Aston Martin enters talks with battery maker for new electric fleet

Aston Martin is reportedly in talks with battery maker Britishvolt for a fleet of luxury electric vehicles.

Aston Martin, which has agreed to only sell electric or hybrid cars by 2026, is in early talks with Britishvolt, who recently secured £100m of taxpayer funding and is building a factory in Blyth, Northumberland.

The UK is feared to be falling behind Europe in the race to create greener transport unless gigafactories become operational in the country.

The news came as Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll revealed its AMR22 Formula One racing car whilst he discussed the £2.5m Valkyrie supercar and the delays that have impacted the project.

Only 300 Valkyries will be made which are at a near-F1 standard, requiring a support team of 25 to keep them running once they are sold.

The cars feature carbon fibre frames that can take eight weeks to hand-build and a rear spoiler that can be adjusted by an onboard computer in 2-degree increments.

The cars have been held back from being delivered to customers with 10 delivered so far to maintain the quality of them, but Stoll told The Telegraph all orders have substantial deposits and no customers have wavered.

“We have a complexity issue and building the car.

“We overestimated the amount of cars we could build, until we started building.”

Aston Martin reported a £15m hit to profits because of delays in shipping the vehicles to customers.

Investors will be updated on the company’s progress on February 23.

Britishvolt and Aston Martin declined to comment on talks