Aston Martin ditches electric Rapide E, prioritizes DBX

The British automaker will not be producing its long-awaited Rapide E liftback model after all, the official statement says.

The car, which had been originally planned for launch in late 2019 and annual production volume of 155 units, is now officially canceled, and the company will be refunding the pre-order money.

By all indications, the luxury vehicle maker had to axe the EV due to serious financial difficulties it had been facing lately, including the R&D expenses of its latest SUV, the DBX. On the other hand, the brisk sales of the crossover SUV series might be the best way to get out of the ongoing crisis, so AM will be redirecting the efforts towards that market segment now.

The original RapidE Concept (note the different spelling) was co-designed by Williams Advanced Engineering and Aston Martin in 2015. Back then, CEO Andy Palmer said the target production volume would be 400 units per year – on the condition that the gas-powered Rapid goes out of production as soon as the all-electric one comes in.

In the summer of 2017, the British company revised its production plans towards smaller numbers of units. Last spring, the production-ready prototype of the car finally debuted at the Auto Shanghai show, packing two electric engine joining their efforts for 610 PS (600 hp, or 447 kW) and 950 Nm (715 lb-ft) of torque. Its 800V battery, which the engineering team put where the V12 had been, could save up 65 kWh of power and yield up to 322 kilometers (200 miles) of range.

The Rapide E has managed to run an entire Nürburgring loop on peak capacity without overheating, and made the 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) sprint in under 4 seconds, thus surpassing even the range-topping Rapide AMR.

On an interesting side note, Aston Martin had originally intended to launch production of the Rapide E ahead of the DBX on its factory in South Wales. Later on, the company plans to start assembling luxury EVs of its Lagonda sub-brand there.