Aston Martin CEO Adrian Hallmark Talks New Supercar

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

**Romaine Bostick** (0:07)
Luxury sports car manufacturer Aston Martin revving up its newest vehicle, the Aston Martin Ballon from its V12 series. The company touting it as the most powerful front engine, Aston Martin, and its 113 year history, and its limiting production, well, to just 150 cars worldwide. Joining us right now is the Chief Executive Officer of Aston Martin, Adrian Hallmark. Adrian, great to have you here.
I mean, I am curious. Just talk to me about the specs real quick. When we talk about the most powerful, I mean, I remember the Vanquish. I mean, what was that? Something like 135 horsepower. What are we talking about here for the new Valen?

**Adrian Hallmark** (0:47)
Okay. So thanks for having us on the show. And the Valen is more powerful than a Vanquish. It's 850 PS and 1000 Newton meters of torque. I forget what those numbers are in Imperial Measurements, but a lot more than any car that we've done before. So it's the fastest 12-similar front-tension car from us, but also from any other car company. It's the world's fastest.

**Romaine Bostick** (1:08)
Well, so give me a sense here, though. I mean, why did you feel the need to go from whatever that 835 PS up to the 150-plus PS? I mean, it's notable, but did you need to do that?

**Adrian Hallmark** (1:25)
It's that segment of the marketplace. So the car is not all about the engine. The engine is absolutely the heart of the vehicle. But if you take the whole concept of the car, it uses components from that aluminum space frame technology, and then a full carbon fiber body. It's way lighter than any of our 12-similar cars that we've ever built, apart from the Valkyrie hypercar, of course.
And combined with this engine, a GT motorsport gearbox, a different rear axle ratio, the whole driving experience is completely different to any road car that we offer. So it really is a specialist car, at the top of our range, for collectors and connoisseurs. That's the whole point of the car.

**Romaine Bostick** (2:05)
Well, let's talk about those collectors and connoisseurs. Only 150 of this, so that by default makes it a collector's item. Roughly $2 million each, so definitely you have to be not only a connoisseur, but also have deep pockets here.
What is the goal of releasing a product like this overall for your business model with Aston Martin, as it's a relatively new CEO?

**Adrian Hallmark** (2:33)
It's absolutely essential for our future success.
We have a core range of cars that we're very proud of. We go from an SUV to a mid-engine hypercar to three amazing front-engine GTs. But we're one of the few brands in the world that can and have successfully in the past offer cars in the one to three million dollar range at significant volumes. And the contribution we get from those cars is a real boost to the overall performance of the business. So we now have about a thousand customers worldwide that spend more than a million dollars with us every year. And for those customers, we like to create every two years or so, something extraordinary, very collectible, very special, and at the leading edge of design, technology and our capabilities. And this is one such example.

**Romaine Bostick** (3:22)
You know, it's funny, I thought V12s were dying out here. I mean, regulation, electrification, all the sort of pushback there. And I know that this is obviously a somewhat niche product here. But I am curious as to whether this maybe is sort of a testament of the V12 maybe outliving all of those concerns and all of those forecasts about where it seemed like we were going.

**Adrian Hallmark** (3:50)
You're right. I mean, the change in policies in many countries around the world in the last 24, 36 months has been pretty dramatic. We're now in a situation where all of our future planning indicates that we can continue to sell the 12s and the versions of our cars through to 20, 35 in most countries and in most regions. We will, of course, make them compliant with the next level of emissions standards that appear in 27, 28 calendar years.
But we have a clear roadmap for the next nine years to still be able to offer 12s and 2 engines. And the reason we do it with this car is very clearly that for the real collectors and the car enthusiasts of which this is the biggest collection in the world at Quail and Pebble Beach, they just love this kind of powertrain. It may be close to the end of this era of automotive history, and they want to make the most of it if we help them to do so.