Alpha Wolf Truck and other Models

[hridge2020]

ALPHA WOLF™ TRUCK SPECIFICATIONS*
PERFORMANCE
RANGE - 250-275+ miles | DRIVE - Dual Motor 4WD, Single Motor FWD Drive | ACCELERATION - 6.2s 0-60mph | TOWING CAPACITY - 1360kg (3000lbs) | Rapid Charger | Battery Cooler and Heater
EXTERIOR
LENGTH - 4765mm (188in) | WIDTH - 1930mm (76in) | HEIGHT - 1685mm (66in) | TRUCK BED - 1652mm (65in) LENGTH X 1490mm (59in) WIDTH X 397mm (16in) DEPTH | WHEELS - 16”-18” | LED Signature Headlights | Daytime Running Lights
INTERIOR
SEATING - 2 Passengers | CARGO - 34.5 cu ft | Digital Display For Driver | Wide Format Center Display | Premium Seat and Trim Material | Bluetooth Connectivity | Premium Sound System
* Specifications are projected estimations.

Alpha Wolf

Alpha Wolf Site

 

[Diehard]

All look like a lot of fun. Two more If you want to play:

https://vanderhallusa.com/navarro/

https://volcon.com/

I need a Swiss Army knife though (CT).

 

[Crissa]

The Alpha's numbers don't really add up, I doubt they'll be made. The renders are cute, tho.

-Crissa

 

[rr6013]

All look like a lot of fun. Two more If you want to play:

https://vanderhallusa.com/navarro/

https://volcon.com/

I need a Swiss Army knife though (CT).

Vanderhall==VanityMotors
Volcon == Playmobiles
Alpha==NYMinuteCars

Two niches
One flash
Vanderhaul is one sweet stable of one trick ponies. A marque needs a Corvette or Mustang not a stable of special purpose steeds. Pick one and Vanderhaul has a chance. Its demographic is top 4% in USA.

I like Volcon. Alas, their designs don’t work, all play. A ton of ranchers, farmers will need to replace ICE machines for field duty. But Volcon only plays well. AG isn’t the only work for the beast and Stag.

Alpha really dials-in traditionalists, ICE crossover heel draggers, who don’t glom onto every new EV platform design. So that market is real, exists and awaits mining. That vein of gold there lasts; how long? It needs a second lineup to solidly followup a first entry. It feels like BEV will be a tsunami not a transition. Deep pockets would have to loft a second lineup of BEV platform designs if the transition period swamps “traditional“.

World is entering a new BEV era, not just a period of time. Transition is a period. Anyone can guess but who wants to bet on it lasting. Alpha could be a flash in time.

All ICE owners could be in exactly the same predicament. Subsidies, discounts, incentives and “deals” to buy BEV will foster the next mass market. Similarly, ICE mechanics retire, Petroleum plants convert, gasoline becomes synthetic fuel expensive AND scarce when buyers treat ICE as collector cars. Mandates may save few who holdout too long.

By 2040 its all but over for crushing the ICE vehicles. Where is Alpha? So much competition with deeper pockets and 10+ years headstart in BEV.

Alpha, at best, is an old auto plant’s last gasp. Maybe that’s the plan all along.

 

[CybertruckAgent]

I can dig it, if they are actually real they’ll be amazing to see in person on the road. The world needs more fun cars.

 

[FutureBoy]

Alpha Wolf Debut. Stated estimate for availability is late 2023.



Interestingly, the Wolf is now available for viewing at the Petersen Automotive Museum through mid-November. Is the Petersen becoming the new must-stop location for EV's?

 

[FutureBoy]

And here is a video from someone who actually got a written response from Alpha motors.



Would be cool if someone could get pictures of the truck in the Petersen. But the way things are going, I doubt there will be any production even on the 2023 timeline. If they are going to make that production date, they must be in some SERIOUS stealth mode funding and factory development.

 

[Ogre]

Alpha Wolf Debut. Stated estimate for availability is late 2023.



