Aston Martin is set to bring production of the Rapide four-door saloon to its Gaydon factory after changes to the plant free up more production capacity.

The Rapide is presently built by Magna Steyr in Austria, but assembly will begin at Aston's own factory from the second half of 2012.

Aston Martin Chief Executive, Dr Ulrich Bez said: "In 2008 we had facility restrictions at Gaydon which indicated that production of Rapide at Gaydon would likely compromise production of our other cars. We were not prepared to do this.

"Now, three years on things are very different - Gaydon is more established, more flexible and more efficient. While our overall volume has not changed significantly, we now produce a far richer model mix - eight model lines (plus five variants) compared to three model lines (plus two variants) in 2008 - so Rapide production is now possible.

"I would like to place on record our gratitude to Magna Steyr and their team of dedicated employees who have become part of the Aston Martin family in the last few years and met all our requirements and expectations."

Work is already underway to prepare the Gaydon facility for Rapide production to start in 2012 with no interruption to sales supply.

Alisdair Suttie - 8 Jun 2011