In case you missed it at last year’s Geneva Motor Show, Aston Martin resurrected luxury sub-brand Lagonda and announced it would become the automaker’s showcase for EVs going forward. It launched that vision with an opulent — and carpeted! — autonomous concept car. At this year’s show, though, Aston Martin is showing that the company’s vision is getting closer to reality with the Lagonda All-Terrain concept, an autonomous-ready electric SUV that will enter production in 2022. Aston Martin didn’t release any specs at all for the Lagonda All-Terrain, which looks somewhat like a Jaguar I-Pace that’s been stretched from both ends. And while it more closely resembles a production car than last year’s concept, it’s still pretty far out. It’s not as opulent as last year’s Lagonda concept, but it’s still not for you The inside of the car features two screens, though none are on the dashboard. Instead, one sits in the middle of the steering wheel, while the other is embedded into the center console. There are no obvious air vents or speakers, either. Instead, Lagonda wants to use the lines and contours formed by the car’s luxurious materials to create a “Renaissance” perspective effect that draws passengers’ eyes to the windshield, the side windows, and up through the glass roof. “This is a car that would be at home whisking someone straight from a glamorous red carpet event to a remote scientific research lab,” Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer said in an awfully specific statement. Grid View That’s not the only big idea Lagonda has for this car. The All-Terrain concept so “appeals to a pioneering spirit of adventure,” the company writes, that you could “just as easily imagine it roaming the surface of Mars as a mountain in Scotland.” And where last year’s concept was partially inspired by the Concorde, according to Lagonda, this year’s has “taken some of its initial design language from the world of the super yacht.” If you think this is all high-minded concept foolery, fear not, because Lagonda still considers practicality a virtue. Because, as the company writes, “while the technology exists in this day and age to allow the [car] key to be removed altogether, Lagonda believes that it remains an important point of contact between the driver and the vehicle.” Yes, there’ll be no using a smartphone app to enter this futuristic super yacht SUV. Instead, you’ll still use a physical key. But when you sit down inside, you won’t place that key in an ignition. Don’t be silly! Instead, the key will be “celebrated and indeed elevated” — literally — because the car will use electromagnets to make the key hover between the front seats. Let’s just hope they aren’t taking tips from any of these companies.<doc-sep>Photos: Aston Martin I like how Aston Martin saw fit to butter us up, so to speak, with two mid-engine supercar debuts at the same auto show where it revealed a crossover SUV concept. You know how you always lead with the good news before telling someone the bad news? This is that. Anyway, I don’t think this is so bad, but it’s definitely something different from Aston Martin and sure to rile up the purists. Advertisement Meet the Aston Martin Lagonda All-Terrain Concept. It bears an old British marque that was last used on the ultra-angular luxury Aston sedan of the 1970s and 1980s, and it’s back here on Aston’s first big lifted people mover. Granted, there’s also the upcoming DBX crossover, but the Lagonda is something else entirely. For one, it’s all-electric. As with the supercars unveiled today, Aston was light on specifics, but it has a battery pack built into the floors. It’s a direct challenge to the Tesla Model X and the slew of other luxury EV crossovers coming soon from Mercedes, Audi, BMW and more. For another—and like the Model X—it has vertically hinged rear doors, and you can see some live shots of those over at Motor 1. They don’t look as complex as the Tesla’s Falcon Doors, which is probably a good thing, but it’s definitely an interesting touch. The front half’s shape is very Aston wish, with the relatively low roofline and long hood, but the angular back end is really something. To me it vaguely recalls the custom Lagonda Shooting Brake made in the 1990s. It’s incredibly weird and unusual, but I’m kind of into it. You may remember the Lagonda Vision Concept from last year’s Geneva show—this is kind of the same, but in SUV form. Advertisement The concept is expected to have a production version in 2022. I hope it keeps the crazy rear-end. Go big or go home. Advertisement Advertisement<doc-sep>Aston Martin’s Lagonda brand is taking the covers off its latest concept car at the Geneva Motor Show. Dubbed the All-Terrain Concept, the latest Lagonda previews the storied brand's forthcoming crossover SUV. Following in the tread marks of last year’s aero-inspired Lagonda Vision Concept, the All-Terrain Concept cribs its looks from the nautical world. The finished product is handsome, if a smidge too minivan-like for our tastes. Gallery: Lagonda All-Terrain Concept at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show 21 Photos Inside, the Lagonda All-Terrain Concept is as luxurious as any yacht. The driver faces a steering wheel with an integrated gauge cluster in the hub. The wheel, however, is not necessary to drive the Lagonda All-Terrain Concept, as the crossover offers an autonomous driving mode. With the car in its autonomous driving mode, the driver and front passenger can swivel their seats around to face those in the crossover's rear bucket seats. Those in the back enter by way of rear-hinged doors that afford easy ingress and egress. Arguably, the standout interior detail of the All-Terrain Concept is its physical key, which levitates in between the two front seats by way of electromagnets. Power for the All-Terrain Concept comes courtesy of electricity, with the crossover's battery pack located under its floorboards. Meanwhile, a shelf under the rear cargo floor extends out and serves as a seating perch for tailgating or whatever it is Lagonda drivers do. While the All-Terrain Concept is just that (a concept), the Geneva show car is due to spawn a production variant in 2022. Lagonda will build the crossover at its facility in St Athan in Wales.<doc-sep>
Lagonda appears to have gone for the scatter-gun approach when it comes to naming design influences for its All-Terrain Concept, with everything from super yachts to Mars exploration via the ‘planetary forces of gravity fields’ all attributed to the car’s aesthetics. It takes cues from last year’s Lagonda Vision Concept but hikes them up, and its unusually prosaic name suggests it’s not ashamed of possessing some off-road intent. While most will snake slowly through affluent quarters of capital cities, Lagonda is adamant the All-Terrain can do more. Yep, it’s going to get made, and it might look rather more like this concept than you’d expect, especially given how good its elongated tail is for aerodynamics. An SUV will be the first production car from new-age Lagonda 2022 – because what else do you launch a brand with these days? – though little is divulged about what powers the All-Terrain at the moment, save for it being fully electric, as will all production Lagondas. We’d place our bets on power being ‘ample’ with an electric motor at each corner to give it some semblance of off-road ability to back up the striking looks and strong design talk. Indeed, most attention for now is focused on its deeply luxurious inner quarters, with a focus on how much space and visibility you’ll have. There’s a shelf that slides out from the rear to act as a viewing platform once you’ve scaled Mars (or a small hill), for instance, one of many neat touches that also see the front seats spin round to face the rears (during autonomous driving), a glass roof to aid properly digesting the scenery around you and, “thanks to the wonder of electromagnets” in Lagonda’s words, its key floats when it is placed in position, levitating between the front seats. “Just as with the materials and the exterior design, the technology should be warm and involving rather than cold and impersonal,” says Aston’s design boss Marek Reichman. “This is the future and it should be something that people are inspired and delighted by rather than perplexed and frightened by.” Is it just us that’s left slightly perplexed and frightened by a UFO-like key that looks like it could Frisbee itself around the cabin at any given moment? It’ll be built at Aston Martin’s St Athan plant in Wales alongside Aston’s DBX crossover, and has been revealed at the Geneva motor show alongside several Aston sports cars, showing how intrinsically linked the two marques are, no matter how much Lagonda wants to be seen as different. A brand that “will break through long-standing boundaries and transform the way people perceive luxury transport,” no less. Sounds grandiose, but then this All-Terrain looks grandiose, too. Are you a fan?