Amid all the gloom hanging over the UK automotive manufacturing industry with the imminent closure of Ford’s Bridgend engine plant in south Wales and Honda’s vehicle assembly plant in Swindon, there is one piece of good news: the opening of Aston Martin’s new plant in St Athan, south Wales, to build its first SUV.

Aston’s second facility, where production is scheduled to begin at the start of next year, occupies a series of Ministry of Defence aircraft maintenance hangars on a 90-acre site which, in a neat bit of symmetry, are just 7.5 miles from Ford’s Bridgend plant, which closes later next year.