► Aston Martin DBX world debut
► A sleeker follow-up to Lagonda SUV
► Full news and analysis from Geneva
Here’s the shock of the 2015 Geneva motor show: an Aston Martin crossover to supplement the earlier Lagonda SUV – and this one’s sleeker and seems set for a production future.
This is the Aston Martin DBX, a high-riding concept the company describes as a ‘sports crossover.’ No brand can ignore the inexorable sales tide toward SUVs forever, and this is Aston’s first pass at stretching its brand beyond the GT envelope.
What’s more, it’s also the first all-electric car to wear an Aston Martin badge.
Aston Martin DBX: the basics
It’s all about the number four: four seats, four electric motors, four-wheel drive. Apart from the doors – there are only two of them, that dramatically curved roofline making this very much a coupé, despite its deep-sided body and off-roader ground-clearance.
Plenty of the traditional Aston Martin styling hallmarks remain. Clean, uncluttered flanks, a long bonnet and broad but not overly deep grille. With that separate arc of a roofline, the tail is very much in line with the company’s current GT cars.
In fact, in profile the DBX appears an extremely large-wheeled GT car rather than a blocky 4×4.
Will it make production?
The official line is that the DBX is ‘not a production-ready sports GT car, but it is a piece of fresh, bold thinking about what Aston Martin GT customers around the world could request of us in the future.’
However, in his speech at the concept’s unveil, CEO Andy Palmer said the DBX ‘shows where we’re going and one of the additions to our portfolio in the medium term’ and the company has confirmed that it ‘will, in due course, be entering a car into the new DBX space.’
In his speech Andy Palmer hinted that by the end of the decade we can expect three new Aston Martin models – seems the DBX, or something very much like it, will be one of them.
Aston will be monitoring show-goers’ reaction to the DBX very closely indeed.
Click here for more from the Geneva motor show 2015.