Sales of Aston Martin luxury cars are not breaking records like some competitors – but wait times on certain models stretch close to the end of the year.
Aston Martin posted its second year in a row of sales growth globally last year – amid a decline in Australia – as it prepares to introduce a new range of sports cars over the next two years.
The British sports-car maker says 80 per cent of its current range of front-engined ‘GT’ and sports cars are sold out for 2023, and wait times on new orders for the DBX SUV stretch about four to seven months.
In Australia, Aston Martin wait times are said to be between six and eight months on the DBX SUV and Vantage V8 two-door – depending on vehicle specification.
“It differs a lot based on spec. It’s probably better than it was a year ago, but … as you can see in this [Aston Martin Sydney] showroom, there’s very little here besides that car [one DBX],” Nathan Lowe, Aston Martin Country Manager Australia and New Zealand, told Drive.
“DBX might be six to eight months for a normal-ish spec, and for Vantage, similar.
“[For] DB11, we’re at the point now where that car is not really being built anymore – we’re on to the next generation, whenever that will come [to Australia],” Mr Lowe said.
Although Aston Martin is facing wait times on some of its models, they are not as long as luxury rivals including Lamborghini – which is sold out of all models until mid 2024 – and Rolls-Royce, which has an order book “stretching well into 2023”.
Aston Martin reported 6412 “wholesale” sales last year globally, up 4 per cent on 2021 – while in Australia it reported 132 cars as sold, a decrease of 5.7 per cent, and the fourth annual sales decline in a decade.
In comparison, rivals including Lamborghini, Ferrari and Bentley are posting all-time records – however a new range of Aston Martin cars is on the way.
This year the company is due to unveil its “next generation of front-engined sports cars”, deliveries of which are said to begin between July and September 2023.
However, these are expected to be significant overhauls of the existing DB11, Vantage and DBS models – rather than ground-up redesigns – with restyled exteriors and all-new interiors.
“We’ve seen interest, there have been expressions of interest for a long time for all of the upcoming sports cars, but it’s going to start to peak now before the big events start to happen,” Mr Lowe told Drive, when asked about the new front-engined range.
These are planned to arrive ahead of the Valhalla mid-engined supercar in 2024, which will become the company’s first plug-in hybrid, with 744kW from a 4.0-litre twin-turbo Mercedes-derived V8 and three electric motors.
A green pre-production example of the Valhalla was shipped to Australia for customer and media previews last week – after being on display at the Pebble Beach car show in the US last year.
Deliveries of the Valhalla are scheduled to begin overseas early next year. An undisclosed number of the 999 cars planned to be built globally will come to Australia and New Zealand.
These cars will be the fastest and most powerful Aston Martins ever registered in Australia, as the 865kW hybrid V12 Valkyrie hypercar – designed in conjunction with the Red Bull Formula One team – won’t be legal to drive on local roads, Mr Lowe confirmed.
Aston Martin says it is due to reveal plans for its hybrid and electric model range at an event in mid 2023 – ahead of the first electric model’s arrival due in 2025.
The company said in an announcement to investors last week deliveries of the Valkyrie Spider open-top are due to begin this year – after delivering 90 coupes between late 2021 and the end of 2022, out of the planned 150 – and an unnamed “strictly-limited, exclusive special” model to celebrate the company’s 110th anniversary.
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