Aston Martin has announced the completion of the second phase of its new car assembly plant at St Athan, in South Wales.
The carmaker’s board of directors recently held their first meeting in St Athan to mark the completion of building work at the facility, which involves the conversion of three super hangars at the former Ministry of Defence site into a car factory. They were briefed on the progress of the project, in which production of the company’s first SUV is due to begin in late 2019.
The fit-out of the super hangars, the third and final phase of the construction project, has already begun. When completed, the plant will employ 750 people. Of that, 150 have already been recruited as part of the pre-production preparations. St Athan will join Aston Martin’s Gaydon headquarters and Newport Pagnell site as the company’s production centres.
“We are delighted at the progress being made at the St Athan site. The team have done a fantastic job in advancing the facility and I was incredibly proud to chair our first Board meeting at the new plant. Wales has a long history of engineering excellence and the Board is delighted that it will play such an important part in Aston Martin’s development,” said Dr Andy Palmer, Aston Martin president and CEO.
Yes, like many luxury brands, Aston Martin is making an SUV, which could be called Varekai. Not named after a curry, the word Varekai comes from the Romani language, meaning “wherever”, which is fitting for an SUV. More on the high-riding Aston here.
GALLERY: Aston Martin DBX concept
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