Wealthy enthusiasts fearing a zero-emission, autonomous future could be shopping in Aston Martin dealerships in years to come, with CEO Andy Palmer stating the V12 engine and manual gearbox are a firm part of his plans for the future of the British luxury brand.

Aston recently re-introduced a seven-speed manual for the V12 Vantage S, and Palmer told MOTOR that this is likely to be retained going forward. “For the volumes that we have, we couldn’t justify developing a new ’box, so everything we do will probably be an update of the current six- and seven-speed ’boxes.

Aston Martin driving

Palmer also plans to keep using big-capacity V12s as long as possible, with Aston Martin’s using electric propulsion for selected future models to lower its all-important fleet average CO2 emissions rather than offering downsized engines across the range.

Aston Martin V12 engines

“The only way you can do that in an environment of CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) is a big offset, and your big offset is your battery-electric i.e. zero.”

Palmer is also unconcerned that an inherently silent electric car will fail to provide the emotion and excitement traditionally offered by Aston’s internal combustion engines: “I would say that sound can be different; sound drives you emotionally and the hairs on the back of your head stand up when you hear a V12 or a V8, or even a V6.

Williams engine

“Since the world doesn’t stand still and there’s legislation that forces me to go in one direction, I’d rather have the emotion of a V12 combined with the emotion of zero sound than be forced to go to an inline-four engine.”