100%-Electric Aston Martin Rapide Coming Within 2 Years

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The renowned luxury automotive company Aston Martin is now aiming to bring an all-electric version of its Rapide model to the consumer market within two years, according to recent reports.

The announcement came via the company’s CEO, Andy Palmer, who made the comments while speaking at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance recently. The all-electric version of the Rapide will reportedly possess somewhere around 800 horsepower, 200 miles of single-charge range, and all-wheel drive. Pricing is currently expected to be somewhere between $200,000–250,000, according to Palmer.

Aston Martin rapide
Image Credit: Aston Martin

While the project is currently not very far along, the CEO is apparently of the opinion that an all-electric version of the company’s DBX model will likely follow the release of the electric Rapide.

Interestingly, the company is not aiming to compete with Tesla as far as super-fast acceleration (the “Ludicrous mode”) goes. Rather, other goals are in mind.

The CEO stated: “We don’t do Ludicrous because Ludicrous speed is stupid. I think that the fact that you could drive a few laps of a decent race course or race it around the Nordschleife [famed track in Germany] is much more interesting than doing 500 meters in Ludicrous mode.”


 

Electrek provides a bit more information:

Palmer is making reference to Tesla prioritizing acceleration over track performance. A Model S with Ludicrous mode can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in just 2.8 seconds, but it doesn’t last long on a track due to battery limitations at high usage.

Aston’s CEO didn’t offer any details about how his company plans on achieving track performance with an all-electric Rapide, but he said the company is likely to source batteries from LG or Samsung, instead of Panasonic like Tesla Motors.

TeslaMondo also chimed in, adding some good words of wisdom:

Calling Tesla stupid for being ludicrous is insane. We need ludicrous because it’s crazy, and crazy is good. Why? Because if we weren’t a little crazy we’d all go insane. Yes, that’s a ludicrous notion, but it’s far from stupid. Jimmy Buffett wrote those words, and he’s not stupid. So there, Mr. Palmer. You want to diss Musk? You must answer to Buffett. Now there’s a ludicrous chain of logic for ya. But since it’s ludicrous, you’d call it stupid, forgetting that ludicrous is crazy, and crazy is good.

Seriously, calling Tesla’s insanely popular, record-shattering, mouth-watering, viral Ludicrous mode stupid is… well… moronic, at least from any kind of business perspective.

Still, it’s nice to see Aston Martin moving into the electric future. The move towards all-electric offerings is presumably part of the company’s current attempts to become profitable — with the strategy apparently being to expand the number of models on offer and bring annual production up to 7,000 vehicles (up from 3,400 produced last year).

Related:

Aston Martin Creating EV Version Of Rapide Model Within 2–3 Years, Company Head Says

Aston Martin Rapide May Offer Electric Version

Aston Martin CEO Talks 1,000 Horsepower Electric Car

Aston Martin DBX Concept Gets The Green Light


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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