Apple and Audi alumni have made a luxe EV based on the moon buggy
Apple and Audi alumni have made a luxe EV based on the moon buggy
前苹果与奥迪员工打造了一款基于月球车灵感的豪华电动车
It seems to be the week for cheap EVs. Right after the production model of the Slate electric truck was revealed, complete with a bump in range, a new European entrant in electric mobility is launching out of stealth mode today and plans to bring its own affordable yet stylish rides to market. 这似乎是廉价电动车扎堆的一周。就在 Slate 电动卡车的量产车型发布（并提升了续航里程）之后，一家欧洲电动出行领域的新晋企业今日也结束了隐身状态，计划将其价格亲民且设计时尚的座驾推向市场。
Amble’s founders worked at Audi and Ford, started Cowboy ebikes, and cofounded Forpeople, the creative agency that works for, among others, Nio EVs, Arc’teryx, and Herman Miller. Indeed, Amble’s design lead, Julian Hoenig, worked on the infamously canceled Apple car, which goes some way to explaining how this, the $25,000 Amble One, looks like it could have driven straight out of Cupertino, despite hailing from Lisbon, Portugal. Amble 的创始人曾任职于奥迪和福特，曾创立过 Cowboy 电动自行车品牌，并共同创办了创意机构 Forpeople——该机构的客户包括蔚来汽车、始祖鸟（Arc’teryx）和赫曼米勒（Herman Miller）等。事实上，Amble 的设计负责人 Julian Hoenig 曾参与过那款最终被取消的苹果汽车项目，这在一定程度上解释了为什么这款售价 2.5 万美元的 Amble One 看起来就像是直接从库比蒂诺（苹果总部所在地）开出来的，尽管它其实来自葡萄牙里斯本。
The Amble One is a street-legal, stripped-down electric buggy designed for the kind of places where a normal car feels out of place. Coastal paths, private estates, and those dusty tracks between luxury hotel villas and the sea. Think of it as if Apple decided it was going to design a golf cart, then took the project even further. Amble One 是一款合法的、极简风格的电动越野车，专为那些普通汽车难以施展的场景而设计，例如海岸小径、私人庄园，以及豪华酒店别墅与大海之间的尘土小路。你可以把它想象成苹果公司决定设计一款高尔夫球车，并在此基础上进行了更深度的开发。
The company calls the One a new category of lightweight electric vehicle for short-range mobility, and the specs show a degree of seriousness: a range of more than 60 miles, a top speed capped at 40 mph, a five-hour charge from any standard home socket, and a curb weight under 450 kilograms (992 pounds). That last figure matters more than it sounds. To qualify as an L7e vehicle in Europe (the category that allows it to drive on public roads without being treated as a car), the Amble One must stay under 450 kilograms. “This is really hard,” says Adrien Roose, CEO and cofounder. “If you take a car and just shrink it, it doesn’t work.” 该公司将 Amble One 称为一种用于短途出行的轻型电动车新类别，其规格参数显示出相当的专业性：续航里程超过 60 英里（约 96 公里），最高时速限制在 40 英里（约 64 公里），使用普通家用插座充电需 5 小时，整备质量低于 450 公斤（992 磅）。最后一个数字比听起来更重要：为了在欧洲获得 L7e 车辆认证（该类别允许其在公共道路上行驶，且无需被视为普通汽车），Amble One 的重量必须保持在 450 公斤以下。“这真的很难，”首席执行官兼联合创始人 Adrien Roose 表示，“如果你只是把一辆车缩小，那是行不通的。”
The Amble One’s open, doorless design isn’t just an aesthetic choice that apes competitors such as the electric Moke, it seems. It’s part of what helps make the weight target achievable. The founding team has pedigree. Roose cofounded Cowboy, one of the more recognized premium electric bike brands. Hoenig spent years at Audi, working on the RSQ, A4, R8, and Q3, then joined Apple’s design team, where he worked on the Apple Watch, Vision Pro, and Apple’s Project Titan car program. Michael Tropper cofounded Forpeople, a 120-person creative agency whose clients include InterContinental Hotels. Amble One 开放式的无门设计似乎不仅仅是为了模仿电动 Moke 等竞争对手的审美选择，这也是实现重量目标的关键因素之一。创始团队背景深厚：Roose 曾共同创立了知名高端电动自行车品牌 Cowboy；Hoenig 在奥迪工作多年，参与过 RSQ、A4、R8 和 Q3 的设计，随后加入苹果设计团队，参与了 Apple Watch、Vision Pro 以及苹果“泰坦计划”（Project Titan）汽车项目；Michael Tropper 则共同创办了拥有 120 名员工的创意机构 Forpeople，其客户包括洲际酒店集团。
