Daniel Craig may have hung up his tuxedo and the rumours are circulating about who will play the next Bond, but it is increasingly looking like 007’s next set of wheels will be powered by batteries and an electric motor.
Aston Martin has received £9 million in funding from the UK’s Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) – sorry, no Q Branch here – to supplement the research and development of the carmaker’s in-house bespoke luxury battery electric vehicle platform.
The government funding will assist the iconic British brand in making the transition from internal combustion engine supercars and powerful SUVs, to a future that is, like pretty much every other manufacturer on the planet: all-electric.
Although £9 million is nothing to be sniffed at, it is only part of the £2 billion committed by Aston to advanced technologies over the next five years. It also won’t make the move alone, as its Project Elevation is a six-partner collaborative research and development project led by Aston Martin.
It will include support from the Manufacturing Technology Centre, Expert Tooling & Automation, Creative Composites, Fuzzy Logic Studio and WMG, University of Warwick.
According to Aston, the project will address the “technical challenges of developing a lightweight, 800V traction battery pack and twin front electric drive unit (EDU) into a modular BEV platform with a bandwidth from supercar to SUV.” In short, it wants to create its own proprietary tech, rather than rely on outsourcing it.
What will be the first electric Aston?
Aston plans to release its first all-electric vehicle in 2025, pipped to an SUV (although we are unsure whether it will be a DBX variant or an all-new vehicle) and powered by motor and battery technology from Lucid. Power output from a four motor set-up could be as much as 1,500bhp.
By 2026, there will be an electric version of all Aston models, and by 2030, you won’t be able to buy a rumbling V8 or howling V12. It looks like Bond’s next car will be the smooth silent type.