Tobias Moers: Engine king of Mercedes takes wheel at Aston Martin

AMG chief is ‘diametric opposite’ of ‘nice’ predecessor Andy Palmer

Since Tobias Moers was named as the chief executive of Aston Martin, a common thought has circulated the industry — staff at the luxury carmaker are in for a shock.

“He is the exact diametric opposite of [predecessor] Andy Palmer,” said one senior figure who knows both men.

While Mr Palmer, who led Aston for six years, is no soft touch, he is almost universally regarded as being “nice”.

Of the half-dozen former colleagues or acquaintances of Mr Moers contacted by the FT, none volunteered that word to describe the man leaving Mercedes-AMG to head Aston this summer.

“People are frightened of him,” said one industry insider who, on presenting bad news to Mr Moers in a meeting, was struck by the silence that followed, as subordinates switched between staring at the floor and the ceiling.

“You could feel the oxygen being sucked out of the room.”

Mr Moers’ response — we need to fix this rather than sit around debating it — diffused the tension. Underlings sprung into life.

Expect the scene to be replicated many times over at Aston’s headquarters in Warwickshire, once Mr Moers arrives in August.

He was handpicked from Mercedes’ high-performance AMG business by Aston’s new chairman and part owner Lawrence Stroll to turn around the ailing carmaker.

It is a daunting task.

The luxury brand is bleeding cash, awash with red ink, chronically indebted, and hobbled by unsold sports cars stacked up at dealerships.

It has missed so many earnings targets that its reputation among financial investors is so battered that, were it a car, it would be immediately broken down and sold for parts.

The company’s problems were apparent long before the coronavirus pandemic.

Since floating in 2018, Aston’s share price has fallen from £19 to just 50p — a drop in part exacerbated by a rights issue as part of Mr Stroll’s £540m rescue deal earlier this year.

While a 2014 turnround by former chief Mr Palmer enjoyed the cloak of private ownership, Mr Moers’ overhaul will have to take place in the piercing glare of the stock market.

Deliveries of the company’s first sport utility vehicle — the DBX, considered key to the group’s future success and already being made at its St Athan plant in south Wales — will have started by the time Mr Moers arrives.

Any kink in the rollout will be punished by investors. Other plans, including supercars to rival Ferrari, will also have to be delivered flawlessly.

Under his tenure as chief executive, AMG rose from a niche engine tuner to a widely-known sub-brand of Mercedes, with units topping 130,000 last year. It is thought to contribute a fat portion to the annual profits of Daimler, the owner of Mercedes.

His drive and the AMG record placed him “head and shoulders” above the other two candidates considered for the role, according to two people familiar with the selection process.

But as with the high-powered sports car engines he has spent two decades building, performance is often twinned with aggression.

“He won’t mind being the guy who thumps the table and comes across as the angry German,” said a compatriot colleague who knows him well.

Born in Freiburg, Germany, in 1966, his muscular build means he is more likely to be mistaken for “a farmer” than a chief executive of a London-listed company.

He is also someone for whom the term “petrol head” was invented.

We know that his expertise will be of great value to Aston MartinOla Kallenius, Daimler chief executive

Growing up, he spent bitter winters in the Black Forest honing his driving skills to make his first car — a rear-wheel-drive Opel Kadett — travel sideways around frozen bends.

Even in an industry dominated by company lifers, Mr Moers’ quarter-century service within one division is unusual.

After studying mechanical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Offenburg, he worked on an electric car in a project funded by chocolate company Ritter Sport, before joining AMG in 1994.

He rose through the ranks, becoming chief executive and chief technical officer in 2013, which widened his expertise beyond engineering to marketing, branding and design.

“If you underestimate him, you will pay the price,” said one person who has worked with him in the past.

While at AMG, Mr Moers was also “intimately involved” with Aston, which buys engines and some technology from the German group.

His move is expected to bring the companies closer, easing Aston’s development costs as it delves more deeply into Daimler’s copious parts bin.

“We know that his expertise will be of great value to Aston Martin, a company with which we have a longstanding and successful partnership,” said Daimler chief executive Ola Kallenius, who himself led AMG before Mr Moers.

Big questions remain, including how Mr Moers will win back the market’s confidence, and how well he will gel with his new billionaire boss.

Both men are used to getting their own way, so relations will be harmonious as long as the two are steering in the same direction.

When the paths differ, the results have the potential to be volcanic.

“If there is a clash, it won’t last for very long,” said a longtime associate of Mr Stroll. “Tobias will find himself heading back to the Black Forest.”