In case you missed some of the big news of 2017 and 2018, a lot of high-end automotive manufacturers are now selling or are developing SUVs. Of these “high-end” manufacturers, Bentley, Maserati, Rolls-Royce, and Lamborghini have all released high-end luxury SUVs designed for high-end consumers, but Aston Martin has yet to join the fight. We now know that Aston Martin is currently building their first ever luxury SUV, the DBX, which is scheduled for a Q4 2019 release, quite a bit later than all of its competitors.

With a lot of high-end SUVs, off-road performance is an essential piece of the experience, and the DBX is no different. Sure, it might not be solid-axle Wrangler that can crawl a boulder the size of a school bus, but it’s no minivan either. Aston Martin is currently publicly testing prototype DBXs in Wales on Stage Rally courses with future prototypes being in the Arctic and the Middle East, plus there will be testing on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, one of the toughest race tracks in the world.

“We have already developed and tuned the DBX in the driving simulator, which has enabled us to make excellent progress in advance of the first physical prototype cars being available. Still, it’s always a big day when you get to put the first actual miles on an early prototype, and I’m delighted with the near-perfect correlation between the simulator and this prototype,” said Matter Becker, Aston Martin Chief Engineer. The full unveiling of the DBX should be around Q4 2019, but thanks to Aston Martin’s public testing and marketing, we have a good idea of what it looks like.