Aston Martin drops supermini Cygnet vehicle from its range
BRITISH luxury sports car maker Aston Martin has ended its foray into the supermini segment by dropping its Cygnet city car from the range after poor sales, a source close to the company said.
The source said Aston Martin’s two-door Cygnet, which was based on the Toyota iQ, had been dropped from the company’s line-up after it “sold less than 150 units” of the £32,000 vehicle in Britain.
When it started production three years ago, Aston said it hoped to sell 4,000 Cygnets a year.
Aston Martin has struggled for growth since the economic downturn in 2008 and ratings agency Moody’s put its non-investment grade B3 rating under review late last year.
The group posted a 16 per cent fall in full-year profits, blaming global economic uncertainty for a severe slump in sales of high-end vehicles.
The carmaker, which is majority owned by Kuwait’s Investment Dar and Adeem Investment, reported a pre-tax loss of £24.6m in the year to December 2012, down from the £21.2m it posted a year earlier.