一个ston Martin's Electric Supercars Will Be Built With Help From UK Government

Oct. 10, 2023 9:53 AM ET by一个nthony Capretto Electric Vehicles /1 Comment

The £9 million will be used to build battery and electric drive units.

The British government has just awarded Aston Martin £9 million (about $11 million at current exchange rates) by way of the country's Advanced Propulsion Center for the development and research of the company's future modular battery-electric platform. In addition to funding the platform, the money will also be used to find new weight-saving techniques, create a new digital toolchain, and be used to create electrification training.

"The award of funding from the APC is another major boost to our electrification strategy and constantly strive for innovation," said Roberto Fedeli, Group Chief Technology Officer of Aston Martin. "Providing further resources to explore the possibilities of our bespoke BEV platform, it will help us achieve our ambition to be an in-house BEV technology leader in the ultra-luxury, high-performance segment. We look forward to progressing this project with our collaborative partners and thank the APC for their incredible support."

The brand's "Racing.Green." strategy aims to have net-zero emissions from its manufacturing facilities by 2030, with net-zero emissions across the entire supply chain by 2039. The company is investing £2 billion over the next five years into combustion and battery technology to see it happen, with the EV platform being the next big step the company needs to take to achieve itsfuture sports car and sustainability ambitions.

Lucid will supply Aston Martin with theEV tech and battery systems necessaryto see this come to fruition. The company wants a four-motor design for its future EVs with a twin-motor design for the front axle which will mean careful packaging. Lucid was an obvious company to partner with thanks to its power-dense drive units that are small enough to fit in a suitcase.

The UK government has been working overtime recently to ensure its storied British automotive companies are not only able to survive the EV transition but not lose their identities either. This has led to the government putting up money with BMW Groupto build more factories for Miniin the country while also keeping up talks with Tata Motors to make sure JLR doesn't leave the country.

With this new investment in Aston Martin, the company will soon have the 800v traction battery pack and drive units it needs to build supercars, hypercars, SUVs, and possibly even more. The company will be supported throughout the effort by the Manufacturing Technology Centre, Expert Tooling & Automation, Creative Composites, Fuzzy Logic Studio and WMG, University of Warwick.

The company will use the new technology in an SUVthat will arrive around 2025, a year after the brand's first Plug-in HybridValhallasupercar finally hits the roads. By 2030, every vehicle that Aston Martin makes will be electrified in some way.