Back in June, Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer confirmed the British company is working on a mid-engine sports car to slot below its upcoming Valkyrie hypercar and rival competitors like the Ferrari 488 GTB. But unlike the 488, which uses a V8, the still-unnamed Aston might actually use a smaller V6 engine, according to one report.
The Financial Times reports Aston’s baby Valkyrie will likely utilize a V6 powertrain rather than the V8s or V12 synonymous with the brand due to displacement-based tax laws in markets like China. With a smaller engine, Aston can avoid a large engine tax, and reach more customers.
The Financial Times also spoke to Palmer recently regarding the future of Aston Martin, and he revealed a whole bunch about the company’s plan to hybridize its lineup.
“We will be 100 percent hybrid by the middle of the 2020s,” Palmer told the Financial Times.
He went onto say a quarter of Aston Martin’s lineup will be fully electric by the year 2030, and that it won’t be outsourcing the tech, like it does with its V8 engines.
“You need to keep core technology inside the company,” said Palmer. “That’s why we make our own V12 engine. We believe that EVs are a core technology, and therefore we want to do them ourselves.”
The Aston Martin’s first electric car, the Rapid-E sedan, is set to go on sale in 2019.