Aston Martin has unveiled its first submersible design at the Monaco yacht show, a limited-edition submarine that will cost $4 million.
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 submarine will be available in about a year and will be priced at about $4 million, the company's chief creative officer Marek Reichman said. By comparison, a V-8-powered DB11 will cost nearly $200,000.
Reichman said the company plans to build no more than a dozen of the submarines per year. "If you think about Aston Martin, we are a very exclusive brand," he said. "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 superyachts. At just 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) tall and 3,991 kg (8,800 pounds), it's the lightest and smallest three-person submarine in production in the world, according to the company. It's capable of diving to 1,650 feet and has a speed of 3 knots, or 5.6 kph (3.5 mph). It is also air-conditioned.
