Aston Martin Lagonda has held its first-ever Electric Future event in London, showcasing its electric vehicles at the city's Mayfair showroom on June 26th and 27th.
A Vision of an EV future
Sitting nose-to-nose were the Rapide E sports saloon and also the vehicle which wowed crowds at the Geneva Motor Show in 2018, the Vision Concept, this being the first time the two EVs were seen together outside of a convention hall.
The Rapide E is already on sale, with just 155 examples to be built at Aston Martin Lagonda's St Athan factory in Wales.
'World's first luxury electric brand'
Marek Reichman, chief creative officer at Aston Martin Lagonda, said: "When we relaunched Lagonda, we set ourselves an ambitious target to be the world's first luxury electric brand. We see the Lagonda brand sitting within a unique niche in the market. It is for the high-end luxury customer who wants to explore and be autonomous while remaining mindful of the impact they are having on the environment. Lagonda will achieve this but it will also provide joy and delight to the people who get to enjoy its unique internal environment."
Volting ahead
Although the Rapide E is already in situ, the Vision Concept has already been morphed into the SUV All-Terrain Concept, which will follow up the saloon as Lagonda's next production vehicle. But John Caress - vehicle line director for Rapide E at Aston Martin Lagonda - is rightly proud of the original Aston EV: "Rapide E is proof of Aston Martin's commitment to its Second Century Plan. Having an electric powertrain is no longer just a vision for our company, it's reality. We are producing fully-electric vehicles which will form part of our future strategy that will culminate when the first Lagonda vehicle enters the market. We have worked hard to ensure the high-performance standards of our customers are met. To achieve this, Rapide E has a range of just over 320km on the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) and a 0-to-80 per cent charge which can be achieved in less than 35 minutes using a 800-volt direct current 100kW charging station."