Pininfarina being considered to help build Aston Martin’s Rapide

Aston Martin’s CEO, Ulrich Bez, has said that the company”s current number one priority is developing the Rapide. In a recent interview with AutoCar, Bez said that Aston Martin is considering building the Rapide in Italy with a third-party manufacturer and that sports car specialist Pininfarina is one of the potential third party production experts on the table.

“Many manufacturers already build models at specialist manufacturers like Karmann, Magna Steyr and Pininfarina, where they have top quality facilities and all the capabilities needed,” said Bez.

Bez told AutoCar that it is not feasible for Aston Martin to build the four-door Rapide at its Newport Pagnell facility or its new Gaydon factory.

“The facilities at Newport Pagnell were very old and not adequate and the site was not big enough. We have never built more than 600 cars at Newport so it was not really viable.” Gaydon on the other hand is already close to running maximum production. With the DBS going into full production next year, Aston will build over 7,200 cars at the Gaydon plant.

Aston Martin”s chief designer, Marek Reichman, said the four-door-coupe  will arrive in 2009 or 2010 and will cost around $400,000.

 

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Source: AutoCar

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