He said: “We’re not resisting. We’re just taking account of legislation and trying to manage through a period of high risk for a small company. We can’t afford to do engines, hybrids and electric cars and just see which ones work and then turn off the factories of the others.”
Consolidation
Hallmark joined Aston shortly after one of the biggest product offensives in its history, including the new DB12, Vantage and Vanquish, along with the Valkyrie hypercar. Hallmark said he had “never seen as much ambition in 18 months”.
He acknowledged that the rollout of those models hadn’t been as smooth as anticipated due to that compressed cycle and he hinted that, EV aside, further new model lines won’t arrive until after 2030. Instead, the focus will be on maximising the potential of the brand’s existing models.
Hallmark said Aston’s limited provision of model variants means it risks existing buyers going elsewhere. He cited the example of Porsche, which offers numerous variants of the Vantage-rivalling 911.
“At the moment, customers buy a Vantage, DB12 or DBX and keep it for two years or so, which is the average ownership cycle in the luxury segment,” said Hallmark. “So in two years’ time, there’s got to be a reason to buy a better Vantage, and then two years after that an even better Vantage. We’ve never had the intensity of life-cycle innovation that we need, and if our competition are doing it and we’re not, we’ll never be as successful as we could.”
This approach will include substantially expanding the list of high-end options, after Aston found that some rivals were offering close to 200 more options and extras than it was. While he said not all those were relevant to a performance brand, he said Aston had identified around 100 options that could be added to its range – “titanium exhaust, carbon wheels, high-end audio and so on” – to add further value.
Hallmark said: “If we can add those and have normal levels of uptake, the per-year improvement in our bottom line, and more importantly the fit in meeting customer needs, is massive.”
