Daimler to Acquire Stake in Aston Martin in Exchange For AMG Engine Tech

TTAC Staff
by TTAC Staff

Aston Martin’s current engines are assembled at a Ford facility near Cologne, Germany.

In a non-cash deal, Daimler AG will supply Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. with technology and engine development in exchange for as much as a 5% non-voting stake in the British luxury sports car maker. The AMG performance division at Mercedes-Benz will jointly develop engines with Aston Martin for AM’s next generation models. Daimler also will get a non-voting observer on Aston Martin’s board of directors. Aston Martin currently buys engines from Ford Motor Company, an artifact of the time when Ford owned AM. The Aston Martin V12 is based on the Ford Duratec V6 and Aston’s V8 engine is based on the Jaguar V8, funded by Ford when it owned that luxury marque as well.

“This agreement is a real win-win for both sides,” Tobias Moers, head of Mercedes-AMG, said in a statement cited by Bloomberg.

Aston Martin is currently the only the only global luxury car maker that’s not part of a larger manufacturing group with which it can share development and component costs so it’s looking to control development costs of the new models.

In addition AMG supplying engine development, the companies are looking into other possible areas of cooperation including Daimler providing Aston Martin with electronic components . Today’s agreement formalizes a tentative deal reached in July. Earlier in the year, Aston Martin announced that it was going to invest 500 million pounds ($819 million) on its operations over the next four years. The century old car maker sold 3,800 cars last year.

TTAC Staff
TTAC Staff

More by TTAC Staff

Comments
Join the conversation
12 of 14 comments
  • Ron B. Ron B. on Dec 20, 2013

    what goes around come around...I think... One of my cars is a 1969 Mercedes 300SEL 6.3 .The same model that bought AMG into world attention when it came second at SPA. At the same time Ason martin was selling it's DBS V8 which featured the same Bosch fuel injection as the mercedes 6.3 ,but the english never got the cold start set up right. one of our family friends had a new one,which if it didn't light off immediately,would flood and flatten the battery. OK thats a bit tenuous but mercedes,AMG and Aston have a history....sort of.

    • Blowfish Blowfish on Dec 20, 2013

      my late uncle used to have the 600, is the same engine. He used to have a hard time to fire her up, then i suggested an electronic ignition module. There after it fired up soon as u turn the key. Some how the point system didnt have enuf juice to fire up the wetted plugs. Single plug bike engines were notorious to plug wet too. All I did was change another dry plug then it will go again.

  • Raph Raph on Dec 20, 2013

    " this agreement is a real win for both sides" Famous last words Moer, at least he didn't say " merger of equals"

    • See 6 previous
    • Beemernator Beemernator on Dec 20, 2013

      @NoGoYo Yes they do but governments all over the world constantly want engines to pollute less and consume less fuel. At the same time consumers want more and more power. Aston Martin will not be able to keep up unless they can hook up with a technological sugar daddy. And that is what they just did.

  • Blowfish Blowfish on Dec 20, 2013

    i suppose we're kind of laughing at the Cygnets now , soon enuf we will be drivings machines with engines not much bigger than KEI cars.

  • Dimwit Dimwit on Dec 23, 2013

    I wonder if they had a sniff at JLR with that firm going to their own homegrown engine route. That may be the differentiator between making it and not in the coming years... the ability to create a new drivetrain that meets the current gov. specs.

Next