Aston Martin will build its its vital new DBX crossover at an all-new car plant at St Athan, Wales – meaning the UK has won the fight to host the sports car firm’s second car factory.
Beating numerous other sites worldwide, construction work will begin at the new site in Glamorgan next year, with full vehicle production targeted to being in 2020.
Part of a planned £200 million Aston Martin investment drive, the 90-acre facility (located around 15 miles west of Cardiff) will repurpose what’s currently a Ministry of Defence base: three ‘super-hangers’ will be turned into a modern car factory building the production version of the 2015 DBX crossover concept.
The decision to choose Wales was celebrated by the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones. “I am delighted to officially welcome Aston Martin to Wales,” he said.
“We have been working closely with the company for almost two years in the face of fierce competition from other potential sites across the world.
“Today is the start of a long-term relationship between Wales and Aston Martin.”
Gaydon also boosted
Aston Martin isn’t forgetting its HQ at Gaydon, Warwickshire though. Now the home of its next generation of sports cars, Gaydon is also to build the all-electric RapidE from 2018: by 2020, Gaydon will have expanded to a planned maximum volume of 7,000 sports cars. St Athan will be incremental crossover volume on top of that.
There’s a jobs boost too: between the the sites in England and Wales, up to 1,000 new Aston Martin jobs will be created by 2020.
3,000 more jobs will be created in the supply chain and local businesses.
It’s even good news for UK plc: Aston Martin believes 9 in 10 vehicles produced at St Athan will be exported – something that’s delighted Prime Minister David Cameron: “Aston Martin is an iconic British brand and the decision to invest here shows real confidence in our economy,” he said.
Aston Martin CEO Dr. Andrew Palmer added: “During our 103-year history, Aston Martin has become famous for making beautiful hand-crafted cars in England.
“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.”