In what appears to be another release about the St Athan production facility, Aston Martin has included the following line: “DBX program on schedule for product unveiling in Q4 2019.” In addition to the world debut of the first utility vehicle in the automaker’s history, Aston Martin also confirmed the factory in South Wales will be known as the Home of Electrification.
Regarding the electric onslaught, Aston Martin let it slip it has more “BEV models” planned for production, meaning that the Rapide E with its 65-kWh battery and 610-PS drivetrain will be joined by additional electric vehicles in the coming years. Will the DBX be one of those models? Let’s wait and see how the cookie crumbles.
Turning our attention back to the SUV, the DBX will have its interior drawn up by the Aston Martin Lagonda Creative Lab, NICE 2035 in China. The site came to be as part of a partnership with Tongji University in Shanghai. The decision was made to ensure “we are focused on the needs of our Chinese customers,” and reading between the lines, it appears the Gaydon-based automaker plans to sell a lot of SUVs in the Middle Kingdom.
St Athan is “already home to some 100 employees,” and the facility will be “fully commissioned early in the first quarter of 2019.” Also during that timeframe, the first prototype will roll off the assembly line and the workforce will be boosted to 200 or thereabouts. As part of ramping up the production of the DBX, Aston Martin announced that it would employ “more than 700” people by the first quarter of 2020.
“A second production facility is a critical step in delivering our Second Century Plan,” said Andy Palmer, president and group chief executive officer. “The St Athan facility will initially commence with the production of our first SUV but will ultimately be a global center of excellence for the production of luxury high-performance EVs, including Lagonda: the world’s first luxury electric automotive brand.”
As far as we know, the DBX will share the Second Century platform with the Vantage, DB11, and DBS Superleggera. What that means is, the AMG-sourced V8 and Aston Martin-developed V12 will be two of the engine options on offer. A hybrid has been mulled too, and there’s talk of an all-electric option developed in collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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