Aston Martin May Build Electric Rapide

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edatoakrun

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Nice to see Andy Palmer is looking to move Aston Martin into the future, even though I will never be interested in buying one myself.

I detect a little bit of a swipe at Tesla in that remark.

Maybe some at Aston Martin still hold a grudge over Tesla lifting so much of its S design from the Rapide?

Aston Martin May Build Electric Rapide Sports Car in 2-3 Years, CEO Says

Palmer says luxury-car company has financing commitments for lineup expansion


Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. may build an electric version of its Rapide sports car in two to three years as a part of its plan to overhaul its lineup and add several new models, said Chief Executive Andy Palmer in an interview.

Mr. Palmer said the company has launched a research project for the electric car and is speaking with electric-vehicle technology companies to partner with, though he declined to say which companies.

“We are looking at technologies around the world, including some pretty cool technologies coming from Silicon Valley,” he said. Tesla Motors Inc., based in Palo Alto, Calif., isn’t one of them, he said...
http://www.wsj.com/articles/aston-martin-may-build-electric-rapide-sports-car-in-2-3-years-1427744700" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Aston Martin makes RapidE electric car a limited edition after LeEco pulls out
http://www.autoblog.com/2017/06/26/aston-martin-rapide-electric-car-limited-leeco/

Aston Martin was forced to scale back production plans for its first electric model after cash-strapped investment partner LeEco pulled out of the project, Chief Executive Andy Palmer told Reuters on Monday. The result, though, may be an even more exclusive car, aimed at customers who consider Tesla's top of the range $130,000 Model S to be a little too run of the mill. Aston Martin will build only 155 of its RapidE, about a third of the initial plan, and lean more heavily on Formula One engineering specialist Williams after the withdrawal of Chinese TV and smartphone vendor LeEco, Palmer said...

Notice that LeEco, the weird company, has come up again.
 
LeEco's assets frozen by Chinese court as debts mount:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/leeco-apos-assets-frozen-chinese-110000216.html

Cash-strapped LeEco reportedly sees 1.2 billion yuan in assets frozen over unpaid debts:
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/04/leeco-reportedly-has-1-point-2-billion-yuan-in-assets-frozen-over-unpaid-debts.html
 
Via GCR:
Aston Martin may be first with 800-volt charging
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1118480_aston-martin-may-be-first-with-800-volt-charging

. . . Prior to last weekend’s Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer tweeted a photo of his company’s forthcoming 800-volt system, to be built into an electrified version of its existing Rapid-E sedan.

According to Palmer, Aston Martin could beat Porsche to production with a car capable of 800-volt charging.

Palmer told Green Car Reports that the forthcoming Rapid-E 800-volt electric car will be available late in 2019.

Calling the Porsche technology “fabulous,” Palmer says his own Rapid-E and 800-volt charging system will be a precursor for the revived Aston Martin Lagonda brand.

Lagonda will be a 100-percent electric-vehicle brand, and with that comes some trepidation.

“Because no one's done it,” he says, “no one has any clue whatsoever about how our luxury customer will use an electric car.”

To experiment with Aston’s drivers, with battery cars, and with charging, Aston will sell only about 155 cars to customers that Aston will choose, “because we can,” he says. The Rapid-E will be a limited edition model that will only be sold to customers willing to give qualitative feedback on how they use the car.

“They'll be a little bit like our development fleet,” he says. . . .
 
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