Aston Martin Isn’t Looking So Hot, You Guys

Earlier this year, things were looking up for Aston Martin. At the start of 2025, the company predicted it would finally turn a profit by December. This seemed like great news, considering seven years of previous losses. That sentiment didn’t last long. Once tariffs came into effect, Aston adjusted its expectations and said it would likely break even for the year, selling around the same 6,000 cars it did in 2024.

But that’s no longer the case. Things have taken a turn for the worse for the British luxury carmaker, going by its third-quarter update. It sold 12% fewer cars than expected in the last three months, and now predicts it’ll sell fewer cars in 2025 than it did in 2024. The company is also expecting to take a $147.5 million loss for the year before interest and taxes are taken into account. Oof.

What else is going on? An aluminum recycling plant in New York that supplies metal to Ford and a few other manufacturers suffered a bad fire last month. According to one report, it could impact the Blue Oval’s production for “months.” One expert said that this plant is where Ford gets the aluminum to build the F-150, America’s most popular vehicle.

Turning to a more positive subject, Jaguar-Land Rover is finally restarting some production facilities after a cyberattack knocked its systems offline for five straight weeks. This’ll come as a big relief not only to JLR itself, but also its suppliers, which have been pushed to near bankruptcy thanks to the disruption of cash flow.

In other news, Ferrari has built a new test track right next to its current Fiorano test track in Maranello, adjacent to the brand’s factory. It’s called the e-Vortex, and it took just four months to build. Those Italians sure can work fast.

Oh, Poor Aston

Not to fully replicate The Bishop’s words on Aston Martin from yesterday here, but it really does feel like the company is perpetually stuck in a state somewhere between solvency and bankruptcy. It’s one of the last legacy low-volume luxury carmakers not to have a parent company to provide financial assistance when things get tough. Though Mercedes supplies powertrains to Aston, it only owns about a 9.7% stake, according to Automotive News. Another 33% is owned by Yew Tree Investments, a collection of investors led by Canadian business tycoon Lawrence Stroll.

That lower yearly sales outlook means that deliveries will, specifically, “decline by mid-high single digit percentage when compared to the prior year,” according to stock filings published yesterday. At best, that means a 5% dip in sales, or around 300 fewer cars sold than in 2024. For a brand that sold just 6,030 vehicles all of last year, that’s a bigger hit than it sounds. Why is all of this happening? A few obvious reasons. From the filing:

The global macroeconomic environment facing the industry remains challenging. This includes uncertainties over the economic impact from U.S. tariffs and the implementation of the quota mechanism, changes to China’s ultra-luxury car taxes and the increased potential for supply chain pressures, particularly following the recent cyber incident at a major UK automotive manufacturer.

That “quota mechanism” mentioned above references the agreement put in place between America and the U.K., which lowers tariffs to 10% for the first 100,000 cars imported per year. It’s still not exactly clear how specific brands will qualify. And that “recent major cyber incident,” obviously, refers to JLR, which hasn’t built a car in over a month (more on that below).

Aston is also delaying the first deliveries of its mid-engine Valhalla supercar (pictured above)—a car that Autocar says is key to the brand’s turnaround to profitability. Though production is already underway, it now only plans to build 150 of the planned 999 units this year, citing delays “linked to completion of vehicle engineering and the finalization of mandatory homologation approvals.”

It’s not all doom and gloom in this filing; Aston says the ramp-up of Valhalla deliveries next year should result in the brand turning a profit in 2026.

A Fire At A Single Aluminum Plant Could Spell Danger For F-150 Production

Last month, an aluminum plant in Oswego, New York, operated by recycling firm Novelis, suffered what sounded like a pretty serious fire that, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, “leveled a key part” of the facility. Here’s why that might end up affecting production of America’s most popular passenger vehicle:

The plant’s operator, Atlanta-based Novelis, supplies about 40% of the aluminum sheet used by the auto industry in the U.S., according to industry analysts. Novelis said a major portion of its Oswego, N.Y., plant has been knocked offline until early next year.

