Yahoo Finance Aston Martin to make electric cars in UK from 2025
Luxury car maker Aston Martin (AML.L) has said it will build its electric models in the UK from 2025.
The Canadian billionaire boss of the company made the promise as the industry faces a multitude of struggles, including dwindling demand due to COVID-19 and the UK's troubles with securing investment to keep the sector afloat.
Lawrence Stroll, who drove a £500m rescue deal for the struggling company last year, told the Financial Times that a "battery sports car and sport utility vehicle" will be made at the carmaker's plants in Gaydon in the Midlands and St Athan in Wales, rather than by its partner Mercedes-Benz, which owns a 20% share of Aston.
In October, Aston unveiled a partnership with Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz (DAI.DE), which will see the German company increase its stake in Aston to up to 20% by 2023, making it one of its largest shareholders.
The deal will see an existing supply agreement between the two firms — which has been in place since 2013 — expanded to give Aston access to Mercedes’ hybrid and electric drive technology.
It comes as the British carmaker's results last week showed losses at the company had quadrupled £466m ($645m) in 2020 as sales shrank.
READ MORE: Aston Martin losses soar to £466m
The government’s rules require every new vehicle sold in Britain to be electric or a form of hybrid by 2030.
In December, Stroll said it will continue making cars powered solely by an internal combustion engine (ICE) beyond 2030. The British carmaker vowed to cater to global petrol enthusiasts despite the UK banning the sales of combustion engine cars after 2030.
Volvo’s (VOLV-B.ST) chief executive Hakan Samuelsson, last year said that the Swedish firm is aiming to be fully electric by 2030.
Meanwhile, Honda’s (HMC) European director Ian Howells said that every car will be hybrid or electric within two years. The Japanese carmaker will stop selling petrol and diesel cars in Europe in 2022.
In November, prime minister Boris Johnson said he wants to bring forward the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans in the UK to 2030, from the current planned date of 2040.
This new target is part of his overall plan to migrate Britain to more climate-friendly energy and transportation.
If the fossil-fuel vehicle ban is implemented in 2030, it would make the UK second only to Norway, which will enforce its ban in 2025.
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