Aston Martin is undergoing a transformation under former Mercedes-AMG head Tobias Moers, who joined as CEO in August last year after the struggling UK automaker was bailed out by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll. Aston's closer technology links with Daimler, a new focus on efficiency, along with promoting the company through Formula One, can bring about sustainable profitability that has previously been difficult for the company to reach, Moers told Automotive News Europe Correspondent Nick Gibbs.
Your predecessor Andy Palmer said that Aston Martin's historical problem was that it never generated enough money to invest in the next generation of cars. What is your solution?
What is different are the building blocks. One is efficiency -- how we run our factories and logistics. It will be a different company. We will make 30 percent efficiency gains over the course of the next six months. The ultimate goal is to make Aston Martin the most efficient and most agile auto manufacturer in our luxury/performance world. And we will get there.
Another building block is strategy, and we have a stronger engineering team now, people coming from Mercedes-AMG, familiar with the Mercedes technology, including the head of vehicle development [Drummond Jacoy] and head of powertrain [Ralph Illenberger].
What does that greater cooperation with Daimler bring?
We are more efficient in how we engineer cars because of the technology transfer. We do not have to invest in an EV architecture. We do not have to invest in a plug-In hybrid. So we can use all our resources to expand our portfolio.
When is the tipping point for Aston's recovery?
2023 is a firework year regarding our product rollouts. Then we will be back on track and we will be in a situation where we can refinance our business. We will be able to run and maintain our portfolio and we will be able to create new platforms as well. I am more than confident. We will probably have more derivatives out of Vantage, more derivatives out of the DBX [SUV] and establish a new car line on the DBX platform.
Bentley has access to its owner VW Group's platforms but struggles to maintain sustainable profitability. What can you do different?
In our business you must align demand and supply and make sure that you do not have too many cars in stock because if companies suffer from discounting it's harder. The brand's desirability to buyers also is crucial for the future. Formula One will support us to get to a different level.