Aston Martin Rapide E arrives as Aston’s FIRST electric car – but it’s a bit underwhelming

The Aston Martin Rapide E makes its debut in production guise at the Shanghai Motor Show, delivering 602bhp and over 200 miles of range.

Four years ago Andy Palmer, Aston Martin boss, confirmed that AML were working on their first electric car, that it would be an electric RapidE (that’s Rapide with a big E at the end for ‘Electric’), that it would have 800bhp and four-wheel drive. Which sounded quite excellent.

Andy Palmer was back again in 2017 promising the stellar electric Rapide was going to arrive in 2018, but a few months later that had slipped to 2019 – and Palmer was being coy about specs.

Finally, last September, we got to learn production specs for the electric Rapide E, and although impressive they weren’t exactly what was promised. Which is unusual; you’d have thought four years of electric car progress would have seen specs improve, not diminish.

But now the Aston Martin Rapide E is here, revealed in Shanghai, and it comes with 602bhp produced by a pair of electric motors on the back wheels and powered by a 65kWh battery pack sitting where the V12 ICE would have been. It’s good for 0-62mph in under 4.0 seconds and can charge at a rate of 310 miles every hour on an 800V 100kW charger, and has a 200 mile range. 

The Rapide E also has some cosmetic titivations – grille, splitter, diffuser – and a new digital instrument panel inside.

AML are producing just 155 Rapide E cars, and each is expected to cost around £200k. We love an Aston, but we can’t help but feel rather underwhelmed by the electric Rapide E.