Aston Martin’s DBX SUV is expected to increase car manufacturer sales.
LONDON – Aston Martin reported a major loss in the first half and giant outings when the British car manufacturer invested in the launch of its first SUV, the DBX, which began reaching dealerships.
The first symptoms of China, a key sales market for DBX itself, are positive, Aston Martin said Wednesday, offering no details.
COVID-19 has slowed down the company’s efforts to negotiate inventories of its sports cars. It will delay the resumption of production at its main plant in Gaydon, England, until the end of August.
The DBX, which began producing in the quarter, will have a positive contribution in the last six months of 2020, Aston Martin said.
The company reported an operational loss in the first half of 159.3 million pounds ($206 million) and negative loose money of 371 million pounds ($481 million), as it increased spending on launch, while the coronavirus pandemic kept the display rooms closed for much of the period.
With DBX in production, money flow is expected to improve at the time of part of the year, CFO Ken Gregor said in an interview. Overall, the business improved in June, it is too early to say whether a post-pandemic recovery is underway.
Aston Martin has struggled in the less than two years since his IPO, with high inventories and poor sales of his major sports cars undermining efforts to reflect the success of Ferrari’s inventory market.
In the months since Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll rescued the automaker earlier this year, he announced a replacement for the CEO and said he might want to look for more funding.
The $189,000 DBX is being assembled at a plant in St Athan, Wales, built on top of the former Ministry of Defence airfield.
The automaker will enter the ultra-luxury SUV segment occupied through models such as The Lamborghini’s Urus, Bentley’s Bentayga and Rolls-Royce Cullinan.
The company’s efforts to negotiate inventories on its other models have been thwarted by the COVID-19 crisis and will now continue until 2021, Aston said.
“We’re restoring the exclusivity of our sports cars,” Stroll said in a video posted on the company’s website. “Rebalancing the source relative to demand, which in the short term means lowering wholesale volumes even for long-term success.”
The Company’s monetary balance is 359 million pounds ($466 million) at the end of June, with 430 million pounds of money available.
Tobias Moers, former head of Daimler’s Mercedes-AMG division, will upgrade Andy Palmer as CEO on August 1.
Moers, 54, will depend on dbX to bring sales to life in markets like China, where the preference of wealthy consumers to be driven through drivers in more spacious cars has helped high-priced SUVs make their way.
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