Aston Martin

Aston Martin

Aston Martin

Drew Gibson/Aston Martin

Aston Martin is the latest car maker to announce it's going to move to an all-hybrid lineup. CEO Andy Palmer has told the Financial Times that "We will be 100 per cent hybrid by the middle of the 2020s." Palmer also told the FT that he expects about 25 percent of Aston Martin sales will be EVs by 2030. A similarly bold announcement was made by Volvo earlier this summer; however, in this case Aston Martin will continue to sell non-hybrid versions of its cars as an option.

The first all-electric Aston Martin will be the RapidE, a sleek four-seater due in 2019. But that will be a limited-run model, with only 115 planned. There's also the hybrid Valkyrie hypercar in the works, an F1 car for the road that's being designed by Aston Martin in conjunction with Red Bull Racing's Adrian Newey. But there will be more mainstream (if such a word can apply) hybrid and battery EV Aston Martins coming, too. Like Volvo, some of these will just be 48V mild hybrids.

Palmer also told the FT that Aston Martin will develop its electric motor technology internally, rather than borrowing it from technical partner Mercedes-Benz (which currently supplies the company with some electronics as well as a V8 engine). Palmer likened EVs to Aston Martin's V12, calling them a "core technology" that needs to be kept inside the company. But battery cells will be brought in from outside.

2017 is turning out to be a good year for the people who build James Bond's company car. The company made a profit of $27.3 million (£21.1 million) from revenues of $529.7 million (£410.4 million) for the first half of the year, a huge turnaround compared to the same period in 2016, which saw losses of $106.3 million and revenues of just $273.5 million. Now also appears to be a good time to be a British car maker looking to expand an EV lineup; the UK government has been helping several firms with grants to encourage low-carbon technologies.

Listing image by Aston Martin