Our guess is that we are bound to see every car company on the market coming up with an electric vehicle or at least a hybrid one sooner or later. We’ve reached this conclusion after seeing big names like Toyota, Kia and Jaguar announcing environmentally-friendly cars to reach out their fans and customers worldwide. Now i’s time for Aston Martin to take its turn and show us what they’ve got: apparently an electric version of the Cygnet city car – the company’s first EV.
It couldn’t have been a hybrid, since the company’s chief executive Ulrich Bez hates them and for a reason: contrary to any expectations, they hurt the environment more than we think (source: the AML supremo).
Speaking about dislikes, Bez is not into KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) either: he thinks they are too heavy and complex, with a power boost that doesn’t find its place in a sports car with 400 bhp.
Instead, they went for an uncomplicated electric car, which emits a low level of pollution and is very well adapted to drivers who commute a lot: “We believe there is a market for an urban runabout which is easy to park and very economical yet almost as well appointed as a Vantage,” Ulrich Bez says. So this Aston Martin with a 98 bhp engine and £31k+ price seems like the best alternative to other coupes and roadsters of the same car company. The company bets on 1500 sales a year.
You’ll be able to see it elegantly sliding on the streets starting 2013, just one year after Toyota will have launched its electric IQ. Fans of this brand will be able to find out more on the subject in a June interview with Ulrich Bez himself.
[via CarMagazine]
