Aston Martin Rapide E
Exclusive: We ride in flagship EV saloon for the first time
ASTON Martin hasn’t been too coy about why its new all-electric Rapide E exists – it’s a test bed for the return of the Lagonda brand. Only 155 Rapide Es are going to be made, with Aston’s CEO Andy Palmer a potential customer, too. So it only seemed right that when the brand invited us for an exclusive ride around Silverstone’s Stowe circuit in a Rapide E prototype, it was Palmer sitting behind the wheel.
We’d arrived in a 1981 Lagonda (see panel right), a car that signalled the brand’s seventies rebirth. “Lagonda’s a bit like the Phoenix rising from the ashes,” Palmer says. “Only this time we’re bringing it back for good.”
Lagonda will be an all-electric marque, reborn by original EV pioneer Palmer, who helped launch the Nissan Leaf. His thinking behind a pure-electric luxury brand is sound. “You can spend an awful lot of money on a Tesla, but it’s not really a luxury car,” he says.
But before anyone gets anywhere near a Lagonda, Aston will use the Rapide E to better understand how buyers will use it. “We’ll get quantitative data from the car, but every one of the 155 buyers has agreed to give us qualitative feedback on the car, too,” Palmer adds. They’ll be getting a model that’s as deeply engineered as any other Aston, too, with the prototype we’re in being used to fine tune things. But why electrify the Rapide? “It was an obvious thing to do,” Palmer says. “It’s got a long wheelbase and there’s space at the front for batteries where the big V12 engine used to be.“
Palmer is quite handy on a circuit, as he proves while the Rapide E gently builds up speed. “We’ve still got some work to do on the car,” he admits. “Matt Becker and his team have got to work their magic; we’re currently understeering a little too much.”
The CEO is clearly enjoying being behind the wheel as he flexes his right foot and the familiar EV hit of instant torque – in this case a whopping 950Nm – propels the big Rapide down the short straight.
The brakes do an impressive job of reining things in before a right and left, leaving us impressed by the speed of the car’s reactions to Palmer’s inputs and the lack of body roll. Yet the ride doesn’t feel as solid as in many sports cars, let alone a heavy electric one. “It’s still got to be a GT as well as a sports car,” Palmer tells us.
He gets faster and faster as each short lap ticks by, and it’s easy to forget that you’re not in one of Aston’s more focused machines and that there are electric motors powering the rear wheels. “You can even drift it; look,” Palmer says, playing with the throttle to adjust the car as we exit the tight corner at the end of another lap.
Aston has eschewed a massive battery and chasing a ludicrous 0-60mph time, instead concentrating on being able to complete a few competitive laps of the 13-mile-long Nordschleife circuit in Germany and using 800V high-voltage battery tech to enable super-fast charging using 100kW or higher chargers.
That said, the Rapide E will still get from 0-60mph in less than four seconds, on to a top speed of 155mph; the same figure as the number of cars that will be built. The twin motors on the rear axle produce 604bhp and an intoxicating EV wail. But it’s the car’s sheer pace that helps you forget that there’s not the noise of a screaming V12 under the bonnet. It also leaves us in no doubt that what the firm has planned for Lagonda in the coming years will be as exciting as anything we’ve seen from Aston Martin before.
“Lagonda will be an all-electric marque, reborn by EV pioneer Palmer, who helped launch the Nissan Leaf”
“He flexes his right foot and the familiar EV hit of instant torque propels the Rapide down the straight”