Aston Martin, Ford sign five-year engine partnership extension: report
Aston Martin has reportedly signed a contract extension with Ford that will see the US auto giant continue to supply it with engines for the next five years.
The Sunday Times in the UK says the extension of the partnership, which currently sees Ford produce V8 and V12 engines for Aston Martin at its plant in Cologne, Germany, is a done deal.
Neither company has officially confirmed the deal at this stage, with Aston Martin telling various news sources it does not comment on supplier agreements.
The deal would see Aston Martin continue to equip its vehicles with Ford-produced engines until at least 2018, and suggests the company’s VH architecture that underpins every model in the brand’s line-up (with the exception of the Toyota iQ-based Cygnet) will likewise live on at least until the end of the decade.
An extension of the supply contract would necessitate a rework of the Ford-sourced engines to bring them up to Euro 6 emissions standards, which come into effect in Europe from September 2014.
The deal is understood not to impact on the engine partnership negotiations between Aston Martin and Daimler that CarAdvice reported on last month, with those discussions still far from finalised and believed to be working towards an arrangement some way in the future.
Aston Martin was a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford between 1994 and 2007 before it was sold to two Kuwaiti companies and an American investment banker for £475 million ($792 million).
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