How Tobias Moers will make Aston Martin great again

Friday, 14 May 2021

Watch as Alex Goy puts Aston Martin first-ever SUV, the DBX, through its paces off the road and on the track. (Video first published August 2020.)

Tobias Moers has been at Aston Martin for nearly a year after a 26-year stint at Daimler, including seven years helming Mercedes-AMG. Now that he’s settled in, here’s how he plans to bring Aston Martin back into the green.

Speaking to UK media, Moers discussed the state of Aston Martin when he started in August 2020. He said that, in terms of business efficiency, Aston was not in a good place. “The company used to run two assembly lines, we shut down one. It’s not linked to missing volume or anything, it was just not right.

“Now all the cars are on one assembly line: DB11, DBS, Volantes, Coupes, Vantage. We had 70 stations, so working capital was very high, now we have 23. It’s pure cash,” Moers told Top Gear.

Business efficiency was one of the first areas of focus for Tobias Moers when he arrived at Aston Martin nearly a year ago. Now all of its cars are made on one assembly line, not two.

That translated to a “30 to 40 per cent” increase in efficiency across business in operations, “minimum.” To put those sort of gains into perspective, Moers said that in the automotive industry, a four per cent increase in savings would be called good.

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As for the cars, Moers confirmed the Valkyrie and Valhalla mid-engined sports cars are still on the way, though now going without the new electrified/turbocharged V6 as was previously the case.

Now, the two will use slightly different versions of a plug-in hybrid 4.0-litre biturbo V8 sourced from AMG, the same engine already deployed in the Vantage and V8 DB11.

Apparently, that V6 was still just a concept when Moers arrived. 'If that engine had been ready to go, I would have been happy to go with it, but it was not here unfortunately,' Moers said.

'I can understand the idea behind it, but in a company like this you should not spend all of your money in creating an internal combustion engine while everybody is moving into electrification or pure electric.'

The V8s will use an Aston-designed hybrid system, which will push development back a few years but should give a greater level of performance. For instance, Valhalla will now compete against the Ferrari SF90 hybrid.

Mention electrification, the strong-selling DBX will get a plug around 2023, thanks to Mercedes-AMG’s forthcoming ‘73’ plug-in hybrid V8 powertrain.

This will differ to the Valhalla and Valkyrie’s electrified V8 as it will be a front-mounted system lifted wholesale from AMG, rather than adapting the combustion engine to work with a new hybrid system mounted in the middle.

Moers also mentioned taking the EQS electric platform for Aston’s upcoming EV, which will resemble a sports car (surprise) and debut in 2025 or 2026.

As for the screaming V12 in the Valkyrie, Moers said he wants to use it in other applications. What those might be is unclear yet but, given the size of the investment in the engine, it would make sense to put it in more cars.