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TECHNOLOGY Wednesday 9 november 2022
Italian EV startup takes on US, Chinese rivals with design

By COLLEEN BARRY service centers, Nada said.
AP Business Writer Design is where AEHRA
MILAN (AP) — Elon Musk's hopes to grab market at-
Tesla paved the way nearly tention moving away from
two decades ago. Now, the architecture of an in-
the global transition to fully ternal combustion engine
electric vehicles is littered that Nada said has been
with startups, inspired by conditioned by thermal
a new era in mobility and management.
drawn by the lower cost The AEHRA vehicle body is
of building EVs compared moving away from edges
with their fossil-fuel-guzzling that have defined the mus-
forebears. cularity of supercars in re-
Gone are the billion-dol- cent years and is returning
lar investments that have to a gentler line reminiscent
made legacy auto-making of pre-war car design.
into such a cash cow. Sup- This aesthetic shift improves
pliers offer ready-made ge- the car's aerodynamics,
neric electric platforms and which will help extend
manufacturers can take range, according to AEH-
on contracts for assembly RA chief design officer Filip-
approaches that translate po Perini.
into savings on jobs and in- Reconstructing the classic
frastructure. internal architecture will
What has been missing in A photo assistant prepares lighting for a photo shoot of the Aehra new electric vehicle in Milan, create more cabin space
the new EV formula, ac- Italy, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. Tesla paved the way nearly two decades ago. Now the road to full- for passenger comfort, he
cording to a Milan-based electric vehicle transition is littered with startups, inspired by a new era in mobility, and drawn by added.
startup, AEHRA, is a fresh the lower cost of building EVs compared with their fossil-fuel guzzling forbears. Nada is convinced that
design concept. Associated Press young consumers are not
"Electric vehicles are China. That would follow Battery electric vehicles In the Italian luxury market, so attached to their pre-
looked at as being bor- an initial production invest- recorded the strongest Ferrari and Lamborghini vious generations' name-
ing by the general public," ment of 700 million euros growth of all fuel types in have announced plans for plates and will be willing to
AEHRA CEO Hazim Nada (dollars). the third quarter, up 22% to their own EVs. buy a car from a new play-
said. Nada earned most of over 259,000 units, accord- Another risk is service and er that offers an emotional
"It is very easy to build an the startup money trad- ing to the European Auto- support, especially when change.
extremely powerful elec- ing crude oil in London motive Manufacturers As- launching across big ge- "We're not in the market
tric vehicle. It is not so easy and honed his passion for sociation. ographies without built-in of Ferrari, we're not in the
to build an electric vehicle aerodynamics building the That accounts for a 12% sales and service networks, market of Lambo,'' he said.
that has character. And I world's largest vertical wind market share. Abuelsamid said. "Our vehicles are not the
think that's one of the ele- tunnel, AeroGravity, an at- The U.S. market share is slim- AEHRA's plans call for most- same segment of Tesla. We
ments that Italian-ness has traction north of Milan that mer, at around 6%, but Ber- ly online sales and regional think we can coexist."q
to express." allows anyone to experi- nstein expects that to ac-
Nada has hired a former ence freefalling. celerate significantly with
Lamborghini designer to While AEHRA's cars are for U.S. policies like tighter fuel
help infuse his vehicles with a wealthy demographic efficiency standards.
Italian emotion and is em- as inflation bites the mid- As interest grows, dozens of
phasizing aerodynamics dle class and low-income new startups are entering a
over performance. earners, battery-powered crowded market alongside
But the company wants vehicles generally have pioneer Tesla and tradition-
to enter an increasingly gained broader consumer al carmakers, some with a
crowded market of EV acceptance and govern- century-long track records.
startups and traditional ments are nudging auto- The U.S. alone has 417 EV
carmakers that are being makers away from internal startups, according to re-
pushed to tackle car emis- combustion engines. search by Bernstein, some
sions that contribute to cli- U.S. asset management of them providing caution-
mate change. and research firm Bernstein ary tales.
Some startups have had predicts one-quarter of all California-based Faraday
little success. cars sold by 2025 will be Future has invested billions
AEHRA doesn't plan to battery electric or plug-in in an electric car it has yet
launch its first vehicles an hybrids, doubling by 2030. to build. Others, like Lucid
SUV and a sedan until It cites ambitious rollout or Rivian, which have got-
mid-2025, with annual pro- schedules and regulatory ten into production, have
duction starting at 20,000 support. struggled to get compo-
to 25,000 vehicles. The The European Union is ban- nents due to global supply
ultra-premium cars also ning sales of new fossil fuel- chain shortages, said Sam
plan to come with a price burning cars by 2035, giv- Abuelsamid, principal e-
tag to match $160,000 to ing rise to new players with mobility analyst at Guide- The Aehra new electric vehicle is lit on a set for a photo shoot in
$180,000. lower startup costs while house Insights. Milan, Italy, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. Tesla paved the way nearly
two decades ago. Now the road to full-electric vehicle transition
They are expected to roll potentially penalizing lega- At the same time, Chinese is littered with startups, inspired by a new era in mobility, and
out first in the United States cy carmakers that have in- manufacturers are mak- drawn by the lower cost of building EVs compared with their
and key European mar- vested billions in hybrids as ing inroads in Europe, with fossil-fuel guzzling forbears.
kets before expanding to bridge technologies. an eye on the U.S. market. Associated Press