Aston Martin Announces Vehicle Lineup Changes

Aston Martin DBX concept (Credit: Aston Martin)

Big changes are coming for Aston Martin, according to a recent interview Automotive News Europe had with CEO Andy Palmer. The whole goal of making the upcoming changes, according to Palmer, is to avoid future financial problems like Aston Martin has faced in the past. During the British automaker’s first 100 years, it went through bankruptcy seven times, which is pretty rough going.

Everyone knows that crossovers are hot. They provide drivers with the type of command seating position people love, are easy to get into an out of, plus have plenty of space to carry around groceries or shopping bags. Aston Martin will be creating a crossover, a move that’s worked wonderfully for Porsche. The target release date of the new Aston Martin crossover is 2019. We’ve already gotten a glimpse of what it might look like, thanks to the DBX concept that was at the recent Geneva show.

As part of the development of the new crossover, Palmer said that the company is creating an all-new platform. Of course, platform creation isn’t cheap, so Aston Martin is going to use it for a new sedan, plus a mysterious third model it’s not saying anything about right now.

On top of that, the current model lineup will be refreshed. The biggest change will likely be a new sports car platform for the brand. We should see that new platform hit the market in the fall of 2016, with a new version or successor of the DB11 and DB9 models using it.

As if that weren’t enough shake-up, Palmer also said recently that Aston Martin is working on an electric car that will make all versions of the Tesla Model S look slow and pathetic. It will be an electric version of the Rapide and supposedly could pack up to 1,000 horsepower. Before you get too excited, the project is still in the early stages. Palmer disclosed that it’s going through an engineering feasibility study while a mock up is being constructed. The anticipated range is somewhere over 200 miles.