The all-new Aston Martin DBX crossover will be built at a second production plant in St Athan, Wales. The British car maker has chosen the location out of more than 20 potential sites worldwide, and will repurpose three existing ‘super-hangers’ currently used by the Ministry of Defence.
Aston Martin’s Gaydon HQ will continue to produce its next generation of sports cars, with construction of the DB11, replacing the DB9, scheduled for Autumn and the all-electric RapidE due to roll out of the gates in 2018.
With construction work planned to transform the St Athan site in 2017 and full vehicle production commencing in 2020, a £200m investment in the plant could create up to 1,000 new jobs. A further 3,000 jobs are also anticipated thanks to the plant’s impact on the region’s supply chain and local businesses.
With demand for crossover type vehicles rapidly growing in markets such as China and the United States, Aston Martin is expecting more than 90 per cent of vehicles produced at St Athan to be exported outside of the UK.
Dr Andrew Palmer, CEO of Aston Martin said: “Through a detailed evaluation of over 20 potential global locations for this new manufacturing facility, we were consistently impressed with the focus on quality, cost and speed from the Welsh Government team. As a great British company, we look forward to St Athan joining Gaydon as our second centre of hand-crafted manufacturing excellence.”
Over the next five years, Aston Martin plans to replace its entire sports car range and introduce new derivatives. Its Gaydon plant’s maximum volume will be progressively increased to 7,000 sports cars per year by 2020.
