Lagonda returning as zero-emissions brand

British sports car maker Aston Martin has confirmed it will re-invent the long-dormant Lagonda brand as a zero-emissions line.

As it hinted at the Geneva motor show in March, it will start its production future in 2021 with an all-electric Lagonda SUV, which will be the template for all future Lagonda-branded cars.

Aston has stopped short of calling Lagonda a dedicated battery-electric brand, instead dubbing it "emissions-free" to possibly include a future hydrogen fuel-cell powertrain.

"In reviving one of the most iconic names in motoring we have created a unique opportunity, one that allows us to cast aside an inherited 20th- century approach and instead design cars around 21st-century demands and desires," Aston Martin president and CEO Andy Palmer says. "The Lagonda SUV is the first of its kind: a spacious, high-performance 4x4 that successfully reconciles a love of technology, luxury and style."

Aston Martin has owned the Lagonda brand since 1947, though it dates back to 1906. It built a limited edition run of Lagonda Taraf limousines in 2014, but prior to that its last use of the Lagonda badge was on the wildly optimistic, electrically troubled, wedge-shaped Aston Martin Lagonda that ran from 1976 to 1989.

The upcoming Lagonda SUV will retain the dramatic, polarising styling of the Vision Concept from the Geneva show, giving it another point of separation from the more classical sports car proportions Aston Martin owners are so fond of. – BD Motor News