Aston Martin is developing an all-electric version of the Rapide S sedan in a bid to keep the company’s sonorous V12 alive.
“If we as a sports car company want to continue to make V12s – I’d hate to be the guy that killed the Aston V12 – then we can make the V12 itself meet the emissions reqirement, but you can’t expect your fleet average to be very good,” Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer told Car and Driver. “So if you’re going to make your fleet average really good, you need to have a low- or zero-emissions car.”
That’s where Aston Martin’s latest technical study comes into play. Hinted by the powertrain under the skin of the DBX concept, the British automaker is developing an all-electric Rapide. Palmer isn’t a fan of downsizing and turbocharging Aston’s V12 engines, but says an all-electric Rapide could still fit in with Aston Martin’s lineup.
The electric Rapide’s technical details are still under wraps, but one aspect Palmer points out is the space opened up by removing the V12.
“We have a weight distribution that ultimately gets 51 per cent over the rear axle, so the basic package works. One of the advantages of having a V12 in the nose is that when you take it out, suddenly you’ve got a lot a lot of space and a lot of weight to play with.”
