0 to 100 kilometers per hour in about 4.5 seconds. Top speed, limited to 291km/h. You hear it before you see it. That, from an SUV which weighs about 2,245 kilograms. The Aston Martin DXB is fast, and it has a cousin that’s faster still. The more powerful DXB707 does the dash in 3.3 seconds, topping 310 km/h and weighs the same. A car that’s still made in the traditional way, in an era where automation and robots are otherwise dominating production lines.
This luxury sports SUV, or sports utility vehicle, sits beside the Valhalla and Valkyrie, two cars that also go to the very limits of performance. Competition is tough too. The Bentley Bentayga, Lamborghini Urus and Ferrari Purosangue, some examples of legendary carmakers with new SUVs, thereabouts in terms of performance and built by hand to different degrees.
Stuart Lord, who is Head of Manufacturing Operations Aston Martin Lagonda, forewarned us, as HT embarked on a very rare visit to the manufacturing and testing site for the iconic British luxury sports car manufacturer. “The chance to go on the test track in a DBX, and that normally ends up with one thing that I call the Aston Martin smile,” he tells us. Something akin to a Cheshire cat, if you may.
Lord previously worked with Ford and Jaguar Land Rover too, across 11 countries globally.
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From the moment you step into the Aston Martin Lagonda Production and Technology Centre in Wales, prominence of the human element is clear. Not just the car’s interface with those who own one, or that production relies more on humans than machines. The two large, iconic displays as one enters the building, are unmissable – they list the name of every person who has worked on making cars for the company. Lord proudly points to his name. Quite a few have joined since.
That’s a choice Aston Martin makes, hand-crafted attention to detail, being the underlying sentiment. Competition is tough, and Aston Martin is not feeling any pressure to move to automation to quicken the processes on what is a massive factory floor. So much so, even the final checks on the paint are done purely by the human eye.
“Everything you’ll see on the vehicle is truly handmade. So right down to the centre console to the bits you don’t see. The labour that goes into the car here is very much in terms of handmade, which is a massive differentiator for us. Every car will have an owner on the build, and we do not build to stock,” says Lord. The waiting period is usually around 6 months, but it can often be as long as a year.
At about £191,000 (around ₹1,99,55,992), depending on customisations, an Aston Martin DBX707 is one of the most expensive cars you can buy.
Lord talks about a car that a special customer had ordered and was sold just before the Christmas of last year. “When people at the factory were looking for the car, they weren’t looking for a vehicle identification number or colour. They were looking for the car by the customers’ name!,” he says, with a chuckle that can barely be disguised.
Lean production, is Aston Martin’s approach. The production line runs around the perimeter of what is a huge space – afforded by the fact this was formerly an airfield and its hanger.
“In the middle of the hall are all of the sub-assemblies, very similar to lean production. Everything in the center feeds out in the shortest distance and then the body traverses around the outside,” Lord describes the structuring of the lines.
The inside of an Aston Martin DBX, misses one thing that we see on most other road cars – nuts and bolts. In use is high-strength adhesive, and as Lord points out, the weight to strength ratio is higher than traditional welding. But is it more expensive? No, he says.
“We’re working within a tolerance of about half a millimeter,” he says. On a 4.2-meter-long car, that’s quite something.
The materials themselves are perhaps a bit costlier, but Lord weighs that against the investment that’s not needed in terms of a normal body shop, for welding and riveting. Will this material be susceptible to extreme temperature changes, either hot or cold? Negative, too.
Paint checks, done by the human eye, are under different lighting conditions which the paint inspection bay has – warm, cold and sunlight conditions are replicated. Any defects detected here, such as a piece of dirt in the paint, are quickly rectified. Any more complicated issues with paint, the car in question is transferred to a separate area so that the rest of the production line doesn’t come to a standstill.
As we hear the satisfying roars of one DBX after the other milling about the factory floor, from the paint check stage onwards, Lord describes what happens here.
The final step is where all technology checks are done – cameras, radars, wind noise and water splash tests, and engine rpm (or revolutions per minute) as well as a final road test done by a team of professional test drivers to check for braking performance, acceleration, handbrake strength, traction control systems and indeed if there are any rattles or misfitted panels.
The only place you’ll notice robots at the Aston Martin Lagonda Production and Technology Centre is when the water splash and wind noise tests need to be done – the machines simulate the process.
“A technician scans the car and unless it’s a clear car, the barrier stays down. Everything has to be absolutely correct,” says Lord, as we see the checks on a car being done using a system that connects with the car’s on-board computer. Another DBX rolls into the queue, ready to be checked ahead of being packed for delivery.
In fact, customers can request for a “build-log”, which is unique for every vehicle, and details the steps the car went through in the production stage, including any faults detected along the way and how (as well as who) fixed them.
Lord points out the speed at this production facility, compared to many other car makers which may use as much as 90 percent robot interaction for body building, is much slower.
The Aston Martin Lagonda’s DBX production line wholesaled 3,219 SUV units last year. This number varies, depending on orders. Lord makes it clear, Aston Martin DBXs don’t ever go into build-stock situation. You just cannot buy an Aston Martin off the shelf.
Credit for that, Lord says, goes to owner Lawrence Stroll and his learning’s from the fashion background. The “importance of a pull” makes all the difference.
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