Interestingly, the Wolf is now available for viewing at the Petersen Automotive Museum through mid-November. Is the Petersen becoming the new must-stop location for EV's?

This video is super sketch. There is one scene where they interact with the truck and it's... the tailgate. Even that is like a weird demo.

We're past the 24th, does anyone have any pictures of this thing from inside the museum? I did a few quick searches and just came up with these same could-be-render shots.

Lots of stories, but they show the same half dozen or so shots. Nobody outside of Alpha has apparently bothered to go to the Peterson and take a single picture of it?

 

[Dids]

Its a nice truck. Retro... like a suburu brat had a baby with a Toyota tacoma.

 

[FutureBoy]

Confusion brews as retro-style EV startup Alpha Motor turns on the charm

BENGT HALVORSON AUGUST 28, 2021

The electric vehicle startup Alpha Motor Corporation posted a video this week that showed the “launch” of its Alpha Wolf electric pickup concept.

In it, Joshua Boyt and Jay Lijewski appear together on stage, riffing on ideas the way we’ve seen Silicon Valley types and executives do in a wide range of product debuts. No titles are given, but it’s no stretch to interpret them as designer and CTO recalling how they arrived at the idea behind the vehicle. Underscored with tech-bro sensibilities, they say the electric pickup should be fun to drive and futuristic, while evoking the nostalgia of watching Saturday morning cartoons.


Joshua Boyt and Jay Lijewski at Alpha Motors


“As we ramp up production lines here in the United States, we anticipate that the Wolf electric truck will be available by the end of 2023,” stated Lijewski. “More information on vehicle test drives and delivery dates will be available closer to production.”


The Wolf is indeed eye candy—a nostalgia trigger, and the sort of EV conversion Burners would sign on to. At about 190 inches long, it’s roughly the length of Ford Rangers, Nissan Hardbodys, and Toyota Trucks of the 1980s and into the ’90s, and it’s irresistibly sweet bait for technology, automotive, and electric vehicle editors who know the audience. Affordability, ruggedness, retro looks, Tesla-style door handles, and the stock-market craze over electric pickups from the Cybertruck to the Rivian R1T. It’s all there.




Alpha Wolf concept - Alpha Motor Corporation - August 2021


So is a claimed range of 275 miles that beats any other electric vehicle currently on sale in the U.S. today outside of the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Tesla vehicles. Ehem.

A 75-kwh lithium-ion battery pack yields that estimated range, Alpha claims, with a boost back to an 80% charge possible through DC fast charging in about 30 minutes. Additionally, Alpha claims a maximum towing capacity of 3,000 pounds and acceleration to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds.

Not surprisingly, the Wolf has earned all manner of breathless, effusive media coverage—with very little of it critically discussing who Alpha Motor Corporation actually is, why it exists, or how this vehicle might be designed, developed, and built in less time than other startups.




Joshua Boyt and Jay Lijewski at Volvo stand, NY auto show


Boyt and Lijewski know something about serving the automotive audience what it wants. They worked U.S. events and automotive shows with Volvo prior to this and made small talk with the automotive press—us included. But they were not working on the automotive side of things: They were baristas from Seattle brewing up top-notch coffee and espressos.

Some realities in the filings

The Wolf concept is on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A. this week. To the best of our knowledge at the time of writing, Boyt and Lijewski have no significant role in the product itself.

And now the part that the fanboy press probably doesn’t want to hear: Alpha Motor Corporation hasn't yet shown evidence of the kind of corporate footprint necessary—hundreds if not thousands of employees—to develop and deliver a vehicle in just over two years.

For a U.S.-market vehicle that complies with DOT and safety standards, it costs in the vicinity of $2 billion to cover design, development, and engineering, and get past the validation stage of production. For instance, Byton—a recent startup with Chinese connections and funding from an industrial giant, a U.S. presence, a German technology grounding, and a nearly fully baked product—couldn’t quite pull it off with funds well in excess of that amount when you consider its assembly plant cost $1.5 billion alone.




