We pray it’ll be pretty.
The SUV craze continues to sweep the world at warp speed, and while it’s hardly breaking-news that Aston Martin is soon to join the bandwagon, a new development has shed light on what Gaydon’s first SUV will be called, when it arrives in late-2019.
Based on trademark documents, Aston Martin has requested the rights to the name ‘Varekai.’ Not only is the name in keeping with Aston’s tradition of giving ‘V’ names to their cars (with the exception of the Rapide, which we actually forgot about for a while), but in a nomadic dialect called Romany, ‘Varekai’ also means ‘wherever.’ Fitting for an SUV, no?
Up until the trademark was filed, the SUV has been referred to as ‘DBX’ by both motoring hacks and Aston Martin execs alike. Brand boss Andy Palmer himself referred to the car as DBX on multiple occasions, famously saying how he put the Aston SUV project in motion on his 4th day on the job, resulting in the DBX concept car that was shown at the 2015 Geneva motor show.
The Varekai will be built in a brand-new facility in St. Athan, in Wales, which is being built to accommodate growing demand for Aston’s vehicles around the world. The Varekai is expected to grow Aston’s production and sales numbers to new heights. Palmer has previously said that the prototypes of the Varekai will be in place by the end of 2018, with customer deliveries expected within the following year.
Hand-built at the new facility, the Varekai’s production line will dominate the new St. Athan facility. The new SUV was most prominently previewed in the form of the DBX concept from the 2015 Geneva motor show, and was motivated by an all-electric powertrain, though the production model will gain conventional motivation from Aston’s existing range of engines. Oh, and it’ll have two more doors.
When it arrives in 2019, the Aston Martin Varekai will compete against other sporty SUVs like the Porsche Cayenne, Bentley Bentayga (okay, this is not quite that sporty), and the Lamborghini Urus. We can only hope and pray that when it comes to be, the Varekai will be as characteristically pretty as all Aston’s ought to be. Think more Rapide than Lagonda, and you’ll get an idea.
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