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Aston Martin CEO dreams of an electric future for James Bond

With an endless stream of leggy models, futuristic weapons, and a dashing wardrobe, James Bond can rightfully be associated with indulgence. But his car of choice may soon take on a more ecologic bent by way of electric motor and some batteries. So says Andy Palmer, who is predicting an electric vehicle in Bond's future. EVS are 'almost as inevitable as death and tax.' - Andy Palmer Palmer, of course, is CEO of Aston Martin. As he said in a recent interview with CNBC, mass adoption of electrified vehicles is "almost as inevitable as death and tax," and that will extend to Bond – James Bond – as well. Take a look at CNBC's one-minute video clip with Palmer here. The fictional character has been linked to Aston Martin since the third James Bond film, 1964's Goldfinger. In it, the spy, then played by Sean Connery, drove an Aston Martin DB5. Most recently, Aston Martin built James Bond's DB10 especially for the 2015 film Spectre. The lure for the spy would be less the environmental statement and more the fact that electric cars have a ton of torque and can take off like a shot, says Palmer. He should know, having joined Nissan in 1991 and playing a key role in the development of the Nissan Leaf. He also pushed Nissan to add an electric powertrain to the Infiniti LE with the goal to do so by 2014, but by that year he'd left Nissan for Aston Martin. As for the UK automaker, it said last year that it was working with investment firm ChinaEquity on fitting the Aston Martin Rapide with an electric powertrain by 2017, and the car may have as much as 1,000 horsepower, too, which should be plenty for Bond. The company may also be working on an all-electric DBX SUV.

A pair of different but awesome Hondas star in the latest Forza Horizon 3 car pack

Forza Horizon 3's ever-expanding car list grows again with its latest downloadable car pack. This time it packs a pair of Hondas from opposite ends of history. In fact they use opposite drive wheels, too. The first, representing the modern day and front-wheel drive, is the previous generation, 300-horsepower, 2016 Honda Civic Type R. From the early days of Honda automobiles, and with rear-wheel-drive, is the 1970 Honda S800. It has substantially less than 300 horsepower. The Civic Type R isn't the only hot hatch in the pack either. The Vauxhall Corsa VXR provides a European counterpoint to the Honda, albeit a bit smaller. It features less power – about 200 hp in all – but should be an excellent match to the Fiesta ST. The pack also features a couple of high-dollar, high-horsepower machines in the form of the 2017 Aston Marin DB11 and the 2016 Cadillac ATS-V. Plus, for fans of older cars, there's the rear-engined Renault Alpine GTA Le Mans, and a Holden with a really long name: the 1985 HDT VK Commodore Group A. View 7 Photos As usual, the pack is included with the Forza Horizon 3 Car Pass. Or, if you don't have the pass, the pack can be purchased on its own. Related Video: Image Credit: Turn10 Studios / Playground Games Toys/Games Aston Martin Cadillac Honda Videos aston martin db11 cadillac ats-v forza horizon 3 vauxhall corsa

UK offers Aston Martin military base to produce DBX in Wales

The British government is doing its best to encourage Aston Martin to build the DBX in the United Kingdom. To that end, Prime Minister David Cameron made a public offer to the automaker Thursday to make use of a military facility in Wales to produce the crossover. The location is St Athan, a Royal Air Force base and Ministry of Defence facility with space left vacant since a planned military academy earmarked for the site was canceled less than five years ago. One of its empty hangars is what Cameron offered to Aston Martin, according to the BBC. The facility is located near the airport in the Welsh capital of Cardiff, a little over two hours from the company's headquarters and principal manufacturing site in Gaydon. If Aston takes the bait, the site would be used to manufacture the DBX that would become the company's first crossover. Rivals Jaguar, Bentley, Maserati, and Lamborghini are all planning to launch their first crossovers, as well. Aston showcased a concept version of the DBX at the Geneva Motor Show this March, but the production version is expected to go a bit more mainstream, ditching the electric powertrain and two-door layout in favor of more conventional propulsion and four-door setup. The company is also said to be considering opening a new facility in the United States, specifically in Alabama near the Mercedes plant there, to handle production of the DBX. Other locations within the UK are also said to be under consideration, but Aston has yet to make a decision – or at least an announcement – on where the crossover might be assembled. When Aston previously branched out with the launch of the Rapide, it contracted Magna Steyr to handle assembly on its behalf in Austria, before moving production back home. The contract manufacturing facility is the same to which the Jaguar Land Rover is expected to entrust assembly of the F-Pace crossover. It's also where the G-Class is built for Mercedes, which in turn similarly hired AM General recently to assume production of the R-Class crossover. Related Video: