Saar: It is slated to be unveiled during the last quarter of next year and will be built at Aston Martin’s new assembly plant at St Athan, in South Wales, UK.

The story of an Aston Martin SUV dates back to the 2015 Geneva Motor Show. During the event, the British sportscar maker unveiled a head-turning vehicle called the DBX Concept. With direct competitors, such as Lamborghini, Maserati, Porsche, Bentley and even Rolls-Royce already well underway with their respective iterations of an SUV, Aston Martin couldn’t have just ignored the segment. That’s where the Aston Martin DBX comes in and it has officially entered its testing regime. Before we get to the speculations and the confirmed set of details, here’s the video of the DBX being put through the Welsh Rally stage by the scruff of its neck:

Why Wales to start of the testing procedure? Because that’s where it will be produced. To be specific, the Aston Martin DBX will be put together at the company’s new assembly plant at St Athan, in South Wales, UK. The DBX will be the first vehicle that will roll off the new facility’s floor. The said facility will also become the ‘Home of Electrification’ for Aston Martin as the company’s pure EVs (electric vehicles) will also be built there. For the uninitiated, Aston Martin’s revived nameplate – Lagonda – will only be slapped on pure EVs.

Up until now, Aston Martin has never produced a high-riding vehicle. That means it could not have used the same testing procedures and processes as it does for its sports cars. Hence, a new testing regime was worked upon and thanks to that, the DBX will be put through “some of the world’s harshest environments, from the frozen Arctic and scorching deserts of the Middle East to high Alpine passes and the high-speed demands of the German autobahnen and Nürburgring Nordschleife.”

The Aston Martin DBX is likely to share its platform with the Lagonda-marked EVs which will hit the market early next decade. To start with, Aston Martin will offer the DBX with the V12 from the D11 and V8 from the Vantage. Thanks to its partnership with Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin will borrow the hybrid technology for the DBX as well.

Aston Martin has confirmed that the DBX will be unveiled during the last quarter of 2019. It is destined to become one of the seven cars that the company intends to launch under its Second Century Plan.