Lagonda Brand Is ‘Completely Dead,’ Aston Martin Chairman Stroll Says
Trying to sell luxury EVs to technocrats under an obscure historic name was probably a bad idea to begin with.
A few years back during the supercar boom, Aston Martin hyped up a revival of its historic Lagonda luxury brand. Well, it's been a long few years, and Lagonda has been quiet. That's because, as Aston's executive chairman Lawrence Stroll confirmed, Lagonda's path to a return is "completely dead."
The Lagonda revival commenced under former Aston CEO Andy Palmer, who envisioned the brand capturing the new tech money demographic. In retrospect, there were some obvious problems with this idea: Lagonda hasn't had a continuous presence in the market since 1940, and has only released two models in the last 60 years. Not exactly the disruptive image technocrats try to cultivate for themselves. Still, Lagonda intended to launch with a pair of electric ultra-luxury cars at the level of Bentley and Rolls-Royce—one a performance sedan and the other an SUV.
But after a Stroll-led group bought out the British automaker in 2020, the Lagonda project fell off the radar. At one point, Aston management was reportedly considering pivoting the name to an elite tier for its existing cars, sort of like Maybach is to Mercedes, rather than as an EV-only make. Now, Stroll has reiterated to Autocar that Lagonda EVs are fully off the table, and expressed no plans to revive the brand in any form.
"That idea is completely dead and has absolutely nothing to do with our electric vehicle plan," Stroll said. "We think there's enough luxury in our sports cars and SUV, so we're not considering launching a less-performance, higher-luxury car."
Indeed, Aston Martin already competes on the same playing field that Lagonda was meant to, with a reported average transaction price of almost $270,000. That's been buoyed both by enhanced customization options and the range-topping Valhalla and Valkyrie hypercars. Aston EVs are still coming, but the first one has been delayed to 2026 according to Autocar, and plug-in hybrids will step in where EVs can't yet.
The company's first EV is reportedly expected to be a high-riding, quad-motor grand tourer, which sounds like an equivalent to a DBX EV. The DBX was rightfully met with skepticism when it launched, but it has proven itself to be a worthy Aston since. Maybe we shouldn't lower our expectations for Aston Martin's maiden EV, either.
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