ASTON MARTIN.New Lagonda SUV

Aston Martin’s new luxury Lagonda brand set to debut with an all-electric SUV in 2021

Aston Martin has revived its Lagonda luxury brand, and an all-new SUV will be its first model to hit the market. The new model will make its debut in 2021, and has been revealed for the first time in this official design sketch.
As the image shows, the Lagonda SUV will be heavily inspired by the spectacular Lagonda Vision Concept revealed at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. Expect a sleek, cab-rearward shape featuring deeply sculpted sides.

The new model, Lagonda claims, will be the first fully electric luxury SUV to hit the market. It’s part of a strategy which will see the brand producing a range exclusively powered by emission-free powertrains.
The saloon previewed in Geneva is due to arrive in 2023, with a coupe variant expected at a later date. The adoption of solid-state battery tech should see the saloon cover approximately 400 miles on a single charge, and wireless charging is also expected to feature.

The Lagonda SUV will share some of its technology with the Aston Martin DBX, which is likely to be named Varekai, being built in Aston’s new St Athan factory in South Wales. President and CEO Andy Palmer refused to confirm whether Lagondas will come out of the same plant, though, saying that other locations were under consideration, too.
Talking exclusively to Auto Express at Lagonda’s launch, Palmer said: “I’ve been a student of the electric [car] industry since it began and nobody has replicated what [Elon] Musk did to create a purely 100 per cent electric car company.
“Just being one car in a range doesn’t make a statement, while saying ‘this brand is electric’ and pinning your hopes and prayers on that technology, I think is a more powerful statement that’s easier for the consumer to understand.

“There’s so much confusion around what is a hybrid electric – even the Government can’t get it right,” Palmer continued. “So we demystify it; if it’s an Aston, it’s probably got a gasoline engine and it’s probably got a V-configuration. It might or might not have a hybrid attached to it. But if it’s a Lagonda, you know what you’re getting: it’s 100 per cent electric.”
Talking about the Vision Concept, Palmer told us: “It’s a design study, but it was done for Marich Reichmann (AML’s chief creative officer) to fixate on the design elements for Lagonda.

“But it’s practical as it’s used large chunks of the DBX platform, so it’s production feasible except on two points: it assumes a solid-state battery and I’m not sure we’ll have that by 2021. Plus, it has level-four autonomous features,” Palmer added. “I don’t think anyone will have level-four autonomy by 2021. Maybe by the mid-2020s.”
As for how Lagondas would be sold, Palmer said: “In the UK you could do it through a separate dealer network, but around the world Lagonda isn’t as well understood, so I think in the first instance it will be born out of Aston Martin.

“We’re seeing traction from the Aston Martin brand centres around the world where people don’t feel as though they’re buying a car, so I could see Lagonda centres in big cities.”
And it’s in these big cities where we could see Lagonda partner with other luxury brands. Aston Martin announced relationships with Tag Heuer, Beats headphones and Waldorf Astoria hotels during the Geneva show, while Lagonda models could eventually be used to provide autonomous transport options for well heeled hotel customers.
And although only two Lagonda models have been spoken about so far, it’s quite possible that the coupe, shown as a model in Geneva, could make it three