Aston to make the DBX at a new site near Cardiff

DB11 features two aerodynamic devices inspired by Aston’s racing cars

THE ASTON MARTIN DBX SUV will be built at a new factory in St Athan in south Wales as part of the ongoing £200 million investment in new products and facilities by the British manufacturer.

The Welsh site was unanimously chosen by Aston’s board despite fierce competition from about 20 other locations around the world. Occupying some 90 acres, the new Aston Martin facility at St Athan, to the west of Cardiff airport, will repurpose some of the facilities currently in use by the Ministry of Defence.

Construction work will be centred on the transformation of the three existing ‘super-hangars’ at MOD St Athan and is planned to start in 2017. Full vehicle production is scheduled to begin in 2020.

Developments at Aston’s existing site at Gaydon — which will focus on building sports cars and electric vehicles — will swell the workforce there by 250 employees. St Athan is expected to result in the creation of 750 new jobs. It is expected that a further 3000 jobs could be created across the supply chain.

Aston Martin chief executive Andy Palmer told Autocar: “Wales was the unanimous choice. It wasn’t the largest in terms of the size of the [grant] cheque on offer, but it won for many qualitative and quantitative reasons.

“St Athan is an existing facility and we don’t have to level the buildings and start from scratch. It is good both logistically and in terms of the supplier network, and has good access to the kind of talent we need to recruit.”

Aston is currently finalising the dimensions and design of the DBX, its first crossover, which was revealed as a concept at last year’s Geneva motor show.

The company has now decided to base the production version of the DBX upon a modified variant of the new aluminium-bonded structure that is due to underpin its new generation of sports cars.

In the months following the concept car’s unveiling in Geneva last year, there was speculation that it could use underpinnings from Aston’s technology partner, Daimler, such as the GLC’s platform. “It will be a pure Aston, with the only difference that it is a 4x4,” said Palmer.

In addition to the crossover, the new Welsh facility could also produce Lagonda models.