Aston Martin is extending its production halt at both its production facilities in the United Kingdom until April 27 as a precaution against the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus across Europe, the British luxury carmaker said in a statement. The Gaydon plant manufactures the marque’s sports cars, while the DBX SUV will be made at the recently opened facility in St Athan, Wales.
The firm’s focus will be on production of the DBX as soon as manufacturing can resume, and the marque’s first SUV will be its latest volume player which the company hopes will appeal to a broader market, including more female buyers, Automotive News Europe said. Closer to home, pricing for the DBX has been confirmed at RM798,000 before taxes and options, with production initially slated to commence in May.
The extended shutdown of operations comes after Aston Martin initially planned for the suspension of manufacturing to conclude yesterday (April 20), and the decision to extend the stop-work order was made due to the current global and local positions concerning its suppliers and employees, the automaker said.
“The business will look to resume operations as soon as it is reasonable to do so,” it said. Production of the DBX, along with the marque’s entry into Formula 1 was confirmed at the end of last month following an injection of funds from investor and now executive chairman Lawrence Stroll.
Despite the initial £536 million (RM2.86 billion) funding plus an additional £150 million (RM798 million) that has been earmarked for the carmaker, it still lacks working capital based on European Securities and Markets Authority regulations, and may need to seek yet more funds due to the Covid-19 pandemic that has caused ‘increased and unquantifiable uncertainty’ in its business, it was reported earlier this month.
GALLERY: Aston Martin DBX in St Athan
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Meanwhile UK have over 16,000 deaths and climbing. Money over lives by Aston.