How Sustainable is Aston Martin’s First Hybrid Supercar?

According to its production team, Aston Martin’s Valhalla “pushes the boundaries of supercar engineering and performance to deliver a car which shines on road and thrives on track”.

Its eight-speed shift helps it to hit 62mph in 2.5 seconds and an electronically-limited 350km/h (217mph) maximum speed.

All of which sounds great for the super-rich adrenaline junkies who yearn to own a head-turning status symbol.

But how do these performance points square with sustainability? Can a 217mph supercar also be green?

First, the blurb

It is fair to Aston Martin to give it the hard sell first. It is a beautiful vehicle, after all.

Over to the car manufacturer to wax lyrical: “Fusing the performance-driven methodologies and technologies of Formula 1 with spectacular design and scintillating driving dynamics, Valhalla is a supercar of extraordinary scope.”

It labels the mid-engined hybrid supercar a “car of firsts”, including:

• Aston Martin’s first series production mid-engined supercar
• The first model to use the bespoke 4.0-litre twin-turbo flat-plane crank V8 engine – the highest performing V8 engine ever fitted to an Aston Martin
• The first to use the brand’s 8-speed Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT).

The company also highlights a “fresh design language”.

It says: “Extreme supercar performance expressed with fresh form and proportion, it bears the unmistakable Aston Martin hallmarks of flawless, uncorrupted lines and combines them with innovative high-downforce active aerodynamics.”

Aston Martin CEO Adrian Hallmark says: “Four years ago we set out on a journey to transform the Aston Martin brand by taking its historic and unmatched luxury credentials and adding cutting-edge F1-inspired technology and class-leading performance, with the aim of taking on the most successful brands in the world.

“With the next generation of sportscars launched to critical acclaim, we are now adding the first ever mid-engine series production Aston Martin to our portfolio, the ultimate driver’s supercar.”

Adrian adds: “We learned to think differently from developing the ultimate hypercar, Aston Martin Valkyrie and working with Adrian Newey.

“This knowledge and new methodology have allowed us to build on the strengths of our past successes and position Aston Martin as a class-leading company in technology, performance and experience for our customers who will be the custodians of this new piece of Aston Martin history, Valhalla.”

What about sustainability?

If you want to know about suspension stiffness, active aero and powertrain systems, the 6,000-word Aston Martin press release is for you.

But if you are interested in sustainability or low-carbon, the specific words do not feature at all.

As Aston Martin’s first plug-in hybrid and its first production vehicle with dedicated EV range capability, not mentioning Valhalla’s sustainability credentials seems like missing an open goal.

Getting to the bottom of the supercar’s green features demands some decoding skills. For the detail is there – it is just tough to distil from the car jargon.

Aston Martin’s Director of Vehicle Performance Simon Newton says: “The challenge for the engineering and vehicle dynamics teams has been to harness, for the first time, the immense power of Valhalla’s hybrid powertrain through a combination of active aerodynamics and integrated dynamic control systems.”

Harnessing the hybrid powertrain through active aerodynamics sounds suspiciously like sustainability.

Electric performance

So, with apologies for not putting the phrases through an AI simplification tool, here are some EV-angled features highlighted in the press release:

EV mode

• On start-up, Valhalla selects Sport mode as default, with the driver able to manually select Pure EV, Sport+ and Race as alternative drive modes
• In pure EV mode, drive is from the front-axle motors only with a range of 14km and a top speed limited to 140km/h (80mph)
• Pure EV is silent on start-up. As the battery depletes its state of charge, Valhalla will automatically switch from EV to Sport 
• Sport engages the V8 engine and drives Valhalla as a hybrid supercar.

Energy storage 

• In most normal steady-state driving situations the load on the V8 engine can be minimised to achieve improved fuel consumption
• When load increases surplus energy is stored in the HV battery
• When the engine’s operating efficiency is low – such as idling or in slow moving stop-start traffic – the engine switches off automatically and electric drive is engaged
• Brake regeneration further increases efficiency by harvesting kinetic energy during braking or deceleration and storing it in the HV battery.

Regenerative braking

• Regenerative braking increases the range of the electric drivetrain and makes otherwise wasted energy usable by employing the front axle E-machine to convert braking energy and store it in the HV battery
• The majority of the regenerative energy conversion is achieved when the driver applies the brakes, with the deceleration divided between the front electric motors and the conventional friction brakes.

Energy efficiency at your fingertips

The internal display features a central touchscreen incorporating the introduction of new EV features, including a drivetrain visualiser illustrating the powerflow in real time.

This graphic shows when Valhalla is regenerating energy under braking, performing load shift to charge the battery and when it is deploying energy to enhance performance and dynamics.

The EV drive mode presents a clear graphic on to the driver display showing Valhalla’s energy deployment, electric power, and subsequent energy regeneration.

Finally, the exterior.

Here, Aston Martin says, a “tenfold efficiency increase has been achieved in a simplified design for the front assembly”.

Originally 20 separate components made from a mix of aluminium and carbon fibre, the production assembly is now made from two individual carbon fibre pieces and is 7kg lighter than the original design.

So, plenty of sustainability features after all.

Getting back to aesthetics, the final word goes to Aston Martin’s EVP and Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman, who says: “As Aston Martin’s first mid-engined supercar Valhalla presented a rare opportunity to create something fresh.

“The result is a supercar of unparalleled purity; a design that celebrates the inspiring challenge of seamlessly uniting form and function in this new age of efficient ultra-performance.”

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