Aston Martin Plans All Hybrid Fleet By 2025

As the automotive industry goes more and more crazy for hybrid power to help meet fuel economy goals and to lure in buyers who want to be green, even sports car makers are going hybrid. Aston Martin has been known not only as the prefered auto brand of James Bond, but also as a maker of high-end sports cars packing thirsty V12 engines under the hood.

Aston plans to change that though and has stated that it will be making every model it produces with hybrid technology inside within a decade. Aston is aiming for the mid-2020 range for its hybrid fleet to roll out. This means every Aston made will have a combustion engine and battery power along with it.

We certainly hope this doesn't mean that Aston is set to retire the V12 engine, a hybrid V12 we could live with, no V12 at all would upset Aston purists. Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer told the Financial Times, "We will be 100 per cent hybrid by the middle of the 2020s."

Aston is looking to electrification as more and more European countries aim to ban non-hybrid cars in the decades to come. Britain, for instance, plans to ban non-hybrid cars starting in 2040. France is going even further with plans to ban sales of all cars with combustion engines by 2040.

Aston points out that it isn't buying electric drive systems from Daimler, its technology partner. Rather Aston is developing its own electric drive systems in house. "You need to keep core technology inside the company," said Palmer to FT. "That's why we make our own V12 engine. We believe that EVs [electric vehicles] are a core technology, and therefore we want to do them ourselves." Aston Martin does plan to buy batteries from other makers, but wants to eventually build its own battery packs. For now, Aston martin is still making sexy sports cars with fuel swilling engines under the hood like the new Vanquish Zagatos Speedster and Shooting Brake.

SOURCE: FT