Mercedes-Benz Is Increasing Its Stake in Aston Martin

• Mercedes-Benz is increasing its Aston Martin stake

• Other changes include an electricified DBX

• And more crossovers to follow

There was no great surprise at the announcement this week that Mercedes-Benz is set to take a sizeable stake in Aston Martin. For Mercedes the appeal in owning 20 percent of what remains, despite recent travails, among the world’s most-famous sportscar brands is obvious. And for Aston, which has been lurching between crises, access to Merc’s advanced powertrain technology while facing increasingly tough emissions standards is a lifeline. Since Aston already uses both AMG’s 4.0-liter V8 and the Mercedes-Bosch electronic architecture in all its cars meant salvation was unlikely to come from anywhere else.

But the press conference after the announcement also gave us a chance to ask questions to both Lawrence Stroll, the Canadian billionaire who bought a sizeable chunk of Aston last year and is now the company’s executive chairman, and also Tobias Moers, former AMG boss who has recently become Aston’s CEO.

If you’re seeing an obvious connection here then don’t. The new boss’ previous role had at least one bolder journalist suggesting he came to Aston with some foreknowledge of this new deal, but Moers denied it with a categorical “absolutely not.” Shortly before he left Mercedes he was involved in a boardroom bust-up when he was told AMG would ultimately have to replace its beloved V8 with a four-cylinder hybrid. He is definitely Aston’s man, not Mercedes’ – and Stroll continues to own a larger stake than the one the Germans are building.