Executive chairman Lawrence Stroll added: “All of my and Tobias’ energy will be dedicated to building on the company’s inherent strengths, its brand, its engineering prowess, and the skills of its people to enable Aston Martin to become one of the pre-eminent luxury car brands in the world.”
Aston Martin’s share price, which began at £19 at the IPO in 2018 but quickly fell back, is reported to have risen by more than a third on news of the reshuffle, from 35p to around 50p.
Palmer leaves Aston Martin on the cusp of launching the cars that could assure the marque’s future: the imminent DBX SUV – the car that Palmer famously insisted the company build in his second day in the job – and the coming new mid-engined Valhalla and Vanquish models. They are sure to go ahead as planned but it is not yet known what fate awaits Palmer’s plan to resurrect Lagonda as a super-luxury electric-only brand, recently shelved until 2025.
Palmer’s era at Aston has seen more action than a James Bond movie. Apart from renewing key models like the DB11, Vantage and DBS Superleggera and their variants, the company has expanded its line-up with new road and track hypercars like the Vulcan, Valkyrie and, most recently, V12 Speedster.
It has rebooted its famous Italian design house collaboration with a range of Zagato specials, opened a brand new plant in South Wales to build the DBX, and recommissioned the heritage Newport Pagnell works to build continuation versions of Aston classics, each selling for millions of pounds.