Aston Martin’s ex-CEO Andy Palmer once said that the DBX could be the brand’s most important car ever, with the survival of the company essentially weighing entirely on the shoulders of the SUV’s success. The DBX went into production last summer, and in just about a year, now accounts for more than half of Aston Martin’s global sales – so by all means, the DBX has been a marked win for the brand, but they’re just getting started.
Following new executive director Lawrence Stroll’s comments in the company’s first-quarter financial report last year, Aston Martin CEO Tobias Moers has now confirmed in a recent interview with MotorTrend that further derivatives of the DBX will be coming, starting with a mild hybrid variant by the year-end.
The mild hybrid DBX is expected to utilise an electrified supercharged 3.0-litre straight-six engine that’s derived from Mercedes-AMG 53 models. Following that, a high-performance model will be unveiled in 2022 to compete directly against the Lamborghini Urus.
Watch our full review of the Aston Martin DBX here!
“There is room for improvement in regards to performance because other competitors have a higher level of engine performance,” Moers said in the interview, and noted that it won’t be called an AMR model, because “there is no need for a sub-brand – Aston Martin is a performance brand.”
The DBX plug-in hybrid will then follow in 2023, using a modified version of Mercedes-AMG’s new V8 plug-in hybrid technology. But model expansion will be more than just powertrain options.
Aston Martin is also planning for more body styles, based on the DBX’s platform. “We are going to use the platform of the DBX and create an even sportier approach for that car,” Moers says. “We need different body styles, more bang-on performance, a more aggressive body style, things like that.”
“The DBX gives us a lot of leverage as a platform,” he added. “You can think about being more luxurious, spacious, and you can think about being more sporty, even more-performance oriented body style.” This all suggests that the highly-rumoured seven-seater DBX is indeed coming, along with a coupe variant, sometime between 2023 and 2024.
The Aston Martin DBX is also now serving as F1’s new medical car! Check it out here.
By 2024, Moers said that there should be about five or six DBX versions to choose from. Judging by the demand they have for the SUV currently, it seems more than likely that the DBX and its derivatives will continue paving the way in terms of sales for Aston Martin for many years to come.
