Aston Martin is joining the fray of making Luxury SUV.
The British marque has raised $300 million to fund various projects, and it announced last week one of those will be a production version of the “luxury GT crossover” DBX concept it debuted at the Geneva auto show earlier this year.
This concept is electric-powered and all-wheel drive. Quite what follows in production form remains to be seen. But an Aston SUV will happen, something of a change of heart.
So says new boss Andy Palmer, who appears to have fast-tracked the project through. “We will, in due course, be entering a car into the new DBX space,” says Palmer, “and I am very much looking forward to seeing how this concept is received not only here today, but also by our legion of existing loyal customers and by those potential customers around the world who have, to this point, yet to consider one of our cars.”
Rolls-Royce is building something called Project Cullinan, though it won’t deign to use the term “SUV.” It’s a “high-bodied” Rolls, able to “cross any terrain”. Bentley, on the other hand, has no qualms about calling its upcoming Bentayga a sport utility vehicle. Lamborghini has been teasing us with its Urus SUV for three years now, and we fully expect it to announce production in the next couple of years.
Aston’s entry may be the most surprising. It’s a tiny independent automaker, not part of massive manufacturer whose parts it can borrow, like Rolls-Royce (BMW), Bentley (Volkswagen), or Lamborghini (also Volkswagen). To build an entirely new car, in an entirely new category, an ambitious and expensive move. And that’s why it’s raised all this money.
“It allows us to do something different,” says company spokesperson Matthew Clarke.
