Aston Martin will continue to make petrol hybrid vehicles well into the mid-2030s and will not end its production of sports cars with internal combustion engines until legislators and regulators stop them, its boss has stated.
The stance of Lawrence Stroll, the billionaire fashion industry mogul who rescued the company four years ago, puts clear water between it and the likes of Jaguar, Bentley and Rolls-Royce, its rival surviving British heritage brands, all of which have said they will be fully electric in or around 2030.
The 111-year-old, Warwickshire-based company, London’s only listed carmaker, has already put back the first delivery date of its first electric model from next year until 2027 because of what it sees as collapsing demand for zero-emission vehicles.
“It was a prudent decision to delay the electric vehicle programme and we will invest more heavily in plug-in hybrids,” Stroll, 64, said of vehicles that can travel a few dozen miles in zero-emission mode but still rely on a petrol engine.
Speaking at a strategy update, Stroll, the company’s executive chairman, said: “We see plug-in hybrids as the bridge between the internal combustion engine and full electric and we think that will play out for a while, longer than we thought, through to the mid-2030s.”
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Asked if Aston Martin would ever give up on petrol engines — it specialises in high-performance V8 and V12 set-ups — Stroll replied: “We will continue to make them as long as we are allowed to make them. There will always be demand, albeit that that demand will shrink.”
Aston recently launched its DB12 and new Vantage models, both vehicles with V8 engines. Another new high-performance petrol sports car is expected this year.
Britain is to ban the sale of new petrol or diesel cars from 2035, but after that date there are likely to be plenty of jurisdictions around the world where they will not be prohibited. One of the company’s largest shareholders is PIF, the sovereign wealth fund of the oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
Shares in Aston Martin fell by 3p, or 1.7 per cent, to 164½p.
