Yahoo Autos The Aston Martin Rapide E Will Be a Track-Ready Electric Car
Aston Martin's sultry Rapide four-door will be the brand's first foray into the world of EVs, with the upcoming battery-powered Rapide E. (An earlier plan to call it the RapidE seems, wisely, to have been scuttled.) Although the car is still more than a year off, the British concern has released new details about the Rapide E, most notably the specifics of its powertrain.
Developed in conjunction with British Formula 1 offshoot Williams Advanced Engineering, the Rapide E utilizes an 800-volt electrical architecture featuring 65.0 kWh of battery capacity from 5600 lithium-ion cells, which replace the V-12 engine under the hood.
Aston says it's targeting a maximum range of more than 200 miles for the Rapide E, putting it roughly in line with the Tesla Model S 75 and what we're expecting from the Jaguar I-Pace. But when it comes to replenishing electrons, the Gaydon e-machine's trick is that 800-volt battery pack. With the onboard DC-to-DC convertor, Aston says the 800-volt, 56.0-kWh pack can be replenished in a little over an hour on a 400-volt DC connection (or a CCS 1.0 connection, typically available in the U.S.). If you can find a station that supports 800-volt charging, like those of the CCS 2.0 variety that are starting to pop up in Europe, a full recharge can take less than an hour.
The battery pack feeds two electric motors, which drive the rear wheels, with a total output of "just over" 602 horsepower and 700 lb-ft of torque. Preliminary performance estimates are zero to 60 mph in under 4.0 seconds and a 155-mph top speed, the company noting that such performance won't be only when the battery pack is fully charged. "The target is for maximum performance … throughout the majority of the battery state of charge." As Aston CEO Andy Palmer told us after our drive of an early Rapide E mule, "you'll be able to drive the car rapidly all the way around the Nürburgring without it derating or conking out on you."
Aston says it will build 155 examples of the Rapide E, and claims that all of them already have been pre-sold to 155 "trusted customers." Those buyers will take delivery late in 2019. Whether any of them takes their new Aston for a workout at the 'Ring remains to be seen-but they could.
('You Might Also Like',)
