Andrew Palmer is the New CEO of Aston Martin

Gaydon, UK; 2nd September 2014: Aston Martin Lagonda ("Aston Martin") is pleased to announce that Aston Martin will appoint Andrew Palmer as its new Chief Executive Officer to lead the company in its next phase of technology and product creation. Dr Palmer, 51, will join Aston Martin from Nissan Motor Corporation where he served as Chief Planning Officer. Palmer will assume operational responsibility for all aspects of the business.

'Andy' Palmer CMG is a British-born chartered engineer, chartered manager and businessman with 35 years of automotive industry experience. Palmer was Chief Planning Officer, Executive Vice President and Member of the Executive Committee of Nissan Motor Company reporting directly to the President and CEO. His responsibilities included Corporate and Product Planning, Program Management, Electric Vehicles, Global Marketing Communications, Global Sales and IS/IT. Palmer also served as Chairman of Infiniti.

Palmer's duties at Aston Martin will commence after he completes a transition period from his current employer.

Palmer started his professional career in 1979 aged 16, as an apprentice at Automotive Products Limited (UK). In 1986 he joined Austin Rover to eventually become Transmissions Chief Engineer of Rover Group. Palmer joined Nissan in 1991 and was based in Japan for the past 13 years.

In 2012, Palmer was named the automotive industry's most influential British executive by Auto Express, and in 2013, the world's third most influential Chief Marketing Officer (after Apple and Samsung CMO's) by the CMO Influence Study, conducted by marketing firm Appinions for Forbes magazine. Furthermore, among Interbrand's Best Global Green Brands 2013, Nissan claimed the fifth position with Palmer being credited with "elevating marketing to a science." Palmer was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to the British automotive industry.

A statement from the shareholder board of Aston Martin said, "We're delighted that Andy will join us as our new CEO at this important time at Aston Martin. Andy's wealth of experience on the global automotive stage in marketing and sales, engineering and technology, and luxury and brand management will be instrumental in taking Aston Martin forward through its most significant and ambitious period of investment to date."

These are fascinating times at Aston Martin, with the recent arrivals of both a new boss—former Nissan product supremo Andy Palmer—and also a fat stack of development cash.

The latter leads us to ask the former the obvious question of, “How are you planning to spend that?” The company is certainly keeping busy with the launch of low-volume specials (like the Vulcan and Vantage GT3 at the Geneva show), but it’s the company’s medium-term future we’re most interested in, as it now seems to have one. We’ve already reported on Palmer’s desire to turn the electric DBX into reality, but now it’s time for a condensed take on some of his other plans for the company.

First, don’t expect new products too quickly. Although the technical collaboration with Mercedes was announced more than a year ago, we’re still another two years away from seeing an Aston powered by AMG’s new twin-turbocharged V-8. That car will be the new Vantage, but according to Palmer it will actually be the second new-era Aston to be launched.

The first will be the replacement for the existing DB9, which we can expect to see in about 18 months. This will use the same design language that we’ve seen on the DB10 shown above—it’s the special model made for the next James Bond movie, SPECTRE—and the billionaire track toy Vulcan. And the fact it will come before the new AMG engine is welcome confirmation that it will be sticking with a V-12 engine. Hooray!

“One of the reasons for having an electric car is to allow us to continue with the V-12 for longer,” says Palmer. “Of course, we’ve got to make it emissions compliant, and the current V-12 has to be completely renewed. But yes, we have a twelve-cylinder engine in our future. Our customers expect that.”

The twelve definitely won’t be a Mercedes engine—the technical alliance includes only the V-8 for now—so although Palmer described it as “fundamentally new,” we expect it will be a heavy development of the existing 5.9-liter unit and that it will stick with natural aspiration.

The new models also will feature the same construction techniques that Aston has been using since 2003, meaning an aluminum structure featuring both bonded and die-cast aluminum with bodywork made from aluminum. And although the company has often been criticized for the age of its “VH” architecture, Palmer is an unapologetic fan of it. “That platform was definitely far ahead of its time,” he says. “It should have been described as a modular architecture, like [VW’s] MQB or one of the other systems big manufacturers have adopted. We’re always making excuses about it being an old platform, but if you were to compare the original VH platform to today’s there’s an enormous transformation. And it’s a great way to build cars in the volumes that we do.”

And there’s no chance that the next generation of Astons are going to be overwhelmed with technology. The partnership with Daimler gives the company access to Mercedes’s advanced electronic systems, including active-safety modules and potentially (once fully developed) autonomous driving. But Palmer says the cars themselves will remain driver-focused. And yes, that does mean manual gearboxes, even with the forthcoming AMG V-8 engine (which Mercedes doesn’t offer with a clutch pedal).

