The DBX starts at $179,986, including shipping.
The SUV has been a long time coming for Aston Martin, its retailers and customers.
The brand introduced the DBX as a concept at the 2015 Geneva auto show. The vehicle debuted in production form in November 2019.
“The vast majority of those that signed up for the DBX have followed through, have taken delivery and are taking deliveries as planned,” Moran said. “Just over 95 percent, which from our perspective has been a fantastic statistic, because a lot has happened from the time that we were initially talking to those customers in that 14-, 15-month gap.”
While the DBX is seen as critical to the brand globally after a challenging 2020 in which Aston Martin was bailed out by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, suffered job cuts and had a change in leadership, the SUV should also get sales in the Americas region back on track.
In 2019, Aston Martin sold around 2,000 new vehicles in the Americas, Moran said. Sales dropped to around 1,300 vehicles in pandemic-stricken 2020, he said.
“We’ll see this year, [about] getting back to that 2,000-unit level,” he said. “From there, obviously, the projection is for the brand to continue to escalate.”
Moran said the brand has seen success with the DBX in markets such as South Florida, Southern California and Texas.
Ken Gorin, CEO of the Collection — a Miami-area luxury dealership group representing nine brands, including Aston Martin — called the SUV a game changer for dealers. His store sold 11 DBXs in 2020, another seven by mid-March and has 14 set to arrive next month, all of which are sold.
“I think as you see more on the road and it becomes a car that is on people’s shopping lists and gets a little bit more well known as availability [increases], the sky’s the limit,” Gorin said.
The impact of adding an SUV has been felt elsewhere in the brand’s retail network, Moran noted.
“We’re also seeing some spikes in some of the secondary markets: Canada, the Chicago area, Colorado,” Moran said. “Markets such as those where having an all-wheel-drive SUV has really been beneficial.”
The DBX is the freshest face of the exotic- and ultraluxury-SUV group consisting of the Bentley Bentayga, Lamborghini Urus and Rolls-Royce Cullinan. The DBX is already conquesting those competitors, Moran said.
“We’re definitely conquesting and we need to conquest at a pretty high rate for us to be able hit our targets which, five months in, we’re accomplishing.” he said.
“We’re seeing a pretty good range from premium to high-luxe brands. You’re seeing some Bentaygas, some Uruses, within the high-luxe segment itself.”
