The biggest news story of today is undoubtedly the Aston Martin DBX, Gaydon’s first ever SUV that will open up a new chapter for the company. There’s plenty already released for us to pore over, but at a private preview held in Kuala Lumpur last week, we received a few more juicy morsels for us to digest, courtesy of senior manager of global product management Neil Hughes.
Firstly, the bad news. Despite all reports to the contrary, the DBX won’t be available with a V12 – at least Aston’s 5.2 litre twin-turbocharged mill in its current form. Hughes said that because the twelve-cylinder has outboard turbochargers, the whole package is simply too wide to fit the engine bay.
The car was instead designed to accommodate the Mercedes-AMG 4.0 litre biturbo V8, currently found in the Vantage and DB11, which has its turbos mounted between the cylinder banks. The engine has been uprated for SUV duty, equipped with cylinder deactivation and producing 550 PS and 700 Nm of torque.
But while a larger powertrain isn’t in the pipeline just yet, Hughes hinted at the possibility of a smaller engine, specifically one displacing 3.0 litres. When pushed, he confirmed that Aston was working on fitting the DBX with Mercedes’ turbo straight-six, which gets a 48-volt mild hybrid system. The DBX, of course, already features a 48-volt electrical system, on which the suspension’s active roll stabilisation operates.
This M256 engine is fitted to members of Affalterbach’s AMG 53 range, such as the E 53, CLS 53, GLE 53 and GT 53. In these models, it makes 435 PS and 520 Nm, while an integrated starter/generator provides an additional 22 PS and 250 Nm under acceleration.
Further details on future variants were not divulged, but the DBX’s bespoke platform is reportedly capable of adopting electrified powertrains, so perhaps hybrid, plug-in hybrid and even fully-electric models can be expected further down the line.
GALLERY: Aston Martin DBX
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