Revived and Electrified: Lagonda Vision Concept

It has been 71 years since Lagonda was acquired by Aston Martin, and for most of that time it has been the most somnolent of sleeping partners. No longer. Lagonda is set to be revived as a full-fledged luxury EV brand aimed at the long-lived plutocratic duopoly of Rolls-Royce and Bentley. The Lagonda Vision concept revealed at the Geneva auto show isn’t a finished production car (and almost no technical details about it have been shared). Rather, it’s a manifesto piece that, we’re promised by company executives, accurately reflects how radical we can expect the first Lagonda sedan to be when it goes on sale in 2021.

The Ingenuity of Ohio

Lagonda’s history is actually longer than that of Aston Martin. It was founded in England in 1907 by Wilbur Gunn, an Ohioan engineer who had crossed the Atlantic to pursue his dream of becoming a professional opera singer. When he failed in that, he turned to making motorcycles and then cars, naming his company after a Shawnee settlement near his native Springfield. Gunn died in 1920, but Lagonda continued and, by the late 1930s, was producing some of the most exclusive automobiles in the world. The 1938 Lagonda V-12’s pioneering engine was designed by none other than W. O. Bentley, and it was the most expensive car on display at the 1939 New York auto show. Lagondas were produced alongside Aston Martins after the two companies merged, but numbers dwindled, and by the 1970s the famous name had been demoted from brand to single model: the spectacularly angular—and notoriously unreliable—Aston Martin Lagonda sedan.

Yet Aston has long wanted to make something of its second top-flight name badge. A Lagonda SUV concept was shown at the Geneva auto show in 2009 but didn’t go anywhere. More recently, Aston produced a limited-run Lagonda Taraf sedan based on a stretched version of the Rapide. If all goes according to plan, that car will be remembered as the final internal-combustion Lagonda.

EV Future

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer says that development of the new Lagonda started in 2015; the decision to make every Lagonda an EV came about a year later. (In Palmer’s former role as Nissan’s head of product development, he was the guiding light behind the original Leaf.)

“We considered other powertrains,” Palmer said, when we spoke to him at Aston’s Gaydon HQ ahead of the official unveiling, “but we decided it made the most sense to jump straight to the logical end point. Lagonda equals EV, EV equals silent travel, and silence equals luxury.”

Production Lagondas will use the same electric powertrain that will sit under the EV version of the upcoming Aston Martin DBX crossover, although the Lagonda will be the first to market, with both cars being built at Aston’s new factory in Wales. The company is making no technical claims for the Vision concept, but we’re told that the plan is to combine a motor at each corner along with a battery pack mounted under the floor. Aston has previously shown us a prototype version of the upcoming all-electric RapidE, which it has said will have a top speed of 155 mph and acceleration equivalent to that delivered by the company’s V-12 gasoline engine. It’s a safe bet the Lagonda sedan—and the Lagonda SUV that Palmer confirms will follow it into the market—will at least match those numbers.

Jump to the Conclusion

The design is striking, to put it mildly. The decision to use an electric architecture has allowed for a radical, cab-forward stance. As such, it’s a deliberate snub to the stately three-box proportions of horsepower/people/luggage that have characterized luxury sedans pretty much since rich people started to order their carriages sans horses.

While upmarket electric cars such as the Tesla Model S and the newly announced Jaguar I-Pace have tended to opt for traditional form languages, the Lagonda’s designers have set out to celebrate its lack of internal combustion. “Why go through the steps rather than just jump to the conclusion?” asked lead exterior stylist Sam Holgate, who showed us around the car, echoing Palmer’s point about the powertrain.

The Vision’s proportions maximize cabin space, with the leading edge of the windshield pushed ahead of the front axle line. The concept wears a grille at the front—its production descendants will still require cooling—with a sizable LAGONDA script. The wedgelike side profile is broken up by various triangular details, several of which Holgate said were inspired by the supersonic Concorde aircraft.

These do a good job of reducing attention to the enormous size of the rear doors, which are hinged at the rear; there are no B-pillars, making for an uninterrupted aperture with all the doors open. Access to the back is aided by powered flaps in the glass roof that motor upward in conjunction with the door opening. The aggressively tucked-under rear cargo hold looks short of luggage space, but the concept does have a trunklid.

If the outside of the Vision concept is daring, the inside is mounting a tactical assault on the Iranian embassy. Many cabin details are further from production reality than the mostly viable exterior styling. Among them are front seats that rotate 180 degrees to face the rears, and a steering wheel that splits and folds itself away during autonomous driving.

Palmer admitted that higher-level autonomy is unlikely to arrive in any of the company’s products before the middle of the next decade, some time beyond Lagonda’s introduction, although he added that production cars will feature of full suite of radar, lidar, and camera sensors at launch. The concept’s internal space is huge; the design team says the cabin is about eight inches longer than that of the Rolls-Royce Phantom despite the Lagonda’s overall dimensions being four inches shorter than the smaller Rolls-Royce Ghost. There’s certainly no need for an extended-wheelbase version, as even an NBA star could spread out in the rear. The beltline is very high, but plenty of light gets in thanks to the glass roof.

The cabin was created in conjunction with British furniture designer and ennobled peer David Linley, with Aston saying the viscount vetoed early plans to use the Ye Olde English staples of wood and leather in favor of some far more radical material choices. The rear seats are trimmed in cashmere, the carpets are made from silk, and the interior surfaces are covered with dozens of ceramic tiles, with some of them opening to admit light, ventilation, or sound from the audio system. There are no conventional switches; functions instead are handled either by gesture control or a small touchscreen interface.

Palmer admitted that the company’s ambition for long-term expansion will be borne in large part by Lagonda. “We have a plant that’s capable of producing 14,000 cars divided by two brands,” he said, with the long-term aim for Lagonda to become seen as a separate entity from its sports-car sibling. Those are ambitious targets, but Palmer is convinced that Lagonda will find a ready market, both in Asia where luxury makers are going to be expected to lead the charge into full electrification and closer to home with the green-tinted super rich.

This is a car aimed squarely at Silicon Valley and the technology sector’s ultra-high-net-worth individuals, buyers who aren’t being drawn to Rolls or Bentley. “These are the people who are already buying the most expensive Tesla with every option box ticked,” said Palmer. “These are people who we don’t see today in the high-luxury segment; they want something different.” The Lagonda Vision concept is certainly that.