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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Jasper Jolly

Andy Palmer’s bumpy ride: from supercars to battery buses

Andy Palmer United Kingdom Aston Aston Martin Switch Nissan Switch Mobility
Portrait of Andy Palmer in a suit and open-necked shirt standing by a window with an abstract black design on the glass
Palmer admits to thinking about the chance that Switch Mobility could overtake Aston Martin in market valuation. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

When Andy Palmer left school at 15 to become an apprentice draughtsman – helping design car gearboxes – he quickly caught the automotive bug.

“By the age of 21, when I came out of my apprenticeship, I wanted to be the CEO of a car company, which was extraordinarily arrogant,” he recalls as we talk in a London hotel restaurant. Four decades on, he made it, taking over in 2014 as chief executive of one of the UK’s truly world-famous brands: Aston Martin, sports car maker to James Bond.

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