If the interior of the Aston Martin DBX test mule here appears familiar, and not from the British manufacturer itself at that, you’d be right – its steering wheel and much of its centre console appear to have been lifted from a current Mercedes-Benz.
Here, the display screen, infotainment and vehicular controls and air-conditioning controls are from the German automaker’s product line, owing to Aston Martin’s technical partnership with Mercedes-AMG, which extends to the supply of electric and electronic components.
Given the DBX’s SUV stance, it is the first Aston Martin to be offered with all-wheel-drive, and the top variant will use the firm’s 5.2 litre biturbo V12 petrol. Pulling in the numbers will be the task of the AMG-sourced 4.0 litre V8 model, likely to slot in beneath the bent-twelve.
The front half of the DBX appears closest to production readiness, while much of the bodywork aft of the B-pillars appears to be works in progress. The front doors feature Aston Martin’s tell-tale flush-mounted door handles, while the rear doors are yet to be finished, here seen with what look like exposed fasteners and a racecar bonnet-style latch in place of where the door handle would be.
Similarly at the tail end, where the silhouette is otherwise coherent; lighting duties here are handled by light turrets intended to conceal the final product’s shape. Likewise the ducktail bootlid and rear bumper are to be further developed, though the through-bumper exhaust arrangement could see production, a la Vantage.
When the Aston Martin DBX comes to market, it will join an increasingly crowded luxury SUV segment, albeit a segment that currently has just one member with a twelve-cylinder engine, the Bentley Bentayga. With the aforementioned V12 range-topper, the DBX looks set to join its fellow Brit in the 12-pot luxury SUV stakes.
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