Aston Martin will take a decision by the end of the year to build a second factory, likely to be in the United States.
According to Andy Palmer, Aston Martin CEO, Aston Martin will build a second factory, likely to be in the United States and the possible location is Alabama.
”A decision was not made yet”, Palmer declared.
According to Andy Palmer, the location must be as close as possible to the regions where Aston Martin will sell the majority of DBX models, the first crossover from the Aston Martin history, presented at Geneva Motorshow this spring.
“Our principal customers will be in the United States and China,” he said. ”A China location would be difficult because Aston Martin would have to form a joint venture with a local automaker. It is also more difficult to export vehicles from China”, Palmer declared to Automotive News.
Aston Martin plans to replace all models from the actual lineup until 2020 – the current DB9, Vantage and Rapide – and to launch up to three new models which do not have a predecessor in the current range.
One of these models is the DBX crossover, based on the all electric, four wheel drive concept presented at Geneva Motorshow in this spring.
Planned for 2019, DBX would bring a significant contribution to the Aston Martin ambitious plans to increase annula vehicle sales from 4,000 in 2014 to 15,000.
Aston Martin prefers an Alabama location not only for the reason to be closer to the potential customers, but for the fact that it would be close to the Daimler factory from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Daimler has a 5 % stake in Aston Martin as part of a deal to supply the british company with high-performance AMG V8 engines and electronic architectures for the next Aston Martin generation of sport cars.
