Lagonda All-Terrain Concept: will this really be the luxury SUV of the future?

With the Lagonda All-Terrain Concept, Aston Martin presents at the Geneva Motor Show its proposal for what luxury SUVs could look like in the future. The model is scheduled to enter series production in 2022.

Some cars catch the eye. And the Aston Martin always does, whatever era they come from. But the prototype presented at the Geneva Motor Show under the revived Lagonda brand, called the Lagonda All-Terrain Concept, is one of those cars that sparks debate rather than simply stirring passion.

It gave us a hint of what was to come when we learned that the Lagonda SUV would be unveiled in Geneva and would be electric. But you cannot draw conclusions from a teaser. Now at least we have seen it live, with its strikingly avant-garde design, inspired on one side by superyachts and on the other, no less than by the Concorde. A combination like that could only produce a car like this.

But the commitment is clear and decisive: Lagonda, the brand under which Aston Martin will sell its future electric cars, will begin building this SUV in early 2022, at a plant located in St Athan, Wales. This will be the Lagonda Aston Martin “electrification centre”, and from here we will see new electric cars in other segments emerge in the future.

Electric propulsion, autonomous driving

Lagonda wants to be the first luxury brand able to boast zero emissions. And logically, the All-Terrain Concept is presented as a fully electric SUV.

Of course, given such an important launch at the most widely followed motor show in the world, they could have gone a little further and revealed something about how this propulsion system will work. For now, it is “top secret”. The only thing we know is that current plans centre on expanding the new plant, where more than 700 people will be working in early 2020.

Lagonda wants to rewrite history, and to do so it is betting on technological sophistication, combining electrification and autonomous driving. Gone are the V12 engines of those cars capable of winning at Le Mans. Its managers now want to recover “the wonderful sensation of travelling”, and this is its first proposal.

The interior of the Lagonda SUV: a key that floats

Inside, the Lagonda All-Terrain Concept offers four luxurious seats, the two front ones swivelling, to create a “lounge” atmosphere when the car is operating in autonomous driving. The design looks minimalist… and it is. But with a trick: there are speakers, ventilation grilles, and so on, only they are not visible. And as a sign of advanced technology, Lagonda has opted for a “floating” smart key.

We do not know what real advantages it will have, beyond letting you show off a car with a key that levitates between the front seats thanks to a series of electromagnets.

Another highlight of the futuristic interior of the Lagonda All-Terrain SUV is the steering wheel. And not only because of its design, which is flattened at both the top and the bottom. Where other cars normally place the passenger airbag, here a digital screen serving as the instrument display is integrated.