Co-working space - corporate address for Alpha Motor and Neuron EV


Alpha lists its corporate address as a co-working space adjacent to the Spectrum Mall in Irvine. That's not a likely place where it would be able to do its top-secret vehicle development work and build its IP. It's possible, of course, that Alpha is doing that work elsewhere or will use contract manufacturing services.

To make some essential statements clear: Alpha Motor Corporation declares that it is a sole entity unrelated to any other entity or organization, that it doesn't share a business address with any other EV company, and that it is a private company unrelated to any other entity or sources of finance. And as a private company that hasn't requested any money from potential customers, it's under no obligation to show its cards.

That said, we'd be remiss to mention that the address is exactly the same one, down to the suite, as what was formerly listed by the U.S. arm of Neuron EV, a here-and-gone company that was reportedly based both in Shanghai and Los Angeles.




Neuron EV debut


There's also another apparent coincidence: Paperwork for Alpha Motor Corporation and Neuron Corporation includes—albeit in different time frames, not overlapping—what appears to be some of the same names, some in signature.

To take a step back, Neuron New Energy Vehicle was founded by Gang Zheng, a venture capital investor in China, and Neuron Corporation, known as Neuron EV, was registered as a California company in 2018, signed by Edward Lee, with Lee and Michelle Quan as executives.

One startup went dark, another sparked

Neuron’s website followed a similar design and layout to Alpha’s, and it originally put out sustainability-rich language that is close to Alpha’s messaging—although Neuron’s model itself, with a full line of modular trucks, including a Class 8 semi, was far more vast and ambitious. Then at some point later in 2019 it went silent. Green Car Reports tried to get in touch with Neuron EV around that time to check the status of its projects and received no reply; sometime soon after, its website was taken offline.

In June 2020, paperwork was posted for the dissolution of Neuron Corporation. Then two more things happened. Neuron EV was registered separately as a new California company in August 2020, indicating a corporate address in an office building in adjacent Tustin, near John Wayne Airport—with Gang Zheng as a director. Alpha Motor Corporation was incorporated in Delaware that same month, with Michelle Quan and Edward Lee listed as executives, then registered at the same Irvine address in September 2020.

Under the new incarnation, Michael Adam Smith—a financial advisor—initially plugged in as the executive officer. Then in a Statement of Information to California in January 2021, the company lists a different Lee, Kevin Lee (signed), as its CEO with Michelle Quan the secretary, CFO, and agent.

Despite all the apparent coincidences featuring Lee and Quan, Alpha Motor Corporation asserted to Green Car Reports—now in multiple emailed statements—that it is unrelated to Neuron. It also stated that the Wolf is not based on an existing production vehicle, current or past. And it stated that it is not funded by Gang Zheng.




Alpha Wolf+


There are a few things about the Wolf launch that don’t entirely impress as statements made by those who are EV-savvy. A release accompanying the video used peculiar language for an EV startup, noting that the Wolf is “a versatile pickup truck motorized by an all-battery electric power system.” It said the company “is set to accelerate vehicle development by automating the latest digital efficiencies,” and mentioned a “precision virtual validation” enabled by the AMD Threadripper Pro.

No, that’s not referring to a manufacturing system or a solution involving robotics; the Threadripper Pro is a high-end processor for gaming and design workstations. Design software like Catia would be needed to design a complete electric vehicle and would likely be even more costly.

Who is the "we" behind Alpha?

The most disjointed part of the video launch of the Alpha Wolf concept is the coffee guys, Boyt and Lijewski. They spoke with a “we” consistently enough to indicate that they’re a part of the automaker. They appear to be forming a corporate voice in lieu of the actual people behind the vehicle.




