Aston Martin Pledges No Back-dated Brexit Price Hikes
Aston Martin has taken a sideswipe at German-rival Porsche by pledging not to hit customers with a big backdated Brexit price-hike surcharge on its supercars. Providing orders on its core cars are received before Brexit is scheduled takes place on March 29 the British luxury sports-car make will honour current prices globally, it insists. The guarantee will hold across the world for the current core Aston Martin models: Vantage from 拢120,900, DB11 from 拢147,900, and DBS Superleggera from 拢225,000 and Rapide AMR from 拢194,950. It comes in the wake of German rival Porsche announcing in contracts to customers who have already ordered that they face paying 10 per cent more for their cars if there鈥檚 a 鈥榟ard鈥?Brexit. Aston Martin Lagonda president and group chief executive officer Dr Andy Palmer insisted his firm would would honour and guarantee existing prices on any orders made up to the Brexit deadline. Prices are yet to be finalised on the limited run special edition models or on cars where order books are yet to officially open, so they are not subject to the price pledge.
He noted: 鈥橴nlike some of our rivals we will not impose a surcharge of up to ten per cent if tariffs are imposed as a result of a 鈥楴o Deal鈥? 鈥榃e will absorb those costs on orders made up to the deadline. But he stressed: 鈥橧f there is a deal - and we hope there will be - which does not result in additional tariffs, then we can continue as normal. 鈥楤ut in a time of great uncertainty over Brexit and elsewhere in the world, we want to do our bit to bring some certainty. 鈥榃e want to reassure our customers that we will honour our prices on orders made up to the deadline. We will absorb any additional cost imposed by tariffs. This is of course assuming there is some form of tariffs. We hope there won鈥檛 be. But if there are, we are proving a warranty against them.
He pointed that many parts were sourced from both the UK and mainland Europe, so the imposition of tariffs would have an effect both on components being imported and cars being exported. That would push up the price of the cheapest 718 Porsche Cayman from 拢44,074 to 拢48,481 and the latest 911 model rise from 拢93,110 to 拢102,421. The new Vanquish Vision will accelerate from rest to 60mph in under 3.5 seconds when it hits the road in three years鈥?time. Shown as a prototype, it is designed to be pretty but with extreme performance. Powered by a new hybrid V6 engine - most likely 3.0 litre - Aston Martin bosses have dubbed it their 鈥楤ritish Ferrari beater鈥? It was shown alongside the forthcoming all-electric luxury 拢300,000 175mph Lagonda all-terrain sports utility vehicle (SUV) to be built at its new factory at St Athan in Wales from 2022 ahead of a luxury saloon version.
Aston Martin is also preparing to launch its DBX off-roader, to be built at St Athan in Wales and seen in light camouflage outside 10 Downing Street recently. Dr Palmer said: 鈥橶e are hoping and praying that there will be a Brexit deal. But we are prepared if there鈥檚 a no deal. 鈥榃e are ready for the worst that Brexit can throw at us. The company has put aside a 拢30million contingency fund to deal with any difficulties caused by a 鈥榥o deal鈥? Dr Palmer noted: 鈥橶e are ready for Brexit in whatever form it comes. We are planning for the worst which is a 鈥榥o deal鈥?Brexit. He said the firm had had two years to prepare and plan. He wanted free and frictionless trade and no tariffs. But if tariffs were imposed, they could cope better than volume producers. Last month Aston Martin saw its shares fall 20 per cent after announcing a 拢68m loss in 2018 - its first full year of results after a Stock Market flotation - on which it spent 拢136million to secure.