Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll recently purchased a 16.7% stake in Aston Martin thanks to a £182 million ($240 million) investment. However, one major casualty of this arrangement happens to be the launch of Aston’s fully-electric Lagonda brand, which was scheduled for 2022.
Now, those plans have been stalled for three additional years, while the development of the Rapide E is also under review, despite the project being almost complete, reports Autonews Europe.
While Aston Martin is mainly a performance-oriented brand that gets along just fine with internal combustion engines, delaying their push into electric cars could be seen as a negative in today’s automotive landscape.
Read Also: Racing Point To Be Rebranded As Aston Martin F1 Team In 2021
Yet, this slight strategic shift is inevitable, and will see the British carmaker switch its focus to providing hybrid models instead, for the time being. This plan will also result in an unspecified number of job cuts, plus the restructuring of sales and marketing operations.
Despite all these changes, the plan is still for Aston Martin to focus its sales strategy around the DBX crossover, with first deliveries scheduled to commence later this year. Meanwhile, Aston will continue to work with Red Bull Advanced Technologies “until the Aston Martin Valkyrie is delivered,” something that should also take place before the year’s end.
As for the motorsport front, Stroll, who is also the owner of the Racing Point Formula 1 team, decided to rebrand the outfit as Aston Martin for the 2021 F1 season, which is when a whole new set of regulations will go into effect.
