There’s another electric vehicle start-up vying for attention, though it wants to occupy a very different space to the likes of Tesla, Rivian and Lucid.
Alpha Motor Corporation has given its electric Wolf ute an in-person debut at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
The start-up says it’s looking to start production of the Wolf in late 2023, and will price it between US$36-46,000 ($49,600 to $63,678).
Alpha hasn’t announced where it plans to build these vehicles or how it’ll sell them, nor where it’ll source its batteries, leaving a lot of question marks over the brand.
Also unclear is just who is working at this firm and who has invested in it.
It’s released a slew of rendered vehicles over the course of this year, but this is the first time one has been revealed in the metal.
There’s a caveat, however: there’s no interior in this prototype, suggesting it’s just a buck.
The Wolf a single-cab ute, though Alpha has released renders of extended-cab and dual-cab models called the Wolf+ and Super Wolf.
Alpha says it’ll offer the Wolf with a 75kWh lithium-ion battery and either single-motor rear-wheel drive or dual-motor all-wheel drive electric powertrains.
While it hasn’t specified power and torque figures, Alpha claims the Wolf will do 0-60mph (0-96km/h) time of 6.2 seconds.
Total electric range will be between 402 and 442km, with a claimed towing capacity of up to 1360kg.
The Wolf measures 4828mm long, 1930mm wide and 1700mm tall. That makes it considerably shorter than even a single-cab Toyota HiLux.
The tray measures 1810mm long, 1580mm wide and 428mm deep.
Alpha says it wants its vehicles to give you feelings of nostalgia, taking you back to the cool cars you saw when you watched Saturday morning cartoons as a kid.
To that end, the Wolf has a distinctly 1980s appearance with its single-cab ute body style, sports bar and array of driving lights – think a nicely accessorised 1980s HiLux.
It’s finished in a colour Alpha calls Finesse, a non-metallic deep blue.
Renderings of the interior reveal a minimalist dashboard with a digital instrument cluster and a large central touchscreen, plus seating for two.
Alpha says it’s based just south-east of Los Angeles in Irvine, California.
A report from InsideEVs earlier this year found a surprising lack of information on the fledgling start-up, which wouldn’t answer various questions about its operations.
Electrek also found a connection to Neuron EV, a Californian start-up which also announced grand plans but went quiet, recently taking down its website.