Ford is the biggest user of the plant. Its F-150 pickup, the top-selling vehicle in the U.S. and the automaker’s main profit driver, is one of the industry’s biggest users of aluminum. The setback is severe enough that Ford will likely flag potential implications to investors when it discloses quarterly financial results later this month, according to people familiar with the matter.

“This represents a serious question for the production of F-150 because that’s the aluminum that comes out of Oswego,” said Kaustubh Chandorkar, an aluminum-industry analyst. Ford switched the F-150’s exterior to aluminum from steel a decade ago.

Ford said in a statement to WSJ that it uses several aluminum suppliers and that it’s working with Novelis to “minimize any potential disruptions.”

The Blue Oval isn’t the only manufacturer set back by this incident. The plant also supplies aluminum to companies like Toyota, Hyundai, and Stellantis, according to WSJ. Those brands gave similar statements to the publication about working with suppliers to mitigate delays.

This incident is a great example of how delicate today’s supply chains can be. One plant being knocked offline can have a cascading effect throughout the industry, causing issues that likely won’t right themselves for weeks.

JLR Finally Restarts (Some) Production Tomorrow

It’s been exactly 36 days since Jaguar Land Rover built a car. The shutdown has been costing the brand around $67 million per week, according to Reuters, which isn’t great for anyone involved. It sounds like the nightmare might finally be over, as the company plans to restart production at its assembly facilities in the U.K. and Slovakia this week. Here’s how vehicles will get rolling again:

The phased restart of JLR’s manufacturing operations begins at the Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre (EPMC), where the company builds engines, and its Battery Assembly Centre (BAC), both in the West Midlands, UK, on Wednesday 8 October 2025.

JLR colleagues will also begin to return on Wednesday to the company’s stamping operations in Castle Bromwich, Halewood and Solihull, UK, and other key areas of its Solihull vehicle production plant, such as its body shop, paint shop and its Logistics Operations Centre (LOC), which feeds parts to JLR’s global manufacturing sites.

This activity will be closely followed by vehicle manufacturing in Nitra, Slovakia, and restart of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport (MLA) production lines in the Solihull facility this week.

To keep suppliers happy (and prevent them from going bankrupt), JLR is also launching a new financing system that’ll see the brand deliver upfront sums to qualifying suppliers to aid with “cashflow in the near term.” This cash is coming from the U.K. government, which promised JLR a £1.5-billion loan late last month to assist with keeping suppliers afloat.

Ferrari Built A New Test Track Right Next To Its Old Test Track

Ferrari is expected to release details on its first-ever electric car later this month. But before it does that, it’s revealed a new test track called the Ferrari e-Vortex. Built in under four months, it’s located in what was, going by Google Maps, just an empty field directly west of the company’s iconic Fiorano test circuit in Maranello.

Unlike Fiorano, which is really just a race track, e-Vortex looks to be far closer to a real development course, complete with road markings, bankings, and parking spots. That means it’ll likely be used to calibrate driver assistance and safety systems, rather than to produce lap times. It sounds like that’s exactly Ferrari’s plan:

Designed to meet the most advanced development and validation requirements, the track allows for precise and repeatable testing in compliance with the highest safety standards. The track is divided into a series of sectors, each dedicated to a specific aspect of performance and driving pleasure: two wide curves with banking and longitudinal slope, a central straight, and handling curves dedicated to the study of dynamic behaviour. The special road surfaces – developed using Ferrari’s experience and expertise – allow for in-depth analysis of comfort and performance.

Ferrari e-Vortex will enable testing activities to be gradually transferred from the road to the track, ensuring an even more objective assessment of performance and faster identification of any anomalies. In addition, concentrating testing within the new testing area will help reduce the impact on traffic in the surrounding area.

The track is 1.1 miles long and comes complete with a 3,280-square-foot workshop to keep cars hidden when engineers need to do maintenance, checks, repairs, or adjustments on the fly. Sounds pretty fancy.

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

James Bond’s 2002 film Die Another Day was the first 007 movie I saw in theaters, and still one of my favorites. It seems especially fitting to listen to Madonna’s Die Another Day, the song released alongside the film, seeing as how Aston is as close to death as it’s been in years.

The Big Question

Aston Martin has experienced seven bankruptcies in its 112-year history. Do you think it can avoid its eighth?