Aston Martin DBX arrives in Australia

Greed is not part of the plan as the make-or-break Aston Martin DBX is readied for Australia.

The British brand is taking a slow-and-steady approach to its first SUV, despite admitting the car is already a sell-out Down Under.

Aston is trying to get more DBXs for Australia but the president of the company’s operations in Asia-Pacific, Patrik Nilsson, cannot make any promises.

Instead, as the DBX was revealed at Mount Panorama over the Bathurst 12 Hour race weekend, he was pointing to the positives.

“I have more than enough orders to cover this year’s production. So I’m sold out,” he told carsales.

“So the question is if I can get more allocation.”

Nilsson point-blank refused to talk about sales numbers and wouldn’t even confirm if – like other brands including Porsche and Bentley, when they first went SUV with the Cayenne and Bentayga – the DBX would become the company’s top seller with the potential to double its annual sales numbers.

Even so, he says Aston is not getting greedy during the ramp-up of its new $357,000 hero car.

“We won’t go bonkers. That’s one lesson we’ve learned from our competitors. We don’t want to get greedy,” said Nilsson.

“There is a possibility of a very quick ramp-up and then a drop off. That’s not what we want to happen.”

Aston has been in trouble for more than a year with a sales decline and share-price fall, although the latest development from the UK is a buy-in by billionaire Lawrence Stroll – father of grand prix driver Lance Stroll and owner of the Racing Point team – that could stabilise things and provide the support to drive the company into the DBX era.

But, once again, Nilsson is gagged by Britain, although he can talk about Australia.

“Last year was tough because the market went down. But we maintained our share of the market segment.

“It’s a super important market for us. You love cars [in Australia] and we love you for it. The opportunity is there.”

Sitting inside the DBX, which is smaller and more dramatic than it looks in pictures, he shifted gears to talk about the opportunity with the SUV.

“It’s a super-good story for us, as 73 per cent of global Aston Martin owners have an SUV in their garage.”

Even so, he is expecting about 60 per cent of DBX buyers to be new to the brand, and is already seeing a surge in sports car sales to people who are on the waiting list.

“It’s not rare to see them moving to other parts of the brand.”

As yet, Nilsson cannot confirm things like the most popular colour with DBX buyers, or their preferences in optional equipment, but says almost every customer is doing something different in the details.

“They can spec the car completely as they want. There is nothing like a launch edition.

“We wanted a good honest pricing. We didn’t want a price for a naked car and then have people have to pay another $80,000 for a decent car.”

As the first customers deliveries roll into view, Aston is also smiling about the car’s timing as its cars star in another James Bond film.

The trailer for No Time To Die has already taken an Aston Martin direction and Nilsson says there is more to come.

“It’s great for anyone who loves Aston Martin. There are three cars in the trailer and a fourth in the movie.”