Aston Martin CMO: We Have No Interest in Making Cheaper Cars
*By Michael Teich*
Brexit could be a major bump in the road for Aston Martin if it disrupts trade with the automaker's European partners, said the company's CMO Simon Sproule.
"The biggest threat to us of Brexit is non-tariff barriers, because if you end up getting import duties on Astons going into Europe, then you're going to get import duties on Ferraris coming into the UK. So it's a zero-sum game," Sproule said Tuesday in an interview on Cheddar.
The Brexit withdrawal process began March 29, 2017 after a countrywide vote, and the UK is set to depart from the European Union on March 29, 2019.
A new report from the Federation of German Industries said a "hard Brexit" ー meaning in the absence of a deal between the EU and the UK ー could cause exports to Britain from the rest of the EU to drop by as much as [57 percent](https://www.dw.com/en/german-industry-warns-against-hard-brexit/av-45818058).
That kind of trade disturbance would not be good for business, Sproule said.
"What we're lobbying the government most strongly about is to ensure the free flow of parts and obviously completed vehicles," he added.
Aston Martin ($AML.L) is the latest luxury automaker to make its market debut. Despite a rough start on the London Stock Exchange since its Oct. 3 IPO ー shares are down 16 percent since ー Sproule said patient investors will benefit from the company's future growth.
"The IPO was effectively a marker in our evolution," he said. "People that have been buying into us are buying in for the long term. They buy into the equity story, they buy into the future potential of Aston Martin."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/aston-martin-cmo-we-have-no-interest-in-making-cheaper-cars).
Cheddar's Michelle Castillo looks into the growth in cigar smoking that took place during the pandemic, and how supply chain woes have come to hurt this industry as well.
He tried to catch them all. A man from Georgia has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for using COVID relief to buy a rare Charizard Pokemon Card with $58,000 of the loan money. The collectible has now become government property.
For Fadia Kader, the global head of strategic and media partnerships at social audio app Clubhouse, it's about pushing culture forward and connecting people with the biggest and brightest stars in music and entertainment.
Lie detectors don't work. In fact, the science behind them has been increasingly scrutinized since their inception. But they’re still being used in high-stakes scenarios with real consequences.
So, if lie detectors don’t actually work, why do we still use them?
Soaring gas prices, South Korea's presidential election is getting nasty, and it was a big night for country music! Here is all the news you Need2Know for Tuesday, March 8, 2022.
Country music fans watching the Academy of Country Music Awards tonight will be doing so in a different way than years past. The ceremony will not be broadcast on network TV and will air exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. This will be the first time a major awards show will be live-streamed exclusively on a subscription video-on-demand platform. Shelly Kramer, co-founder and lead analyst of Futurum Research, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Atomic bills itself as an investing API that allows fintechs and banks to easily integrate investing into their products by bringing the power of investing to everyone, with no account minimums. In November, the company announced its launch along with a $25 million Series A funding round. David Dindi, co-founder and CEO of Atomic, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Derek Shearer, former U.S. Ambassador to Finland and contributing writer for Washington Monthly, joins Cheddar News to discuss the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
