Print this pageAston Martin: How Recycled Platforms and Eight-Year-Old Tech Could be the Brand’s Downfall
Whereas a company like Mercedes-Benz can afford to spend €5 billion (US$7.1 billion) in one year on research and development, the Gaydon-based manufacturer of performance/luxury coupes is planning its next models on the eight-year-old platform that first underpinned the DB9 coupe in 2003! In fact, of the 15 models in the brand’s current line-up only two of them – the One-77 supercar and Toyota iQ-derived Cygnet city car – are not based on the DB9’s aluminium “vertical-horizontal” platform.
Ian Callum, who designed the DB9 and is now working as design director at Tata’s Jaguar/Land Rover, explains:
“It’s still that same old basic design [of two-door coupe / convertible]. Some will argue that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But you do get to a time when you have to move on.”
The brand’s bestselling, US$113,400 Vantage coupe and even the upcoming, £330,000 (US$539,979) V12 Zagato will be based on the same old underpinnings as its eight-year-old stablemate due to a need to keep costs down across the board.
Aston Martin CEO Ulrich Bez explains: “All the projects that we are doing have to make a profit. We can’t afford a project that is just a marketing tool.”
It’s one of the reasons the automaker has been able to secure a 20% profit margin in the last financial year, despite selling only 4,299 cars. Compare this to Mercedes-Benz, which had a FY2010 profit margin of 10.7%.
By recycling technology and cannibalising its older platforms and engines, Aston Martin has been able to remain profitable. It’s a sentiment echoed by company CFO Hanno Kirner:
“We don’t make the mistake of applying manufacturing techniques that are perfectly sensible for 500,000-a-year models to small-volume cars.”
Whereas companies like BMW are investing in lightweight carbon fibre materials, electric vehicles (EVs) and front-wheel-drive, Aston Martin just continues to do what it has always done mostly due to a lack of resources.
It’s one of the reasons the brand took in £509 million ($830 million) in revenue for the last financial year and is currently looking into both an expansion into China and a potential public float.
And with rivals like the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and the Nissan GT-R – cars that are both cheaper and more technologically advanced than the recently introduced Virage – Aston-Martin will certainly have to raise its game if it’s going to remain competitive in 2012 and beyond.
