Aston Martin, the luxury sports cars manufacturer company, has unveiled an eco-friendly electric version of its four-door Rapide car that’s usually powered by a 6.0-litre V12 petrol engine.
Called the RapidE, it’s actually more powerful than the V12 car, with 1,000bhp, and could go on sale in late 2017 as a way for the sports car maker to reduce the average CO2 emissions of its range.
In the past Aston Martin has used the Cygnet, a small city car based on a Toyota, to achieve this, but current CEO Aston Martin Andy Palmer believes that a flagship electric model would make more sense.
‘On my watch we are never going to put a diesel engine in an Aston, and I don’t think the Cygnet was the right thing to do,’ he said. ‘I think a car that sits squarely above the Tesla [Model S electric car] would be much more interesting. Most people who buy Teslas are buying fully loaded ones, which implies there’s room for that.’
As a former Nissan executive, Palmer has experience with launching electric cars such as the Leaf, and added: ‘I’m a great advocate of electric vehicles, not for fuel economy, but for performance.’
