Aston Martin to Build CUV at New Plant

James Bond speeding along a twisting French Riviera road in an Aston Martin…CUV?

The image might sound incongruous, but the reality is that the venerable U.K. sports car maker plans to build a new CUV at St. Athan in Glamorgan, Wales, using some of the facilities at a mothballed Royal Air Force station.

Occupying some 90 acres (36 ha), the new facility at St. Athan, 165 miles (265 km) west of London, the automaker will convert three large hangars at the Ministry of Defense site. Construction begins in 2017 with series production starting in 2020.

Aston Martin also confirms it will produce its next-generation sports cars at its headquarters and manufacturing center in Gaydon, Warwickshire, 90 miles (145 km) northwest of London. The recently announced all-electric RapidE also be built at Gaydon starting in 2018.

The Aston Martin program involves spending £200 million ($279 million) on new products and facilities and the creation of up to 1,000 jobs at St. Athan and Gaydon by 2020. Another 3,000 jobs across the supply chain and local businesses likely will be created as a result of these investments.

“Through a detailed evaluation of over 20 potential global locations for this new manufacturing facility, we were consistently impressed with the focus on quality, cost and speed from the Welsh government team,” Aston Martin CEO Andrew Palmer says in a statement. “We look forward to St. Athan joining Gaydon as our second center of hand-crafted manufacturing excellence.”

St. Athan will be the sole production facility for the new CUV. A concept CUV named DBX was unveiled in early 2015 and signaled the automaker’s intention and direction for the fast-growing segment of the luxury market.

With growing demand for these types of vehicles in markets such as China and the U.S., Aston Martin expects more than 90% of production from St. Athan will be exported.

Production at Gaydon of the new DB11, the replacement for the iconic DB9 and the first car to be launched under the automaker’s Second Century plan, launches this fall.

During the next five years, Aston Martin will both replace and expand its entire sports car portfolio. Starting with the DB11, sports-car manufacturing will be centered at Gaydon with the facility reaching planned maximum production of 7,000 units a year by 2020.