He said his 102-year-old company will make the switch to electric instead of fighting to meet ever-shrinking emissions targets with smaller capacity petrol engines. With Spectre on the horizon, James will be droving the new Aston Martin DB10.
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“It’s an awfully good getaway vehicle”, Palmer said. “I don’t think James really cares what the power train is as long as it’s fast and lovely”.
Palmer revealed to us at the Geneva Motor Show in March that having electric vehicles will help to offset the company’s average Carbon dioxide output, enabling them to keep their V12s in their sports cars. “We’re a V-12 engine company”, adds the top executive, adding they would not envision a future where they would downsize like many rivals.
Despite Tesla polishing up their image, electric cars aren’t the sexiest cars to drive, but that could change very soon.
Aston Martin said it hoped to minimise compulsory redundancies by offering early retirement, voluntary redundancies and not filling vacancies. In a recent interview, Andy Palmer – CEO of Aston Martin – announced that the company plans to step into the all-electric market and produce a battery-powered variant of the Rapide by 2017. Project that into the future.
Aston Martin will have an all-electric version of its Rapide luxury saloon on sale in around two to three years. God forbid. You’ve got to do something radical.
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“Electric power gives us the performance we want, although you won’t have a V12 noise – you’ll have something that works just as well for a luxury vehicle – silence. It gives you that torque”.
