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Aston Martin Finds Austrian Home for New Rapide

Aston Martin has made a decision regarding the production of its long-awaited

Beautiful... and now the Rapide will be produced. (Photo: Aston Martin)

Rapide four-door sedan. The sleek, coupe-like sporty limousine will go into production next year, and the British premium car-builder is expected to sell approximately 2,000 units of the car per year, which would be remarkable growth for the brand.

The only problem is that Aston Martin doesn't have the factory floor space to build so many cars. Its current production location at Gaydon, England is literally loaded to capacity, producing nearly 8,000 combined units of the V8 Vantage, DB9 and the new range-topping DBS supercar. Although the ideal solution would to build the Rapide in Gaydon due to it being based on the flexible “V-H” architecture, shared amongst all Astons, this would not be possible without expanding the plant, a costly investment that Aston isn't yet ready to make. As a result, Aston Martin has contracted the job of building

No space at Gaydon, so Magna Steyr will produce Aston's new four-door. (Photo: Aston Martin)

the Rapide to Austrian vehicle manufacturer, Magna Steyr.

This of course is very good news for Magna Steyr. The Austrian facilities have lost the contracts for several automobiles, such as the Chrysler 300 and Chrysler Voyager (the European Town & Country), as well as the next generation BMW X3.

Although the Rapide won't match these vehicles in terms of volume (although the addition of the Mini's new SUV will help), nothing the plant has built so far matches the Rapide's exclusivity. Production of the Rapide will be taken very seriously. Officials are currently working on creating a dedicated assembly line for the high-profile sedan.

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