Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer – by Jeff Meyers

August 2015 – The Churchill Club held a 1:1 breakfast conversation Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer and industry luminary Geoffrey Moore early in the morning mid-August. Aston Martin is famous for creating some of the most beautiful cars in history and is not a high volume, mass market car manufacturer – it is still primarily a hand built vehicle. The brand has a 50-year association with the James Bond Franchise. The brand – Aston Martin – is in the middle of undergoing a fundamental turnaround as it embarks on its most aggressive new model launch program in its 102-year history. The discussion ranged from connected car technologies to electrification and how Aston Martin is focusing on staying true to its core mission of hand-crafted beautiful cars, while breaking new ground with new technologies and products.

Churchill Club – Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer

The conversation included recent news that the product line would include a newly designed and re-engineered Lagonda. This flagship vehicle would be the platform for a number of their new technologies. While the Lagonda was not available for viewing, they did bring a 2015 Aston Martin Vantage V12 S to the event for the audience to see.

2015 Aston Martin V12 Vantage

Andy spoke heavily about Aston’s belief in the Power, Beauty, and Soul of the car along with the philosophy of the design. The design philosophy includes certain matrix measurements throughout to achieve the look that is immediately recognizable as an Aston.

The design philosophy is being tweaked to accommodate a shifting demographic in the market place. The ergonomics of the driver seat is made for the size of the typical man. They are working diligently on how to create the seat adjustments for a woman, (driving with heels, as he intimated with a sitting gesture and the heel of his foot slightly raised). Andy spoke about this to expand markets to women and in Asia. The Aston Martin company has been in business for a 102 years and has sold about 70,000 cars, slightly more than 3,000 to women.

For advanced technology – Geoffrey asked about the company’s position on the connected car and autonomous car. Andy replied, paraphrasing, `they are connected – your arms to the steering wheel to the road. That’s as connected as we’ll get. As far as autonomous, we won’t have a ludicrous button (a reference he made a few times of Tesla’s `Insane’ button), but maybe an autonomous drifting button. ‘

For new power technology, Andy said that they are working with companies here in the valley and China for an electric powertrain that is suitable. They are developing a scope for what is needed, and they will only put it in a vehicle if it can be phenomenal- like a 1000 hp equiv , have a certain amount of range, performance, etc. Andy concluded with the thought that ‘Aston Martin does not want to become a company that makes 10,000’s per year. We want to continue to handcraft the Power, Beauty, and Soul of each vehicle.’