The Aston Martin Vantage, a luxury sports car, is presented during its launch in New Delhi, India, August 29, 2024. REUTERS
April 30 (Reuters) – Luxury carmaker Aston Martin (AML.L), said on Wednesday it was limiting exports to the U.S. to offset the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs and forecast improved results next quarter after a narrower-than-expected first-quarter loss.
Global automakers have been hit hard by Trump’s 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles and foreign-made auto parts – a key escalation in a broader trade war that risks disrupting the global economy. Some of those tariffs were eased on Tuesday.
“We are carefully monitoring the evolving U.S. tariff situation and are currently limiting imports to the U.S. while leveraging the stock held by our U.S. dealers,” CEO Adrian Hallmark said in the company’s trading update.
Tariffs have added to the troubles of European automakers that were already toiling due to rising costs and weak demand in key markets like China.
Still, the company said it would deliver quarterly sequential improvement in performance with wholesale volumes broadly in line with last year, and reaffirmed its 2025 forecast of modest wholesale volume growth.
The more than 110-year-old company reported an adjusted pretax loss of 79.8 million pounds ($106.8 million) for the three-month period ended March 31, compared with 110.5 million pounds a year ago, and analysts’ average consensus estimate of 89 million pounds.
However, gross margin shrank to 27.9% from 37.2% last year mainly due to a 15-million-pound investment in software upgrades for all next-generation cars, it said.
Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Saad Sayeed
