AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)02/28 Report--

Due to falling sales, Aston Martin lost 104 million pounds (941 million yuan) before tax and 37 million pounds (334 million yuan) in operating loss in 2019, according to Reuters.

Aston Martin sold 5819 vehicles worldwide in 2019, down 7 per cent from a year earlier, according to sales data. The main reason for the decline in sales is that the car market is in the doldrums, and there is less demand for luxury cars in Europe, especially in the UK, resulting in poor sales of Aston Martin.

After listing on the London Stock Exchange in October 2018, Aston Martin was valued at about 5 billion pounds (45.1 billion yuan), compared with the current valuation of 1.5 billion pounds (10.5 billion yuan). Aston Martin's funds have been tight since its listing on the LSE, and Aston Martin has had a disappointing year over the past year due to poor performance.

Due to poor performance, Aston Martin's performance over the past year has disappointed investors. Mark Wilson, chief financial officer of Aston Martin, will step down on April 30th.

In an effort to ease the pressure on performance, Aston Martin reached an agreement with Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll at the end of last month that a consortium led by Lawrence Strol would buy a 16.7 per cent stake for £182 million (about Rmb1.658 billion), which could rise to 20 per cent after completing a total of £500m.

Aston Martin secured much-needed capital by selling a minority stake to launch the first SUV model, the Aston Martin DBX.

As Aston Martin's first SUV model, the car was unveiled at last year's Guangzhou auto show for 2.378 million yuan, including the Bentley Timber, Lamborghini Urus and Porsche Cayenne.

In the process of electrification, mass production plans for Rapide E, Aston Martin's first pure electric sedan model, have been shelved. It is understood that the company has completed the design and development of the model, but due to the decline in sales and profits, resulting in a financial situation, and finally decided to give up mass production.

In 2015, Aston Martin launched the Rapide E all-electric sports car in the form of a concept car, which is scheduled to go into production in 2017 and delivered in 2019. However, up to now, there is still no sign of the car, and media reports may have abandoned the car's plan because of poor performance.

DBX SUV shoulders the mission of turning losses into profits, and the Chinese market is the main battlefield of this model, which will play a key role in the development of the first SUV model. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, the development of the first SUV model is still full of variables.

"DBX will be delivered in the Chinese market later this year and hopefully the epidemic in China will be over by then," Aston Martin said. "the car is expected to sell about 4000 vehicles worldwide in 2020, making it the brand's best-selling model."

In addition, due to the domestic epidemic situation, the supply chain of auto parts has been broken, which has affected the production of many automobile enterprises. In this regard, Aston Martin said that production is not affected for the time being, and its parts supply can be used at least until the end of March.

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