A lot more German engine tech, for Aston.

The Aston Martin and AMG business strategy is set to strengthen, as many had predicted.

With former AMG boss, Tobias Moers, now in the position as Aston Martin CEO, it was only a matter of time before Mercedes-Benz started increasing its influence.

The British luxury automotive brand is in trouble. With Brexit, it risks complicated tariffs on its engine supply chain, which it mostly sources from Germany.

Aston Martin is also struggling with the complexity of electrification and reviving its Lagonda brand. Moers understands the luxury high-performance car customer better than most, having built AMG into a dominant brand.

Mercedes-Benz has announced that it wishes to attain a 20% shareholding in Aston Martin and for the British company, that German proportion of ownership, could mean better engines.

AMG already supplies its 4-litre turbocharged V8 engine architecture to Aston Martin, but not in the most potent states of tune. At a recent industry event, the company’s Canadian chairman, Lawrence Stroll, preposed a future supply chain of bespoke AMG engines, for Aston Martin’s models.

Mercedes-Benz will carefully analyse the risk of giving Aston Martin engines with different outputs to its own. There is a very low likelihood that AMG will supply Aston Martin with more powerful engines.

The more probable outcome is recalibrated software and exhaust systems, to deliver slightly different throttle response characteristics and a specific Aston Martin sound signature. The engines may also have different torque delivery characteristics too.

It is also possible that AMG is more willing to share a customized version of its petrol engines, for Aston’s use, due to the German brandtransitioning to greater electrification. As fewer of its V8 petrol engines will be required in future, the planned production output needs to go somewhere – and Aston is an ideal destination.

As battery packs and electric motors become a more important and integral element of AMG’s next-generation powertrains, it will be less bothered sharing platforms such as the 4-litre turbocharged V8, with others. Aston Martin has also committed to equipping petrol motors to certain models within its range after the 2030 great British cull of internal combustion engines.

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