Aston Martin to keep making V12 engines until 2030; manual transmission coming back – EV in next decade

Aston Martin is aiming to launch its first fully electric vehicle by 2030, reported Autocar. According to Aston Martin CEO Adrian Hallmark, the brand’s first EV will arrive by then, and hybrid versions of its products will also join the line-up through to 2035, according to the publication.

Until then, the British luxury carmaker intends to continue selling models with a V12 engine, however this engine configuration from Aston Martin will be phased out of series production by around 2028, and instead will be produced is smaller volumes until 2030, Hallmark told Drive.

“It’s a moving target that we can’t be absolutely definitive about. [The V12 engine] has until 2028 if nothing [changes],” he said. There are two degrees of freedom. [In the] legislation, we can often get derogation for low volumes. So if we were building 100,000 12-cylinders a year, it is 2028,” he continued.

However if the brand imports between 150 units to 300 units of V12-engined cars in the United States, the carmaker can apply for derogation on low volume vehicles, and the same applies in Europe as well, with further options available for single vehicle type approval, Hallmark said.

The CEO of Aston Martin also said that customer demand continues to be strong for the Vanquish, which is powered by a 5.2 litre twin-turbo V12 engine that outputs 835 PS and 1,000 Nm, driving the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic.

Beyond the Vanquish, Aston Martin has also had the Valkyrie and Valkyrie Spider mid-engined models, though these are limited-production models with just 150 units and 85 units made, respectively.

Enthusiasts of the row-your-own transmission will be glad to know that the British luxury carmaker aims to bring back the manual gearbox to its product range, Motor1 has reported.

While the manual transmission has appeared in models like the Valour – which made its debut in 2023 – and the Valiant, these are also limited-production models, and the last, regular production Aston Martin with a manual gearbox was the Vantage AMR of 2019.

Future models that bring more mechanical differentiation, such as with a manual gearbox, will however take more time to bring to market, and manual versions of its cars will be preceded by those with new trim packages, Hallmark told Motor1.

Cars with different suspension tune and more power were mentioned by Hallmark, along with the consideration of “bringing back an existing racing car for the road,” according to the report. Models like the DB12 and Vantage are still early in their model lifecycles, and still has room for more driver-focused AMR variants.

As for the brand’s EV goals, Aston Martin aims to have electric vehicles account for 15% its sales, while pure ICE and hybrids are to make up the remaining 85%. “We’ll still have the first battery-electric vehicle in this decade, in the next five years, but instead of trying to get as many as we can over the next five years, it’ll be one,” Hallmark said.

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