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The first 100% electric Aston Martin was finally unveiled, nearly four years after its first announcement. Based on the Aston Martin Rapide sedan with combustion engine, the "Fast E" officially debuted at the Shanghai Auto Show on Tuesday. Only 155 will be manufactured and Aston Martin has not announced a price for the car.
Powered by a battery of 800 volts and 65 kWh, Aston Martin believes that the Rapide E will travel "more than 200 km" with a single charge. The twin engines mounted on the rear axle will generate 450 kW (or more than 600 horsepower) and will allow the car to reach a top speed of 155 km / h. That will happen pretty quickly too – Aston Martin says the Fast E will go from 0 to 60 miles to the hour in less than four seconds (which is faster than the standard S-rated Fast). When connected to a high speed charger, the car battery can be recharged at a speed of 500 km / h.
The car will be equipped with a 10-inch digital dashboard behind the steering wheel and an 8-inch screen mounted in the center of the dashboard, allowing you to manage the most recent infotainment functions Fast). Apple CarPlay and Android Auto will both be supported.
On the outside, the Rapide E looks essentially like the combustion engine car on which it is based, with the exception of some blue electric accents in the headlights and brake calipers. Under the hood, things are the most different. The battery system has been designed around the space where the V12 engine, the gearbox and the fuel tank of the combustion version are normally located. This means that Fast E does not have a battery floor like a Tesla, for example. While this reduces design and engineering costs, it ultimately limits the number of battery cells (and ultimate capacity) that a manufacturer can incorporate into a car. In the end, Rapide E weighs 4,717 pounds, about 400 pounds more than the internal combustion of Rapide S.
The Rapide E was announced in 2015, just as Aston Martin was going through a cost-cutting campaign that resulted in hundreds of layoffs. To get off the fast E project (then called "RapidE"), the British manufacturer has allocated funds to Chinese financiers. Then, in 2016, Aston Martin announced that it would build the car with the Chinese technology conglomerate LeEco, a company founded by Jia Yueting, which also Faraday Future, an EV start-up in trouble, founded (and now operating).
Aston Martin's first electric car was expected to hit the road in 2018 and be produced in larger quantities. However, LeEco was withdrawn from the joint venture in 2017 when its cash was insufficient. Aston Martin has turned to the Williams engineering company to help market the car and has reduced the scope of application to only 155 vehicles. (Williams also helped build the batteries for Formula E's first generation electric racing cars.)
Rapide E will be built in the village of St. Athan in South Wales. It is also here that Aston Martin plans to build Lagonda's 100% electric vehicles, its recently revived electric vehicle sub-brand. Aston Martin calls St. Athan's plant "the house of electrification" of the company.
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