Aston Martin CEO Says Some Customers Hate EVs With a ‘Deep-Rooted Passion’

Aston Martin has repeatedly pushed back plans to launch its first electric vehicle, first saying that it would launch this year, then saying it would be in 2026, then saying before 2030. Part of that is because EV demand has (somewhat) evaporated, and part of that is because of a change at the top of Aston, with new CEO Adrian Hallmark taking the reins in October. Hallmark also said recently that some of Aston’s customers simply hate the idea of EVs.

Aston isn’t the only luxury brand dealing with wavering EV demand; Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Mercedes-Benz, and others have been strategizing in recent months and adjusting product plans as a result. For automakers at the very top of that spectrum, the calculus is a little different since the volumes and customer profile change. Customers’ demands are also more defined, or at least more demanding.

“There are two different customers,” Hallmark told Automotive News recently. “One hates [EVs] with a deep-rooted passion because they think they are being told they can’t have a V-12 or V-8. There is no better way to trigger a billionaire or multi-millionaire than to use the word, ‘No.’ But there are customers who are pro EV and that number is moving. You’ve got to be seven to 10 years ahead of those customers because that is the development cycle.”

Hallmark also said that Aston is in the middle of trying to figure out what it will do with its first EV. The expectation had been that Aston would make an all-electric version of the DBX, its SUV and highest-selling car. Another choice would be to make something entirely new, perhaps an all-electric hypercar in the vein of the Pininfarina Battista. Or an all-electric version of the Valhalla, Aston’s first hybrid supercar.

“You either replace an existing nameplate and take the brave pill or create a new incremental model,” Hallmark said. “The original plan was to go with an incremental model, but we’re looking at other options.”

And despite the current dip in interest, Hallmark says that it’s clear that EVs remain the long-term future.

“Even if Donald Trump says we don’t think electric cars are good anymore, California is still going to ban combustion engines in 2035, as are 14 other states,” Hallmark said. “We will have our first electric car in this decade. But we’ll add plug-in hybrid derivatives as well through to 2035. We’re not resisting. We’re just taking account of legislation and we are trying to manage through. We can’t afford to do combustion engines, hybrids and electric cars and just see which ones work.”

With the popularity of the DBX, one might also think that Aston would start to lean in more to mass-market models, or at least the Aston Martin version of mass market. The problem with that, Hallmark says, is that there is a ceiling for the value of SUVs, and for Aston and other supercar makers that ceiling isn’t nearly high enough.

“The £1 million SUV doesn’t exist yet,” Hallmark said. “Which brings us to another truism: the most valuable cars on earth have two doors.”