Aston Martin is "not in a rush" to decide which components it will take from stakeholder Mercedes-Benz but will heavily revise its Valhalla supercar with a powertrain from the German firm.
As part of a new technical partnership between the two brands, stemming from Mercedes' 20% stake in the British firm, Aston Martin has access to a range of combustion, hybrid and electric powertrains for use in its own cars.
Speaking to investors following the announcement of Aston Martin's 2020 financial results, boss Tobias Moers said that a final decision hasn't been taken on which Mercedes platforms and drive units the firm will use. He did, however, add that "everything is a reasonable cost situation", suggesting that nothing is off-limits.
The Valhalla mid-engined supercar remains on the cards for a launch in the second half of 2023, but Moers said that Aston Martin is "re-assessing" the model and it will now "probably have a different drivetrain" to the 2019 concept.
The Mercedes partnership presents new options for the Ferrari SF90 Stradale rival, so it will now likely go without its Aston Martin-developed hybridised V6. A new version of the concept will be shown to buyers within the next four months.
"We will have the Valhalla with us in the second half of 2023, and it's going to be an amazing car with breathtaking technology. With the transformational technology agreement with Mercedes-Benz, there are other chances for us regarding combustion engines, but we still have an electrified drivetrain," said Moers. However, he declined to give more information before customers are informed of the changes.
Customers had already begun placing orders for the Valhalla, but Aston Martin remained tight-lipped on the extent of interest.
Chief financial officer Kenneth Gregor said: "We don't provide a split of the deposit balance between vehicles, but the deposit balance at the end of the year was £269m and there was a chunk of deposits in there relating to the Valhalla."
Moers also confirmed that a plug-in hybrid Aston Martin with a "reasonable electric range" is in the works and that a DBX PHEV will arrive by 2024. An additional two upcoming derivatives of the SUV are also inbound, one of which will arrive in Q3 of 2021 and the other in Q2 of 2022.
The PHEV version of the Aston Martin DBX will likely use a variation of the high-output electrified powertrain from Mercedes-AMG's new 63e- and 73e-badged models.
The new GT 63e 4dr Coupé and S63e will bolster the reserves of their twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 - also used in the standard DBX - with a 134bhp electric motor for a combined output of 700bhp - which represents a 158bhp boost over the non-electrified DBX, in line with Moers' affirmation that any Mercedes components must "be an excellent fit" with Aston Martin's performance values.
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I posted this in the other article: My worst fears realized, both about Stroll and Moers. I've been an Aston fan since I was about 5 years old. I've been an owner for 12 years, having bought one new Aston and one used, and I still own both. I will NEVER buy an AMG-engined "Aston." An "Aston" with a Benz engine isn't an Aston Martin. Period. End of story. A crying shame, and the end of a great marque.
Although I was hesitant to agree with your take on the Merc V8 use entirely, simply from the resources require to develop an engine, I am now more inclined to agree with you. No matter how hard Aston try, they just sound like Mercs.
As for Badge engineered Benzes, sadly that is what Stroll does. He is a marketing man. Taken on product you would not buy, and putting a badge on that you would buy. No different to what he did with Chinese goods from his business partner and his Michael Kors brand. Suddently Kors has way more product than they could have created themselves.
Moers is the wrong person for Ason. He had one job to do - Sack Reichman - and has failed. He is just a Merc man.
However you look at it, Aston s problems centre around Reichman. His designs did not sell, they ended up needing rescued, and his designs still do not sell. Until they get rid of him Aston will never achieve their potential, and with Stroll and Moers I doubt they ever could.
last I heard was people getting their deposits back. Aston have been living off those deposits and doing no development on the Valhalla.
They were only supposed to do about 500 units of this, about a million pounds each. Already it was not as special as the Valkyrie, and now with a generic drivetrain, even less so.
This is going to be a difficult sell.
Well that shows what you know.... which in this case is not a lot