Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer, notoriously cool dude and runner by necessity, has promised seven new Aston Martin models to grace the lineup in the next seven years. Get excited.
Last year, the boutique British automaker set a “Second Century” plan for itself to make sure that, in the second century of its existence, it will keep growing and developing.
You’ve already experienced part of this plan. The first order of business included getting your attention with crazy cars like the Aston Martin Vulcan and the ballistic AM-RB 001.
Now Aston is focusing on expanding the line, and it’s starting with the DB11.
After that, six more models are expected to follow, and Palmer says that investors have already forked over the cash to pay for the design and development of four of them, reports Motor Trend. It writes:
The DB11 program accounts for a big chunk of that money, not the least because it provides much of the basic hardware for the other cars. Over the next two to three years the DB11 will be joined by a new Vanquish and a new Vantage, both of which will share its structural elements, powertrain hardware, and the Daimler electrical architecture. The Vantage, of course, will also get access to the 4.0-liter, twin-turbo AMG V-8 engine as part of the components deal with Daimler, which still owns a 5-percent share of Aston Martin.
That’s the catch-up, core-building phase of the plan, says Palmer, who notes the DB9 hardware underpinning today’s Aston Martin lineup is now more than 12 years old. What follows that is what he calls the expansion phase, fueled by the DBX crossover, which will be built in a new factory in Wales.
Palmer thinks that the DBX crossover will be the cash cow that the Cayenne was for Porsche, hopefully selling the same amount of them a year as all other Aston Martin models combined.
That leaves three other unnamed models. Motor Trend says that two will be Lagonda sedans and that “the success of the low-volume Lagonda Taraf suggests the range-topping version will be around the size of Maybach S600 with a smaller car slotting in underneath.” They will probably be hybrids.
And remember how Palmer said that Aston wouldn’t build an SUV? Let’s hope he stick to that plan.