The firm had tried new products, he said – such as the DBX, which was well received initially, but Stacey added that projections had gone from about 5,000 sales per year down to about 1,000.

“It competes against a crowded marketplace.

“You’ve got Bentley there, you’ve got Porsche there, Lamborghini and Ferrari and the competition is really, really fierce,” he said.

In 2017 Aston Martin announced the Rapide E which was designed to be a competitor to the Tesla Model S but was later cancelled.

“On every metric – and it looked very similar [to the Tesla] – it was worse,” Stacey said.

The firm ought to diversify its core product, and go “full-in” on producing electric vehicles, Stacey said.

He said the new £850,000 Valhalla hybrid supercar was a potential bright spot for the brand.

If it attracted the attention of motoring magazines and YouTube channels it could act as a “halo” for other vehicles in Aston Martin’s line-up, he said.