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UK - Aston Martin picks UK over U.S. for new plant to build DBX crossover

Lesedauer: min

Aston Martin has picked a UK location for a new factory to build its DBX crossover ahead of sites it had considered in the U.S. and continental Europe.

The British automaker said in a statementTuesday that it will begin construction of the plant in Wales in 2017 with DBX production starting in 2020.

The U.S. state of Alabama, along with two UK sites and a Middle Eastern location, had been on Aston’s shortlist for the factory. The company has chosen a former airfield in St Athan in Glamorgan, South Wales. The location is 210km (130 miles) from its headquarters and sole production site in Gaydon, central England.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement that Aston's decision to pick a UK location "shows real confidence in the British economy." The head of the Welsh government, Carwyn Jones, said Wales had faced "fierce competition" from other potential sites around the world.

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer said the company had done a detailed evaluation of over 20 potential global locations for the factory. "We were consistently impressed with the focus on quality, cost and speed from the Welsh Government team. As a great British company, we look forward to St Athan joining Gaydon as our second center of hand-crafted manufacturing excellence," he said in the statement.

Aston unveiled the DBX at last year’s Geneva auto show. The company plans annual production of up to 5,000 DBX models.

Last October Palmer had said Alabama could was contender for the new plant because of Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz factory there. "It's an obvious choice when you take a complete platform from Daimler but that's not necessarily the only option that you have," he said at the time.

Daimler has a 5 percent share in Aston.

Aston will invest 200 million pounds ($281 million) in the Welsh factory and to upgrade its Gaydon plant. The investment in the two plants will create up to 1,000 new jobs by 2020.

The company said it will start will production of the DB11, the replacement for its  DB9 in Gaydon this autumn. It will expand the plant's output to 7,000 sports cars a year by 2020, including production of the RapidE, a battery powered version of its Rapid sedan, beginning in 2018.

Aston has recently overhauled its plant in Gaydon in preparation for the new cars, increasing its bodyshop and trim area.

Source: Autonews.com

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