Aston Martin was under the cosh on Friday after chair Lawrence Stroll said the luxury car maker will take longer than originally expected to build its Valkyrie hypercars.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Stroll said the flagship cars, which will cost more than £2.5m each, would take longer than expected to make even after early production hurdles had been cleared.
“Everything has been resolved, but they’re taking a little longer to build because we want them perfect,” he told the FT. “We have a complexity issue in building the car. We overestimated the amount of cars we could build until we started building.”
However, he also stressed his “pride” at Aston’s team for building the model, which he described as the “most complex vehicle ever made in the history of cars”.
“This is a Formula One car for the road. No other manufacturer would have the courage to do something like this,” Stroll said.
He added that the delayed deliveries of the vehicle were the only thing he was disappointed by since taking over the company two years ago after leading a bailout.
Stroll, who wants to use Formula 1 to revitalise the brand, also told the FT that worries Aston Martin would need to raise additional funds were unfounded. He insisted the business expected to produce cash by next year, giving it freedom to begin buying back expensive debt.
“We don’t need any more money at all. Let me be crystal clear, black and white: we do not need money, and car sales are on track,” he told the FT, adding that he cannot give more specific details before the group reports full-year results later this month.
At 1025 GMT, the shares were down 5.2% at 1,131.65p, leading the FTSE 250 decliners.