“I would love to be the last car manufacturer providing stick shifts in the U.S.,” he said. “That’s my hope, we will keep the faith. And even as the industry moves to twin-clutch transmissions, at the heart of each of those you still have a manual transmission. It’s only a matter of breaking it into its parts, and that’s where I started my career, as a transmission engineer.”

There’s plenty of other stuff, too. Palmer says he hopes to turn Lagonda into a sedan sub-brand with more than one product—“I see it as a serious long-term competitor to Rolls-Royce”—and that his long-term plan is to get Aston to a production volume of 7000 cars per year, nearly double from the current 4000. And he’s determined to resist downsized engines and hybrids for as long as possible. “There’s an inevitability to having a hybrid simply because the car itself has to meet the [economy] standards as well as the total fleet. You’ve got to get every car on that line. Eventually that means some kind of hybridization, [and] there’s an inevitability to downsizing, too. And although I’d say a six-cylinder engine is possible—Aston has done them before—I’m not planning anything smaller than a V-8 at the moment. It’s V-8 and V-12 as far as I’m concerned.”

When Aston Martin introduced its beautiful, DB9-based Rapide for 2010, it proved that pretty and practical aren’t mutually exclusive at its stores. But the Rapide is graying at the temples, and Aston is planning to build on the car’s formula of four-door fabulousness with not one, but two vehicles, according to CEO Andy Palmer. The first will be the DBX crossover (which will indeed have four doors, as we predicted when the DBX debuted), while the second is a sports sedan that will be called the Lagonda.

To be clear, we’re not talking about the Rapide-based Lagonda supersedan (shown above) that Aston’s Q division is building for customers in the Middle East and a few other lucky markets. “The Taraf, which is the car you know as the Lagonda today, will not come to the United States unless it is going to a private collection,” Palmer told us during an interview at the recent New York auto show. “To homologate that for the U.S. requires a full suite of crash tests, and I’m not going to waste [any of the 200 planned units] doing crash tests.

“However, we have a [further] business plan, and within that there’s three legs to the strategy. First is replacing the entire sports-car range; second is the DBX, and that appeals to a different set of audiences; and the third is the sports sedan, which will carry that beautiful badge.” (Palmer pointed to a Lagonda pin on his lapel. Trust us.)

Palmer declined to give any substantive product details about the new global Lagonda, but he did tell us a bit more about the form the DBX crossover will take in production. It will still feature “a high seating position, making it more accessible, making it less intimidating particularly for female customers. That won’t change. The design will change. The most obvious change will be that it’ll have five doors [including the hatch], not three doors. There’s probably more work to do on the interior. And we’ve got to keep that beauty. Got to keep that rail going in that arc, but we’ve got to make sure there’s sufficient headroom and seating room. It can’t be totally inadequate—you have got to be able to get in and out of the back doors. The luggage space needs to be able to take a suitcase, et cetera, so it’ll change but conceptually it’s correct. It will get a little higher, a little taller. But the overall dimensions are not far off.”

While the DBX was shown with a fully electric drivetrain, it will not be offered as a pure EV. “In its first incarnation, it’ll have a gasoline engine and a plug-in hybrid,” said Palmer. “And if we can and if we prove that electric works, it would be a nice place to go.” Aston is currently exploring electrifying the Rapide, possibly to the tune of—wait for it—1000 horsepower.

ASTON MARTIN NAMES MARK WILSON AS NEW CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

14 May 2015, Gaydon: Aston Martin today announces the appointment of Mark Wilson as Chief Financial Officer. Joining the business on Monday 8 June, Wilson, will report directly to Aston Martin CEO Dr Andy Palmer and take a place on the Executive Board at the company's global HQ in Gaydon, Warwickshire.

With a strong track record of senior automotive experience already accrued with McLaren Automotive and Lotus Cars Ltd, Wilson joins the luxury British sports car maker from renewable energy insurer G-Cube Underwriting where he held the post of Chief Financial and Operating Officer.

Welcoming Wilson to the team, Dr Palmer said: "Mark joins us at what is, undeniably, an extremely exciting time for Aston Martin. We are currently implementing the largest investment plan in our history which will see a total remake of our product portfolio. By the end of the decade, not only will our current line-up have been replaced entirely, we will have added up to three extra model lines and entered new market segments.

"As our process of product renewal, segment development and market expansion continues I know we will benefit from Mark's extensive automotive experience, his core financial management skill set centred on delivering rigorous cost control and his proven ability to work successfully with multiple investors."

He added: "I'm very much looking forward to working with him as we activate our exciting and ambitious Second Century development plan."