When compared to its contemporaries, British sports car brand Aston Martin (AMGDF) is doing things its own way.
While the Brits have postponed the release of its first EV from 2025 to 2027, Italian rival Ferrari is investing a lot of money into academic backed research facilities studying EV batteries, while Lamborghini is figuring out how to make its EVs emit a 'emotional' experience.
In a recent interview, a key Aston Martin figurehead said that its customers demanded something different.
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Speaking to British automotive magazine Autocar, Aston Martin Chairman Lawrence Stroll said that the company is expecting to sell combustion-powered cars well into the 2030s, pledging that there "will always be demand" for them, and will sell them for as long as he is legally allowed to do so.
According to Stroll, Aston Martin's customers have told dealers that they prefer internal-combustion technology, and want the "sound and smells" out of Aston's sports cars.
The Aston chairman said that the company already has a unique EV architecture ready to go, and plans to release four different models using said platform — a GT car, an SUV, a crossover as well as a 'mid-engined' supercar. But given the postponement, the first of the models are not set to be revealed until late 2026 for a 2027 release date.
"We have designed and ready one platform to take four different vehicles," Stroll told Autocar. "We have all the products technically engineered and physically designed."
As to why the delay was needed, Stroll says that it is all business — seeing that the EV trees wouldn't bear much fruit if released to market much quicker. He states that the demand for EVs in the luxury sector are much weaker than others, and that Aston Martin's line of sports cars are not often thought of as primary, everyday cars, but as leisurely weekend cars.
“We planned to launch at the end of 2025 and were ready to do so, but it seems there is a lot more hype in EVs, politically driven or whatever, than consumer demand, particularly at an Aston Martin price point."
In the meantime, Stroll is keen on offering customers gas-powered internal-combustion engines in whatever form he is able to offer them in. Currently, the brand is leaning heavily on a technology that rival Ferrari is currently offering in its sports cars: plug-in hybrid technology.
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As per customer's requests, Aston's PHEVs will exclusively feature Mercedes-AMG V8 engines, while some models might use a plug-in setup incorporating their big V-12 engines. The plug-in hybrid models themselves will be based off of existing cars, but will likely come to Aston's DBX SUV first.
Stroll says that he "doesn't see demand slowing at all" for PHEVs until the mid-2030s, noting that the technology will enable them to keep on making gas cars.
"For as long as we're allowed to make ICE cars, we'll make them. I think there will always be demand, even if it's small."
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