Review: Aston Martin Valhalla

It's been quite the waiting game for Aston Martin’s first plug-in hybrid. Seven long years have gone by, as well as four CEOs, while Ferrari and Lamborghini have both delivered plug-in hybrid supercars that cost half as much as the new $1 million Valhalla. Much is riding on this car, too, as the fortunes of the celebrated British auto brand are not good. Losses in 2025 jumped more than 50 percent to exceed $650 million, and the company is cutting a fifth of its workforce to help manage costs and cut debt. Oh my.

Aston has blamed a combination of “extremely disruptive” US tariffs and “extremely subdued” Chinese demand for the current miserable state of its finances. However, a glance at the considerable losses over the past five years shows that Aston's problems clearly go way beyond President Trump's tariff playbook and China's increasingly impressive EV offerings.

Still, 999 Valhallas will be produced as a limited run, and, at a million bucks a pop, if all are sold, this should give the company some much-needed breathing room, and maybe even mark a turnaround in its fortunes.

Courtesy of Aston Martin

Ragnarok

It should sell them, too, because this supercar is superb. One of the best cars I've driven in some time. A 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine is paired with three electric motors—two on the front axle—offering up a combined output of 1,100 newton-meters (Nm) of torque and 1,064 brake horsepower. The Valhalla rockets from 0 to 62 mph in a blistering 2.5 seconds and reaches a top speed of 217 mph. Active aerodynamics generate more than 600 kg of downforce at 150 mph in Race mode, with an active front wing and a rear wing that can react to drive conditions within 0.5 seconds.

Those twin front-axle e-motors mean the Valhalla boasts torque vectoring, technology that independently controls power sent to each wheel, dramatically improving cornering and traction. Reversing is handled completely by the electrics, too, as well as torque filling power gaps during combustion acceleration and gear shifts. Aston's F1 division has been heavily involved, evidenced by the additions here of Drag Reduction System (DRS) and air braking courtesy of a giant movable rear spoiler.

For the WIRED EV faithful, this is also Aston’s first car with a pure electric mode, with the 6.1-kWh liquid-cooled battery capable of delivering just 9 miles under e-motor power only. The Valhalla is basically front-wheel-drive only in this mode, not that you'd be doing the school run or shopping trips in this thing, which would be very hard considering the complete lack of trunk space.

Yes, it's a supercar, but it's also sold very much as a track and road car, one that accommodates a passenger, all of which means road trips and weekend-away stays are very much possible. Well, they would be if there were anywhere at all to store luggage. Lamborghini managed to find some luggage space in its Revuelto design, so there's no excuse here, really.

The design department otherwise has had a field day. Top-mounted exhausts, dihedral doors, and even an F1-style roof snorkel to accompany that air-braking rear wing deliver an exterior that is nothing short of arresting. Somehow, none of this looks garish or out of place on the Valhalla in person. Everything has a purpose, and nothing seems to scream as flexing or showing off. There's a cohesion to the Valhalla aesthetic that others might not manage.

Inside, it is much more comfortable than you would imagine. The one-piece carbon-fiber seats look like they are going to be tricky, but on my two-hour road drive, they were supportive and, yes, comfortable. Visibility is surprisingly good, but a camera system is required for the rear view mirror because there's no rear window. The rest of the interior is minimal, but the steering wheel is excellent (which, as Jony Ive will tell you, is no mean feat) and neatly signals some motorsport cool.

Photograph: Jeremy White

The one gripe for the interior is the dash and center screens, which are clear and responsive, and offer up the usual smartphone mirroring options, but they aren't luxurious. We're seeing a lot more effort these days with screen design from Ferrari's new Luce as well as BMW in the iX3 and i3, but here, Aston has decidedly functional, off-the-shelf-looking displays. If I were parting with a million dollars, I might want more consideration here.

Odin's Beard

On the road and track is where the Valhalla excels. Impressive doesn't come close, and, despite the delays, the patience shown by Aston has clearly paid dividends. The ride is superb, as well as being ridiculously quick. The chassis is exceptionally agile, making the car feel alert and light. There are enormous reserves of grip to match the formidable braking and acceleration, and as a result, this is a car that flatters you; it effortlessly seduces you into driving much harder and better than you think you can, all while giving you levels of confidence you wouldn't think possible.

I've driven the Lamborghini Revuelto, and yes, it's exciting, but also there's a part of you that is wary—the part that knows that if you don't keep your wits about you 100 percent of the time, things will go bad very quickly. The Valhalla offers up all of that fun and excitement, but almost none of the trepidation. It is gratifying and intuitive to drive. Anyone can fully enjoy this car, not merely those used to track days. Some will say the engine note is not as full-throated as might be expected in such a car, but others will be having so much fun they won't care. Nor should they.

The front e-axle is so well tuned that, aside from the stunning traction, you’d struggle to know it was there. The torque vectoring is equally effective, but again remarkably subtle. The whole combination, along with the downforce, has been perfected to make driving the Valhalla about as predictable as you can imagine. It does precisely what it feels like it's going to do—almost all the time.

Interestingly, it's this laudable adherence to predictability that has led Aston to limit what the Valhalla can do. At the brand-hosted media drive (though WIRED paid for its own travel expenses), I'm told that if the car were allowed to drive to its full capability and adjust its downforce on the fly as it goes around the course, it would be considerably faster. However, Aston's head of product management, Neil Hughes, says this would require the driver to be a robot, as no human would be able to react to the constantly shifting settings in real time.

Courtesy of Aston Martin

On the road at cruising speeds, cabin noise is loud, with stones pinging from the wheels against the lightweight carbon tub, and this can certainly get tiring over distance if you don't turn on the Bowers & Wilkins stereo. Pleasingly, though, you can hear the electric motors kicking in, and I'm told this was intended—you've paid top dollar for a hybrid, after all. But the road ride is excellent, and despite no rear-wheel steering, it has a good turning circle.

Turning to the somewhat laughable question of value for money on a million-dollar car, there's no getting away from the fact that the Valhalla arrives at a strange price in the market. The Ferrari 849 Testarossa and Lamborghini Revuelto are roughly half the outlay yet also offer up a combustion engine combined with three e-motors. Aston, however, wants us to compare the Valhalla with the Ferrari F80, which is more than three times the price (and sold out). What this really means is that the Valhalla is standing in a place on its own, somewhere between supercar and hypercar.

I much prefer the Aston Martin over the Lamborghini, but twice as much? Yes, maybe. The Valhalla is a mighty impressive mid-engine marvel. Noticeably different from any rival, it's a dream to drive, and far from copying the Italians, it's very much on its own road. So much so that Aston says that more than half of the customers signing on the dotted line so far are entirely new to the brand, and, on average, each Valhalla is being customized to yield more than 20 percent extra revenue on top of that million-dollar price.

For a company in such financial straits, that's encouraging. Aston needs a hit, something to keep the company going while it rebuilds and restructures with the hope of one day soon finally making some profit. Is the Valhalla the start of such a fundamental shift in the situation? Let's all hope so.