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Aston Martin's £19m from Welsh Government

BBC 2016: The new Aston Martin draped in a Welsh flag outside the Welsh government offices in CardiffBBC
Back in 2016, the new Aston Martin draped in a Welsh flag outside the Welsh government offices in Cardiff

Aston Martin has been given a total of £18.8m in grants from the Welsh Government, BBC Wales can reveal.

A freedom of information request shows the company was given £13m more in funding than ministers had previously been forced to reveal by the information commissioner.

An initial £5.8m was pledged to attract the luxury carmaker to St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan to produce the DBX model.

The plant is expected to employ 750 people when it was fully operational.

BBC Wales questioned whether any more public money had been given to Aston Martin as part of its decision to base electric car production at its site.

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The Welsh Government was unwilling to say, which resulted in the freedom of information request.

Ministers have revealed that no funding has been tied to the electric car production announcement however it emerged that Aston Martin had a £13m grant that had not previously been made public.

The funding is linked to job creation, skills training and research and development.

It can be drawn down over three years as the company achieves set targets.

So far, £3.5m has been drawn down in this way by Aston Martin.

Aston Martin LagondaAston Martin
The Lagonda design was revealed at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show and could be built within three years

The information was released to BBC Wales on the day the company floated on the Stock Exchange.

Shares in Aston Martin were down 6.5% at £17.81 on their first day of trading at lunchtime.

They had been priced at £19 a share, valuing the firm at £4.3bn, but have been as low as £17.75.