Sportscar maker says priority is plug-in hybrids, while cutting costs will reduce global workforce by 5%. The British sportscar maker Aston Martin has further delayed its first battery electric vehicle, as it announced plans to cut 170 jobs – 5% of its global workforce – in the latest step in its quest for profits.
The FTSE 250 manufacturer on Wednesday said its priority was plug-in hybrid cars, which combine a small battery with a petrol engine. The first electric model will only come in “the latter part of this decade”. It is the latest delay in the electric plans for Aston Martin, famed as the car driven by James Bond in the British spy films. The company had planned to showcase an electric car in 007’s most recent cinema outing – No Time to Die, filmed in 2019 – but it cancelled that model. It last year postponed its first electric car to 2026, before the latest delay.
Carmakers around the world have slowed down efforts to switch to EVs. While sales of electric cars have increased strongly in most large markets, manufacturers had expected faster growth. Stellantis, the world’s fifth-largest carmaker by sales, said on Wednesday that it would give customers “freedom to choose” between internal combustion engine, electric, and hybrid technologies.
However, it is not only demand for electric models that has hit carmakers. Sales have slowed around the world, and across different technologies. Stellantis, which owns brands including Fiat, Chrysler, Peugeot and Vauxhall, reported a swing to a loss of €127m (£105.4m) in the second half of 2024, compared with a profit of €7.7bn a year earlier. It had shocked investors in the autumn with a profit warning.
The financial turmoil particularly in North America – and a falling out over strategy – led to the resignation of the company’s chief executive, Carlos Tavares, in December. Stellantis said it will try to find a new chief executive in the first half of 2025.
Aston Martin appointed Adrian Hallmark as its chief executive last year, making him the fifth boss in five years. The former boss of the British luxury car brand Bentley is the latest person appointed to try to make Aston Martin financially sustainable, five years after it was taken over in 2020 by the Yew Tree consortium, led by the US billionaire Lawrence Stroll.
Hallmark said that Aston Martin needed to take “difficult but necessary action” to make 170 workers, or 5% of its workforce, redundant. That will save £25m in costs a year. Sign up to Business Today. Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning.
after newsletter promotion. The chief executive said that Aston Martin was hit by “external challenges”, particularly at the end of the year when supplier problems affected production. Aston Martin’s losses rose by a fifth to £289m for 2024. Sales fell by 9% to 6,030, far below the 10,000 it had expected in 2024 when Stroll took over, or the 7,300 it had planned when it went public in 2018 in a disappointing stock market float. Instead, the company has had to “appropriately balance supply with demand”, Hallmark said, by cutting back sales so that dealers were not forced into discounts to shift cars.