Lijewski and Boyt, presenting Alpha Wolf electric truck


Calls left to Boyt’s consultancy, which appears to primarily serve coffee customers, went unanswered. Then the company replied to Green Car Reports late Wednesday with the following piece of insight, via email: “Joshua Boyt and Jay Lijewski are representatives of Alpha Motor Corporation’s “Move Humanity” movement. “Move Humanity” is an initiative to build a community that supports positive change and support other relevant causes through innovation.”

“The company first connected with Jay and Josh through an event to raise awareness for the humanitarian crisis in Yemen,” Alpha added.

Yet based on a LinkedIn post from Lijewski, the two appear to be doing the marketing, presentation, and/or social entrepreneurship work for Alpha under the same name, Advanced Placement, that they used when making coffee for Volvo.

From Yemeni coffee to short circuits

Alpha is listed by the California Employment Development Department as having an unknown number of employees.

Since February we’ve asked Alpha four times for more information about the company and its executive officers, or to interview its designers.

It’s not unusual for electric vehicle startups to enter a so-called “stealth mode,” in which the company maintains a very low profile while it works through initial funding, on the way to present a first concept and business plan. What makes this different is that the company has already presented seven vehicles in detailed rendering and one is a physical concept, on display at a renowned auto museum.

Yes, it’s great that a startup is making giving back a part of the culture. But where are the company resources and employees? Who are these U.S. executives? Do they have more funding than Neuron? Or are they relying on crowdfunding a nostalgic-looking design, only to discover how difficult it really is to deliver a vehicle?




Alpha Wolf concept - Alpha Motor Corporation - August 2021


The Petersen Museum confirmed to us that the concept has arrived and will be on Level 2 of the building until November. The museum, which instantly adds legitimacy to Alpha by displaying the concept, hasn’t yet replied about whether Alpha Motor was vetted as part of its acceptance. Further questions from us to the company relayed through Petersen’s PR agency—about a release Alpha put out—have not yet received a reply. This is an unusual way to introduce a company.

We don’t know anything about Quan or Lee and their capability to design or build vehicles. Time is ticking away for more assurance behind the design that's driving EV enthusiasts wild.

Based on what’s material and verified firsthand, the most we know about anyone we’ve met who’s associated with Alpha Motors so far is this: They make a damn fine cup of coffee.


--

UPDATE: 1:35 p.m., 8/28/2021
Upon the request of Alpha Motor Corporation, language was clarified in several places to make abundantly clear that it is a sole entity, a private company, and unrelated to other entities or sources of finance.

 

[Ogre]

This whole thing just gets weirder and weirder. Like some kind of oddball parody of an underground company launching. The two in the above video...

Boyt and Lijewski know something about serving the automotive audience what it wants. They worked U.S. events and automotive shows with Volvo prior to this and made small talk with the automotive press—us included. But they were not working on the automotive side of things: They were baristas from Seattle brewing up top-notch coffee and espressos.

They even have a photo of these two in their coffee slinging outfits https://www.greencarreports.com/new...yle-ev-startup-alpha-motor-turns-on-the-charm

 

[Quicksilver]

Call me when they get 1.2 million pre-orders..........until then I'm underwhelmed.

 

[Crissa]

Call me when they get 1.2 million pre-orders..........until then I'm underwhelmed.

Call me when they're giving out rides to the press, at least.

-Crissa

 

[android04]

If you go to their website and click on pre-order, you can see that in addition to the single cab Wolf, they also have a render for an extended cab Wolf+ and a crew cab Superwolf.

 

[rr6013]

If you go to their website and click on pre-order, you can see that in addition to the single cab Wolf, they also have a render for an extended cab Wolf+ and a crew cab Superwolf.

This is a SXS dressed to look like a truck. Suitable for landscaper, groundskeeper, pool cleaner, site boss, campground host, city slicker or teenager.

Its a great coffee kart-to-riches narrative I’d like to see them pull off. Just abstracted enough above SXS and positioned slightly below compact pickups to sneak into a niche of their own. It might thrive deeper into global warming if technology lifts its game. Suzuki could kick its ass tho