Aston Martin has officially announced the start of testing for its first SUV model, the DBX.
The British brand has taken the sports SUV to one of the stages for the Welsh Rally to put it through its paces before it begins a year of extensive testing.
The site of this first test was used as acknowledgment of the brand new factory at St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, which is where the DBX will be built from the end of 2019 and will be the home of Aston Martin’s electric vehicle manufacturing.
Driven by the model’s chief engineer, Matt Becker, the DBX was able to navigate the route at speed and display why the brand is moving into the SUV segment.
After driving the stage, Becker said: “We have already developed and tuned DBX in the driving simulator, which has enabled us to make excellent progress in advance of the first physical prototype cars being available.
“Still, it’s always a big day when you get to put the first actual miles on an early prototype and I’m delighted with the near perfect correlation between the simulator and this prototype. As an engineer, it’s genuinely exciting to get a feel for the car you’re working to create.”
Aston Martin chief executive officer Andy Palmer said: “Seeing a DBX development prototype in action is a momentous chapter in the story of our first SUV, for it is the moment it really comes alive.
“DBX is so much more than ‘just’ an SUV; it will be the first model built at our brand-new facility in St Athan. As such, it is very much the start of a bold new era in the company’s long history.”
Aston Martin will be fully revealing the DBX at the end of 2019.
