and the upcoming Vanquish are now cleared for production and Aston is accelerating the output of its make-or-break first SUV, the DBX.

“We go from a red light to green. This is the money to get us to deliver our plan,” the chief creative officer at Aston Martin, Marek Reichman, told carsales during a visit to Melbourne this week.

“Now, we will have the basis, the underpinnings, for the mid-engined cars. And it’s the brand platform for the mid-engined cars.

“We can become the Ferrari of Britain. That was always the idea,” Reichman stated.

Reichman is now bullish about the future of Aston, even though the company’s share price has crashed by more than 90 per cent since it was floated on the British stock market and many analysts had predicted bankruptcy.

The battery-powered Rapide E has been aborted and the high-profile plan for an all-electric spin-off, Lagonda, has been put on hold with no firm timetable for the ultra-luxury sub-brand.

“How close were we [to bankruptcy]? It's a long piece of string, or a short piece of string. I think that was always going to be the case,” says Reichman.

“If I answer in a positive way -- the positive side is that the brand and what it stands for and its potential is great enough and good enough to have a consortium of people… [who] want to come forward and make the investment.

“It’s the biggest capital investment the company has ever had. It's 500 million pounds.

“So it’s the beginning of the beginning. It starts with DBX and then comes the investment in the future mid-engine products. And they are high-margin products -- Valkyrie, Valhalla and Vanquish -- although Vanquish is only a concept at the moment,” Reichman said.

Reichman is responsible for the look and feel of the next-generation Astons, but has spent a lot of time and energy over the past five years on projects as diverse as a helicopter, power boat, submarine and an upscale apartment complex in Miami (USA).

He denies they were a glossy distraction from the troubles at Aston and maintains they made money for the company.

“They are good public relations but we wouldn’t do them without some symbiotic connection. And they are revenue generating programs -- those programs were not funded by Aston Martin.

But Reichman says the new money has returned the focus to future cars.

“What it [the money] is allowing us to do is to execute the business plan as we go forward. It’s allowing us to get to DBX and the mid-engined cars... It’s the liquidity behind getting there.”

The DBX is a sell-out for at least the first year, which means more than 4000 cars, and Reichman reports that the most-popular colour with buyers is a deep green. In Australia, it’s black.

Reichman refuses to talk about models beyond the mid-engined cars, but admits he is focussed on the late 2020s including the return of Lagonda.

“We need a solution for electrification and where luxury is going. The first hybrid will come with Valhalla.”

Part of Stroll’s plan for Aston is to take the company into F1 as a manufacturer for the first time since the 1950s, re-branding what is now called Racing Point. Reichman believes it is a good move after the current partnership with Red Bull Racing.

“It’s a platform, one of the greatest platforms on the planet for exposure,” Reichman stated.