The Aston Martin Cygnet Electric. NO!!
Having already gone mad by Aston-ising a Toyota IQ, Aston Martin have lost the plot and are planning an electric Aston Martin Cygnet.
When Aston Martin first revealed the re-badged Toyota iQ as the Aston Martin Cygnet we were quite enamoured by the idea. But only because Aston Martin inferred – no, they actually said – that the intent was to sell the Cygnet only to existing Aston Martin owners. A sort of ‘Tender’ for the DBS or DB9.
All of which made a lot of sense. Many Aston owners live in big cities and it can be quite a pain to break out the DBS to pop down the shops for bread and papers (yes, even DBS owners go to the shops for bread and papers), so having a mini-me Aston to do local errands in congested cities seemed a good move.
And we understood that Aston-ising the interior with wood and leather and sticking an Aston Martin grill on the front meant that Aston could charge through the nose for the Cygnet. After all, you had to have a full size Aston to own the baby Aston, so the kudos was there to justify the price tag.
We also understood the need to reduce Aston’s average CO2 emissions across the range because stupid Governments consider CO2 emissions to be important and will penalise car makers who don’t meet targets.
But even though we understand the imperative, we don’t accept there is justification for selling an Aston Martin Cygnet to anyone who just happens to have the money, as it now seems Aston Martin are intent on doing. We are trying hard not to moan on like some petrolhead dinosaur but really, this is devaluing the brand big time.
And now comes the news that Aston Martin are not only planning to make the Cygnet available to anyone who can afford its ridiculous price tag, they are also going to make an electric version. An electric Toyota with an Aston Martin badge and a probable price tag of £45k.
Madness.
