Production to move home

PRODUCTION of the Rapide, Aston Martin’s four-door sports car, will move home to the UK company’s Gaydon headquarters in Warwickshire next year.

In 2008, due to constraints at Gaydon and after conclusion of a six-month feasibility study, Aston Martin appointed Magna Steyr as a partner to produce the car at its facilities in Austria.

Since Magna Steyr already had a great deal of experience building luxury cars from the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, a facility was established with pre-production of the Rapide starting in 2009 before the car reached full production last year.

Aston Martin chief executive, Dr Ulrich Bez, said: “In 2008 we had facility restrictions at Gaydon which indicated that production of Rapide at Gaydon would likely compromise production of our other cars. We were not prepared to do this.

“Now, three years on, things are very different – Gaydon is more established, more flexible and more efficient. While our overall volume has not changed significantly, we now produce a far richer model mix – eight model lines (plus five variants) compared to three model lines (plus two variants) in 2008 – so Rapide production is now possible.

“I would like to place on record our gratitude to Magna Steyr and their team of dedicated employees who have become part of the Aston Martin family in the last few years and met all our requirements and expectations.”
Work on readying Aston Martin’s Gaydon headquarters for Rapide will begin immediately with a view to production commencing in the second half of 2012.