BOND has always had terrific Royal connections so it’s not unusual that Aston Martin chose the state visit of China’s president to unveil its new all-electric sports car.
RapidE lights way
- State visit world debut of Aston Martin full electric RapidE concept;
- Chinese investors engaged in study towards first all-electric Aston Martin;
- Aston Martin and ChinaEquity to explore concept’s production potential.
The wraps came off the Aston Martin RapidE fully electric concept of its Rapide S four-door sports saloon outside Lancaster House in London – the venue for a meeting between their royal highnesses Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and President of The People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping.
The concept has been developed in collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering at its facility in Grove, Oxfordshire and its display supported a creative summit organised by the government’s GREAT campaign to showcase the best of what the UK has to offer and encourage people to visit, do business, invest and study in this country.
Aston Martin CEO, Dr Andy Palmer, said: “We see luxury electric vehicles as an intrinsic part of our future product portfolio and welcome ChinaEquity into the next phase of study for the project development.
“The exciting RapidE concept tangibly demonstrates the capability and ambition of Aston Martin towards developing low- and zero-emission sports cars.”
During the Lancaster House event, Aston Martin and Chinese investment group ChinaEquity announced an agreement to explore the development of a production version of the RapidE concept. If successful, the new luxury sports car would be constructed at Aston Martin’s global HQ in Gaydon, Warwickshire, and could be brought to market in around two years.
What does it look like in action? Check out this video:
