Aston Martin’s Chairman has admitted that drivers don’t want electric cars as the company delays the launch of its first electric car until at least 2026. The Telegraph has the story.
Aston Martin has delayed the launch of its first electric car as the luxury marque’s Chairman admitted that drivers still want “the sports car smell, feel and noise” of a petrol engine.
The luxury car maker had originally aimed to launch an electric four-wheel drive grand tourer as soon as next year but will now hold off until 2026.
Lawrence Stroll, Aston’s Executive Chairman and biggest shareholder, blamed weak demand for higher-priced battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for the delay.
The Canadian billionaire said: “All our [BEV] technologies are in place… Everything is in place.
“The only thing that isn’t in place is the consumer demand at this early stage.”
Mr. Stroll added that drivers outside of cities still wanted the experience of driving a petrol-powered sports car.
He said: “What we are feeling is there are people that still want some electrification to drive around the city for five, or 10, or 15 miles but still have the sports car smell and feel and noise when you get onto the auto routes.”
Aston Martin will use hybrid cars, which use both battery and internal combustion motors, as a “bridge” to fully-electric models for now, Mr. Stroll said.
The company has already launched its first plug-in hybrid supercar, the Valhalla (pictured), and has announced plans to launch plug-in versions of the Vantage, DB12, DBS and DBX models as well.
Mr. Stroll is the latest car executive to express caution about the speed of the switch to EVs amid a slowdown in sales.
Government rules mandate that 22% of all new car sales this year must be fully electric, rising to 80% by 2030. Manufacturers risk fines if they fail to hit the targets.
However, consumers have baulked at high prices and a lack of charging infrastructure.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire behind Ineos who has developed his own four-wheel drive vehicles, last week warned BEVs are being “forced down the consumer’s throat”.
Mercedes has also insisted it will keep making internal combustion engine cars “well into [the] next decade” amid slow consumer uptake.
Worth reading in full.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that Apple has pulled the plug on its self-driving electric car project after 10 years’ development, while CNN has a feature on why the EV market became a “major disappointment”.
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Politely but firmly car manufacturers are telling governments that EV’s are a non-starter but with fines this year for not hitting EV sales targets one side has to give. If car producers fold then ultimately the industry will be condemned to oblivion and the economic and societal costs will be off the scale. Obviously the WEF governments know this and are of course committed to the undermining of the West. Is there to be a limited stand off for a couple of years? Will the theft of personal transport be the initial battle ground or will the governments ramp up the food shortages as the first step to undermine populations?
Costs of living, inflation, higher and higher taxes, loss of personal transport and air travel, rampant immigration – the WEFfers are certainly NOT intending to back down.
Grim.
Yep ——One thing we can be sure of. ——There is no climate crisis. Even the IPCC have said their worst case scenarios from climate models are NOT going to happen. When the alarmists in chief at the IPCC freely admit there is no emergency then why are we still bombarded on TV News every day that there is one? ——-But if there isn’t one why are we coercing car companies and heating companies into forcing more of the EV;s and heat pumps down our throats.? ——-The answer is so simple and obvious. —-All of this is NOT about the climate and it never was. It is a climate mafia asking for protection money.
I’m not interested in sports cars but I don’t want em EV. This has nothing to do with “smell, feel and noise” and everything to do with EVs being highly overpriced and inconvenient to use.
Drivers don’t want electric cars…
How is it that almost everyone in the World knows that, except ‘managers’ in motor vehicle companies, politicians, and the Climatrons?
“The only thing that isn’t in place is the consumer demand at this early stage.”
Electric cars need… drum roll… electricity. People can see we don’t have enough now and what we do have gets more expensive the more cheaper, cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels generate it.
Therefore they see we won’t have enough in the future, not enough generated, not enough infrastructure to carry and distribute the would-be load.
This early stage? The late stage will be no different, fule.
Did Televisions need to be subsidised and forced on us? How about aeroplanes? How about Video recorders? etc etc etc etc etc. ——–It is only the stuff we don’t really want that has to forced down our throats.
Good products find their own markets.
Drill Baby, drill
If a horse and cart was better and cheaper than a car, and since we all know best how to spend our own money (with the possible exception of women and 600 quid handbags) then we would all still have a horse. Plus the manure would be handy for the roses. But with everything Green we need to be coerced into it or bribed. We also need to be lied to in the biggest pseudo scientific fraud ever where fraudulent Hockey Sticks by government funded data adjusters and charlatans are presented as ultimate truth of a climate emergency even though the same nonsense has been exposed as total crap.
The idea that a supercar can be in any way ‘green’ is nuts. It’s a luxury item with no practical use. Unless you think 0-20mph in London or Somerset in about 1 sec is of practical use.
You got me laughing there, sor!
0-20 in 1 second then back to zero in half a second for the speed bump
Electric super cars
BYD Yangwang U9 looks cool.
A Chinese EV maker just revealed a 1,300 horsepower supercar | CNN Business
0-60mph in 2.3sec, top speed 192mph. US$230,000.
Ideal for the school run.
Those tyres will take a bit of a battering in the potholes round here though – whether or not the suspension is raised by 3 inches.
It’s a rich person’s toy. No way is that ‘green’ but anyone’s allowed to be a fool with their own money. I think if I had a spare US$230k it wouldn’t be top of my shopping list.
EV’s are the Betamax of the automotive industry. Imagine an EV grand prix…. .crickets…
?
Petrolheads… the clue’s in the name
I suspect Aston’s EV will never get made/released. The tide has turned against EVs and their bubble has burst (I personally wouldn’t even buy a hybrid). As they say, people just don’t want them; the cost and risks are too high and practicalities too low. I just wonder how long it will be before govts realise they cannot create markets, but they happen naturally, and if EVs were better than ICEs, people would buy them. The problem is that govts are still wedded to the faux ‘global warming’ / ‘climate change’ / ‘net zero’ rhetoric and will continue to put in place policies they perceive to ‘tackle the issue’. Until hat changes, nothing else will change.
The trouble with hybrids is that you are dragging two engines around instead of one.
The idea that electric vehicles are environmentally friendly and produce no emissions is another one of these highly funded & promoted scams. Over 80% of world’s electricity is generated with fossil fuels, in many countries it’s 100%. Batteries are some of the most toxic products made by man. On just emissions alone, it takes 7 years of use before an electric car equals emissions of an ICE vehicle, ignoring the fact the electricity is generated with fossil fuel & the toxic nature of batteries.
Fake news.
Factcheck: 21 misleading myths about electric vehicles – Carbon Brief
Busting the myths and misconceptions about electric vehicles | National Grid Group
There was an article on GBNews recently stating that with a 12,000 mile/year driving habit a BEV would save around £1,200/year comparing a dedicated home charger with supermarket petrol for an ICE car.
Vauxhall Corsa Design 1.2l: £19,625
Vauxhal Corsa Electric: £32,445
Price difference: £12,820
To recoup £12,820 @ £1,200/year will take 10 years 8 months.
Of course, fuel/energy are not the only running costs.
My Aston Martin shares have fallen by about 70% with no dividends. I was swayed by Stroll and the agreement with Mercedes. I wish I had put all the money in Rolls Royce instead of splitting it in to two.