The sports utility vehicle has been an ongoing trend for over a decade. Every year they make up a greater percentage of car sales, to the point that Ford stopped making sedans altogether. Luxury car makers like Lexus, Mercedes, and Porsche, have seen an uptick in crossover and SUV’s over sedans yearly. The fact is, once consumers become accustomed to the higher seating and extra cargo room of a sports utility vehicle, they rarely to go back. And with Bentley, Tesla, and even Lamborghini now producing out their own SUV lines, it’s not hard to imagine Aston Martin joining the party. This leads to the new Aston Martin SUV, rumored to be named the Aston Martin Varekai or the Aston Martin DBX.
Aston Martin has confirmed the production of the SUV will begin in late-2019, presumably making it to market in 2020. The DBX will be initially powered by a Mercedes V-8 engine, although Aston Martin has made clear their intentions of becoming fully electric soon with their RapidE technology, claiming to best Tesla at their own game.
“For me, Tesla is a very credible competitor in the premium market, against Daimler, BMW, Audi, and the others. But they’re not in the [upper reaches of the] luxury market where we are,”, Andy Palmer, CEO of Aston Martin.
The Aston Martin DBX will be riding on a new custom platform, which is clearly required for the size and weight difference.
“It’s its own thing,” Matt Becker told Road and Track magazine. “It’s a completely new platform. It takes learning from [Aston’s other new cars], for sure, but there’s a lot more suspension technology going to go into that car.”
Between the SUV, plans for the electric RapidE, the plan for a new mid-engine Vanquish, a car some are calling a Ferrari-killer, and even a flying car, Aston Martin is quickly pushing into the future of with some exciting new vehicles.
