A million-dollar sub

The British automaker unveiled its first submersible design at the recent Monaco Yacht Show. Dubbed Project Neptune, it’s a three-person vehicle with silver, blade-like pontoons and an acrylic bubble of a cabin for maximizing underwater views. Aston Martin expects the sub will be available in about a year and will be priced at around $4 million (around Rs26 crore).

The company plans to build no more than a dozen of the submersibles per year, the company’s chief creative officer Marek Reichman says. “If you think about Aston Martin, we are a very exclusive brand. In 100 years, we’ve only made 80,000 cars."

Neptune is a collaboration between Aston Martin Consulting, the company’s design consulting arm, and Florida-based Triton Submarines, which has been making luxury submersibles for a little more than a decade.

The model is based on Triton’s Low Profile (LP) platform, specifically designed for super yachts. At just 5.9ft tall and 8,800 pounds, it’s the lightest and smallest three-person sub in production in the world. It’s capable of diving to 1,650ft, has a speed of 3 knots, or 3.5 miles per hour. It is also air-conditioned.

Aston Martin has gradually been expanding into other luxury areas. Last year it unveiled the AM37, a 1,000 brake horsepower motorboat created with Quintessence Yachts and Mulder Design naval architects.

Reichman says the company had done extensive research on what high-net-worth individuals were interested in purchasing other than cars. Unsurprisingly, many are into boating. “It’s about having some other way of entertaining your guests." Bloomberg