The last few days have seen a steady stream of announcements from carmakers, and with the rare exception of the , the news has been pretty bad for the sector. After , Aston Martin on Wednesday 26 February announced that it was laying off 170 people, or 5% of its workforce, as part of a savings plan.

“After a period of intense product launches, coupled with industry-wide and company challenges, our focus now shifts to operational execution and delivering financial sustainability,” commented Adrian Hallmark, Aston Martin’s CEO since September 2024, upon the announcement of the company’s 2024 results. “We are commencing a process to make organisational adjustments, to ensure the business is appropriately resourced for its future plans.”

The British luxury carmaker explained that it expected to save around £25m (€30.1m) with the job cuts. Aston Martin has again delayed the launch of its first electric car, which is now expected by the end of the decade. The group last year had already pushed back the launch to 2026. Also on Wednesday 26 February, the carmaker announced a 42% widening of its loss last year, to £323.5m (€390m), and a fall of almost 10% in the number of vehicles sold. The main culprit was the weakness of the Chinese market.

This article was originally published in .