Earlier this month, we reported that Aston Martin has discontinued the Cygnet due to poor sales. However, it turns out there was more to it than that. Aston Martin CEO Ulrich Bez said Toyota is going to axe the iQ next year, so Aston Martin had no choice but to stop production of the Cygnet as well. The Cygnet is basically a rebadged and more luxurious version of the Toyota iQ.
“We stopped the Cygnet as Toyota itself will stop the iQ in 2014 and we don’t want to invest anymore,” Ulrich Bez was quoted as saying by Autocar. The executive said he had big plans with the Cygnet, but they never came to fruition because of various reasons.
“I wanted to bring it to the US, but there was no support for it. I wanted a supercharged engine, but there was also no support,” he said. Bez placed a part of the blame on Toyota for the lack of success of the Cygnet.
“We had a great start with Akio Toyoda, whom I still have a great relationship with. But Toyota didn’t follow up the support like it does with Tesla and its marketing of other products,” Bez revealed.
He added that Aston Martin did a good thing with the Cygnet after all and that it’s a great car, particularly in London. “It will be a cult car in the future and will be well looked after,” Bez said.
In response to the executive’s statements, Toyota said it has no plans to end iQ production and declined to comment any further.
By Dan Mihalascu
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