Part of Daimler AG's->ke187 new ownership stake->ke13 in Aston Martin appears to be a joint partnership between the two companies to develop a slate of sport-utility vehicles. Don't look now, but the future of the long-awaited Lagonda SUV might just have gotten a lot clearer.
According to Bloomberg, the two brands are in the middle of talks on sharing the underpinnings of a new full-size SUV->ke145 with Aston Martin, something the British marquee has planned for a long time but has yet to materialize.
But the recent alliance with Daimler opens up a whole slate of possibilities for Aston Martin->ke13, now that it has a technology partner that can provide it with the right blueprint to see to completion a project that has been in the works for a long time now.
Part of the discussion appears to be Daimler helping Aston Martin in shaping up the Lagonda SUV. The two have already announced another part of their deal that calls for Mercedes' AMG division to help develop new V-8 engines that will be used on future Aston Martin models. So this latest news that the two companies are now working on the Lagonda can be construed as another significant step toward what's shaping up to be a fruitful alliance between the two companies.
Daimler may not get anything out of it at the moment, but should Aston's next wave of models, the Lagonda included, be sales hits, Daimler's five percent stake in Aston Martin could very well prove to be very useful.
Click past the jump to read more about the long-rumored Lagonda SUV.
If or when the production version of the Lagonda will be built, expectations are that it will be built on a Mercedes GL-Class platform with one of the models - presumably the top-of-the-line version - carrying a 6.0-liter, V-12 engine that could produce north of 500 horsepower.
Aston Martin has yet to give any indication on whether the SUV will be built as an Aston Martin or whether the brand will bring back the Lagonda SUV. Whatever the case may be, the vehicle is expected to enter a market ripe with competition, including from the likes of the Lamborghini Urus and the yet-to-be-named Bentley SUV.