Aston Martin Aims to Double Sales by 2016 Under New CEO

British supercar maker Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. hopes a new CEO and some new models perhaps including a crossover vehicle will hike the company's worldwide sales to 7,000 units in three years from half that volume in 2012, Bloomberg News reports.

An unidentified source tells the news service that the iconic carmaker is about three month from naming a successor to Ulrich Bez, who has headed Aston Martin for 13 years. Bloomberg says Bez is likely to remain chairman of the company.

Last year London-based Investindustrial spent 150 million ($242 million) to acquire a 37.5% stake in the carmaker. The cash infusion kept the company solvent and has helped bankroll a vaguely defined five-year, 500 million ($785 million) product development program.

Aston Martin is the only wholly independent global supercar maker. In July the company arranged to buy high-performance engines from Daimler AG's AMG unit. But an earlier plan for Aston Martin to build ultra-luxurious Maybach sedans for Daimler collapsed when Daimler decided to scrap the Maybach brand.

Investindustrial has said it will seek partnerships with other carmakers and suppliers to help reduce the cost of new-product development.