Aston Martin will abandon the internal combustion engine, ultra-luxury car brand accelerates "electric shock"

According to foreign media reports a few days ago, the British luxury supercar brand Aston Martin announced that it will phase out internal combustion engine products from 2026 and only sell electric or hybrid vehicles.

Aston Martin CEO Lawrence Stroor said in a conversation with the Vehicle Authority: "By 2026, we will be fully electrified". But such a transition will take some time, so Aston Martin has not set a specific date for the complete phase-out of the internal combustion engine. Stroor said the all-electric transition is gradual, and until it is fully electrified, it will continue to offer both electric and hybrid options. "People still want the smell and noise of internal combustion engine models, and we're going to gradually make an all-electric transition, but if someone wants to use an internal combustion engine in 2028, it's not impossible."

In addition to Aston Martin, a number of ultra-luxury car brands, including Porsche and Bentley, have announced the electrification transformation route. It is not difficult to find that driven by the general environment, even if it is proud and delicate like an ultra-luxury car brand, it has gradually become anxious and began to accelerate the pace of transformation.

The forerunners are bound to occupy the highs

The new wave of automobiles has arrived, and the charm of ultra-luxury car brands is being weakened step by step. First of all, ultra-luxury car brands promote internal combustion engines, and many ultra-luxury brands launch supercars rely on a powerful engine as a support to maintain excellent power. But now more and more electric vehicles are among the "4-second club" with excellent motor performance. In addition, the shape and interior design of many electric vehicles have begun to "bump face" ultra-luxury car brands, which also makes ultra-luxury brands with high self-esteem quite headaches. Finally, car companies represented by Tesla have given new ideas to cars with software, so that scientific and technological elements such as intelligent networking and automatic driving have become the new focus of consumers' attention. This is incomparable to the "old-school" ultra-luxury car brand.

In addition to the above potential pressures, more and more countries have now announced the time to ban the sale of fuel vehicles. Electrification has become an unstoppable development trend, and ultra-luxury car brands know that transformation is an inevitable trend.

Industry insiders told the "China Times" reporter: "The development of electrification layout is a general trend. In Europe, the regulations on emissions and fuel consumption are becoming more and more stringent, which makes the ultra-luxury model products with large displacement and high fuel consumption increasingly expensive, on the other hand, under the impact of the new four modernizations, the ideology of consumers is gradually changing, and for ultra-luxury car brands, it is sooner or later to complete the electrification transformation. ”

In the wave of transformation, those who are at the forefront are bound to occupy the high point first. While other ultra-luxury brands are still struggling, Porsche has launched the first pure electric sports car, the Taycan, in 2019. According to the financial report, in the first three quarters of 2021, Porsche's global operating income reached 23.1 billion euros, compared with 19.4 billion euros in the same period of 2020, an increase of 19.1% year-on-year; sales profit in the first three quarters of 2021 was 3.6 billion euros, compared with 2 billion euros in the same period of 2020, an increase of 78.4% year-on-year.

In 2021, when global automakers collectively suffered a crisis of missing cores, Porsche delivered 301915 units worldwide, an increase of 13% year-on-year. In particular, sales of the Taycan, a pure electric sports car, have more than doubled, with 41,296 units delivered. Peter Fung, member of Porsche's Global Executive Board responsible for sales and marketing, said bluntly: "The overall sales performance is encouraging, which shows that our electrification strategy is effective and in line with market needs and customer preferences. Porsche said it expects that by 2025, about half of the new cars delivered will be electric vehicles, supplemented by pure electric sports cars and plug-in hybrid models.

The Chinese market may become the key to breaking the game

Porsche's success has given ultra-luxury car brands the determination and courage to transform, and more and more ultra-luxury brands have seen the new wind direction brought by the "new wave" and have begun to implement the electrification layout.

According to the plan, Aston Martin's first electric vehicle will be launched in 2025, by 2030, 50% of Aston Martin's mass production cars will be purely electrified, 45% will be hybridized, and only 5% will be internal combustion engine racing cars speeding on the track; Bentley said that the first electric model will be launched in 2025, and all products will be pure electric models in 2030; Rolls-Royce will not sell plug-in hybrid models but will directly launch the first pure electric model by 2030 Lamborghini will launch its fourth product line in 2025-2030 and launch Lamborghini's first pure electric model at this stage; Ferrari will launch its first pure electric model in 2025...

It is not difficult to find that even if the layout has begun to be electrified, the speed of ultra-luxury brands is still not fast, and it is clear that "turning" is much more difficult than imagined.

The above-mentioned industry insiders pointed out: "The reason why ultra-luxury brands are so 'entangled' in the road of electrification transformation is actually the main concern that the introduction of electrification changes will change their original advantages and genes." At the same time, the introduction of electrification products in the short term will make the level of ultra-luxury cars impossible to guarantee, and even spend a lot of capital to develop products and new power products that already exist on the market, and technology can no longer represent the highest standards. This loses its original brand tone. ”

At the same time, developing electric vehicles is not easy for ultra-luxury brands that have always admired internal combustion engines. Because the research and development cycle is long, the technical difficulty is large, and the research and development cost is quite high. For ultra-luxury brands such as Aston Martin, there is no "backer" to help them dilute the cost of electrification, and it is difficult to achieve transformation without seeking capital help. This may also be one of the important factors that it did not specify a specific date for the complete phase-out of the internal combustion engine.

In the critical period of change, some layouts are early, some have capital advantages, so in this context, this wave is likely to lead to a reshuffle of the ultra-luxury market, and in the change, there may be individual brands that will fall.

But in any case, many ultra-luxury brands have begun to actively embrace the transformation, which is much more practical than delaying the soldiers, after all, the sooner they enter the electrification, the more they can have a voice in this change.

Industry insiders told the "China Times" reporter frankly: "The status of ultra-luxury car brands in the hearts of fans is unshakable, even if many new car builders will now pull down the threshold of 'power', but the unparalleled sense of control of ultra-luxury car brands has not been so easily replaced, from this level, they have always enjoyed exclusive high-quality customer resources." Therefore, giving up is not the way out, on the contrary, grasp their own advantages, do not be too eager, to give high-quality development a certain amount of time, focus on increasing the intensity of electrical and digital investment, and even focus on the implementation of China, the world's largest new energy market, which is the key to the breakthrough of ultra-luxury car brands in the new wave. ”

Responsible Editor: Li Yan'an Editor-in-Chief: Yu Jianping