Aston Martin has decided to put certain components manufactured by Chinese car company Geely into its new cars, CTO Roberto Fedeli revealed in an interview. He hurried to add that there would be no critical parts among them – mostly just seats and HVAC components.
Per Fedeli, the company is making a serious effort to accelerate work on new cars while cutting costs across the board. One of the most viable ways to do so is to use ready-made components provided by third parties. Aston Martin’s projections revealed that partnering up with Geely could shrink the company’s current list of vendors it depends upon by 30%.
The British automaker hopes that its Chinese partner takes active part in this endeavor, especially given its recent agreement to acquire a 17% share in Aston Martin (up from 7.6%). The two companies started discussing their cooperation opportunities last fall, when Geely purchased its first stock of AML shares.