GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Aston joins SUV race

Aston Martin has revealed its first all-electric, all-wheel drive vehicle at the Geneva motor show overnight.

Although he didn't use the term 'SUV', Aston CEO Andy Palmer said the high-riding two-door DBX Concept redefines the luxury GT segment for the 21st Century and targets a more diverse global audience for the British sports car brand than ever before.

"The DBX Concept is a challenge to the existing status quo in the high luxury GT segment," said Dr Palmer.

"It envisages a world, perhaps a world not too far away, when luxury GT travel is not only stylish and luxurious but also more practical, more family-friendly and more environmentally responsible.

“I asked my team at Aston Martin to expand their thinking beyond conventions, to explore what the future of luxury GT motoring would look like in years ahead, and the DBX Concept you see before you is the result.”

Palmer said the DBX was not a production-ready sports GT car, "but it is a piece of fresh, bold thinking about what Aston Martin GT customers around the world could request of us in the future.

“The DBX Concept is more than a thought starter for us and for our customers, though. We will, in due course, be entering a car into the new DBX space and I am very much looking forward to seeing how this concept is received not only here today, but also by our legion of existing loyal customers and by those potential customers around the world who have, to this point, yet to consider one of our cars.”

Designed by Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman at Aston's global headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, the all-electric four-seat DBX Concept clearly signals "an extension to the brand’s existing model lines in the future".

Few technical details are available, Aston saying only that the DBX eschews a traditional engine bay thanks to its use of electric, in-wheel motors powered by lithium sulphur cells.

Other technologies include drive-by-wire electric steering, toughened glass with an auto-dimming ‘smart glass’ inter-layer, bespoke driver and passenger head-up displays, active LED exterior lights, carbon-ceramic brakes with a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) and rear-view cameras in place of conventional mirrors.

Aston says the DBX offers day-to-day practicality and "generous luggage capacity" by featuring luggage compartments at both ends of the vehicle.

Of course, it's also loaded with high-end interior materials, including machined billet aluminium and velvet-like Nubuck leather, and wrapped in a unique paint finished dubbed Black Pearl Chromium.

“The exceptional craftsmanship, with detailing more typically seen on luxury consumer goods or fine jewellery, gives the DBX Concept genuinely global appeal," said Reichman.

Dr Palmer said: “A concept car such as this should, in my view, challenge conventional thinking and explore the art of the possible. In the DBX Concept, I believe we have created a new type of luxury car that can not only broaden the appeal of Aston Martin to a whole new generation of customers, but sit with pride alongside the rest of our range.”