Aston Martin hopes to expand its line-up with the largest investment plan in its 101-year history.

Aston Martin has announced the largest investment program in its history, a move that it expects will help put the struggling British maker back in the black by 2016.

The plan calls for an investment of $845 million – a relative pittance compared to the funds competitors like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche and Jaguar Land Rover plan to spend in the coming year – but nonetheless the biggest investment ever by Aston, a brand long known for its association with fictional super spy James Bond.

“A buck travels farther with us,” asserted Hanno Kirner, Aston Martin’s Chief Financial Officer, during a briefing this week.

It will have to. The marque was one of an assortment of European luxury brands sold off by Ford Motor Co. But where Volvo and Jaguar Land Rover found parents with deep pockets – India’s Tata Motors and China’s Geely, respectively – Aston was spun off to a small consortium of investors in 2007 and has been struggling financially ever since.

In an interview with the Reuter’s news service, CFO Kirner said he was confident that things are looking up for Aston. “Once we finish the investment phase, we are very, very confident that it’s going to take us to a very sustainable profitability,” he said. “We expect to return to significant profitability in the periods after 2016.”

Owned by a consortium of Kuwaiti and Italian private equity groups, Aston posted an adjusted pre-tax loss of 24.6 million pounds in 2012. It has not released 2013 numbers yet.

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While Aston, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire, is planning to maintain its independence, it has formed a modest alliance with Mercedes AMG GmbH, the high-performance arm of Daimler AG. The partners are working on a new generation of V-8 engines that will be used in some of Aston’s existing models, and a range of new ones to start rolling out over the next few years.

It desperately needs to update or replace models like the current DB9, industry analysts suggest, to remain competitive with players like Mercedes, Porsche and, on the upscale end, Bentley, the Volkswagen-owned maker that recently updated its most sporty product range, including the Continental GT Coupe.

“Their cars need to be updated. They are sorely lacking in a competitive world where carbon fiber and competitive powertrains are needed to play in this segment,” said David Sullivan, a senior auto analyst with AutoPacific, Inc.

He notes that Aston’s flagship V-12 is essentially an updated version of Ford’s old 3.0-liter Duratec V-6, effectively two of them bolted together.

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Aston does have its following, and has been able to move even more upmarket in recent years. In 2007, when it was sold off by Ford, its typical product went for 70,000 British pounds. Last year, the average Aston cost 126,000 pounds, or $213,000.

One thing Aston doesn’t plan to change is its basic approach to manufacturing. Not long ago, it was common for low-volume, high-line manufacturers to rely largely on hand assembly. But even Bentley has, under VW’s ownership, rapidly expanded its dependence upon automation and more high-volume manufacturing processes.

While Aston plans to upgrade its manufacturing process, it says it intends to remain a bespoke manufacturer, its products largely built by hand and routinely customized for individual customers.

If Aston Martin can pull it off it would be the latest British maker to achieve what once seemed an impossible turnaround. Bentley has thrived under VW, achieving all-time record sales in 2013. After a slow start under the ownership of BMW, meanwhile, Rolls-Royce has been gaining traction, as well. And Jaguar Land Rover is showing solid momentum, as well, the SUV side of the company setting its own sales record last year.

But despite the $845 million investment, analyst Sullivan is skeptical that will take Aston far enough. He would anticipate the British maker eventually finding a richer backer and, at the very least, “They need to do more sharing,” going beyond the limited powertrain arrangement underway with Daimler – which gets a modest 5% stake in Aston as part of that deal.

Even by the standards of the ultra-premium market, Aston is a small manufacturer. Its retail volumes have been sliding since 2011, when it sold 4,200 vehicles, but is looking to boost volumes to somewhere closer to 8,000 by 2016. That would put it slightly ahead of the equally exclusive Ferrari which recently expressed plans to limit its own sales to no more than 7,000 annually.

Aston had hoped to be doing a little better already as the result of an earlier, ill-received joint venture with Toyota. The Cygnet city car, based on the Japanese maker’s little iQ model, was discontinued due to lack of demand last October.

The maker does plan to push down-market a bit, going forward, with a new model set to be priced below $100,000.

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Going forward, might Aston again steer into even newer territory, beyond the sleek, high-performance sports cars it has been known for since the company was founded 101 years ago? One rumored project would have it entering the sport-utility vehicle segment. That would surprise few considering Porsche’s best-seller is the Cayenne, and even Bentley is getting ready to roll out its first SUV.

Aston officials aren’t ready to say whether they would also like to market a ute, though Ian Minards, the maker’s product development chief, said he is “open-minded” about the possibility.