Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer has bemoaned the company's lack of faith after selling out orders for their upcoming Valkyrie hypercar.
Apparently, the automakers underestimated how huge the demand would be and, having announced a limited fleet of just 150 units, they're pretty regretful.
It could have been much worse, though, as they initially planned to make 24-59. And since giving potential customers the green light to place orders, it's been realised that they could have easily sold close to 1,000 units.
“When we started discussing Valkyrie volumes we thought we might do 24 or 59," Palmer told Car Sales in an interview. "Then we said, OK, maybe we’ll sell 100, well let’s try for 150… It’s then I realized I could have sold that car five or six times over and you kick yourself.
"And it is really painful, sometimes and one of the things I keep promising myself is that we say we’re going to do 150 and we don’t do 151 - I think it’s really important that when you make a promise, you keep it. When people are writing a big check, you have to live up to it.”
Despite the disappointment, Palmer claims that the Valkyrie isn't just about making money. The project was more about Aston Martin getting its mojo back.
“Every turnaround plan needs a flag to rally around and to a large extent the Valkyrie was has been that flag,” he added. “People at Aston were always good. I inherited a good bunch but they had their tails between their legs and they were behaving like lost souls. I needed to give the company something to get its swagger back.”
Also, Aston Martin chose the persons they wanted driving their cars.
"A lot of pre-qualification went into selecting the owners, and yes, that sounds arrogant but we chose them,” Palmer revealed.
"Hopefully we picked the right people and if we didn't the contract should protect us as you can't flip the Valkyrie for a year.”