The Alpha Motor Corporation from California unveils its retro-modern electric runabout that the company calls the Ace. For now, the company is just taking reservations for the vehicle, and a final price isn’t available.
The Ace takes clear styling inspiration from small, yet sporty cars from Europe in the 1960s. The flat face and blocky headlights evoke the original Ford Escort. The smoothly arching roofline is reminiscent of a variety of models from this period like the Fiat 850 Coupe, NSU Sport Prinz, and Volkswagen Type 3 Fastback. The blunt tail with a light strip running its width is the exterior’s most modern design touch.
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To put the size into perspective, the car measures 165 inches (4,180 millimeters) long. This is a bit shorter than the outgoing generation of the Subaru BRZ’s 166.7 inches (4,324 mm).
Inside, the styling is hyper-minimalist. The only physical button appears to be for turning on the vehicle. It’s on the bottom of the three-spoke steering wheel and next to the drive selector. A portrait-layout, tablet-style display is in the center of the dashboard for handling all of the instrument and infotainment info.
The rest of the cabin uses a material that appears high-quality without being flashy. The door handles are simple leather loops.
According to the preliminary specs, the Ace would be capable of a range in excess of 250 miles (402 kilometers). The acceleration to 60 miles per hour (96 kilometers per hour) would take around 6 seconds. Power exclusively goes to the rear wheels. These numbers would be fine for a sporty, little car. Alpha’s big challenge is likely going to be achieving all of this at an affordable enough price not to turn off buyers.
While Alpha is showing the Ace as a coupe at the moment, the company says that sedan and crossover variants are possible in the future because of the modular platform.