Keeping the tourism theme, José António Uva, who serves as Amble’s chairman, restored São Lourenço do Barrocal, a 1,927-acre luxury Alentejo estate in Portugal that has become one of Europe’s acclaimed rural retreats. This premium-meets-Cupertino connection is evident in the Amble One’s design language. Hoenig has made liberal use of aluminum, leather, cotton, and cork. An “unapologetic” flat windscreen emulates Mercedes’ classic G-Wagon, according to Hoenig. An interior dashboard bar is deliberately the same diameter as motorcycle handlebars, so any standard bike accessory mounts directly, should you wish to affix your phone. Large, friendly orange screws throughout mark every removable or reconfigurable element. 延续旅游业的主题，担任 Amble 董事长的 José António Uva 曾修复了葡萄牙阿连特茹地区占地 1927 英亩的豪华庄园 São Lourenço do Barrocal，该庄园现已成为欧洲著名的乡村度假胜地。这种“高端品质与库比蒂诺风格”的结合在 Amble One 的设计语言中显而易见。Hoenig 大量使用了铝材、皮革、棉布和软木。据 Hoenig 介绍，其“毫不妥协”的平直挡风玻璃模仿了梅赛德斯经典的 G-Wagon。仪表盘横杆的直径特意设计得与摩托车车把相同，以便用户可以直接安装任何标准的自行车配件来固定手机。车身各处醒目的大号橙色螺丝，标记出了每一个可拆卸或可重构的部件。
Hoenig also tells WIRED the One is directly inspired by none other than the NASA moon buggy. “I always loved the lunar rover, the moon buggy,” he says. “It is fantastic, and there’s not much to it—four wheels and the skateboard. Could we have this feeling of a skateboard, but extreme, where it’s not hidden by your typical exterior sculptural shape?” So here, just as with NASA’s $38 million Lunar Roving Vehicle, the electric platform itself is deliberately visible rather than hidden beneath bodywork. “You see the skateboard,” Hoenig says. “And then we put toppings on it.” Hoenig 还告诉《连线》（WIRED）杂志，Amble One 的灵感直接来源于 NASA 的月球车。“我一直很喜欢月球车，”他说，“它太棒了，结构非常简单——四个轮子加上一个滑板底盘。我们能不能保留这种‘滑板’的感觉，但做到极致，让它不被传统的车身造型所掩盖？”因此，就像 NASA 造价 3800 万美元的月球车一样，Amble One 的电动平台被刻意显露出来，而不是隐藏在车身覆盖件之下。“你能看到那个‘滑板’，”Hoenig 说，“然后我们在上面添加各种功能组件。”
No, nothing from Apple’s canceled Project Titan crept into this vehicle, Hoenig says. What did carry over, however, was a philosophy: Pick the material suited to the job, let manufacturing drive the form. The Amble One is configurable from the start. Rear seats fold flat. A canvas weatherproofing option is coming. A lockable front box will replace the standard basket for urban buyers. Hard doors are not planned, but a second platform—already in design and targeting a 2029 release—will move further toward conventional-car territory, with removable doors, a lower roofline, and a hardtop; it cleverly aims to replace not a family’s primary car, but its second car. Hoenig 表示，苹果已取消的“泰坦计划”中没有任何技术被应用到这款车上。但确实传承下来了一种理念：选择最适合工作的材料，让制造工艺决定形态。Amble One 从一开始就支持高度定制：后排座椅可平放，未来还将提供帆布防风雨选装件，城市买家还可以用可锁定的前置储物箱替换标准车篮。目前没有硬质车门的计划，但第二个平台已经在设计中，目标是 2029 年发布。该平台将更接近传统汽车，配备可拆卸车门、更低的车顶线条和硬顶。它的定位非常巧妙：不是为了取代家庭的第一辆车，而是作为第二辆车。
That incoming “Amble Two” is clearly the larger bet. “Most families do not need twice that $50,000 BYD or Tesla,” Roose says. “The second vehicle for families could be something that is designed for purpose, designed for shorter trips—and that can be much simpler, way more fun, way more open, and also more affordable.” 即将推出的“Amble Two”显然是更大的赌注。“大多数家庭并不需要两辆价值 5 万美元的比亚迪或特斯拉，”Roose 说，“家庭的第二辆车应该是一款功能导向、专为短途出行设计的产品——它可以更简单、更有趣、更开放，而且更实惠。”
Car brands have models that are trying to crack this market, too. The 28-mph Citroen Ami with its 46-mile range is a prime example. Stellantis, which owns Citroen, recently announced plans to expand capacity for its supermini electric cars. “This is the beginning of a turning point,” Roose says. 汽车品牌也在尝试开拓这一市场。时速 28 英里、续航 46 英里的雪铁龙 Ami 就是一个典型的例子。拥有雪铁龙的 Stellantis 集团最近宣布计划扩大其微型电动车的产能。“这是一个转折点的开始，”Roose 说道。
Still, Amble might have a shot. The company apparently has 12 signed clients, over 500 vehicles committed, and more than 10 million euros in signed revenue, according to Roose. Properties including Amangiri in Utah, Mustique Island, Six Senses Les Bordes in the Loire Valley, and Uva’s own Na Praia in Comporta have placed orders. The first hospitality deliveries of the Amble One begin in mid-2027, while consumer preorders for Europe and the US are now open, with deliveries in 2028, starting from $25,000. 尽管如此，Amble 仍有机会。据 Roose 称，该公司目前已有 12 个签约客户，预订车辆超过 500 台，签约收入超过 1000 万欧元。包括犹他州的安缦奇岭（Amangiri）、马斯蒂克岛（Mustique Island）、卢瓦尔河谷的六善酒店（Six Senses Les Bordes）以及 Uva 本人在孔波尔塔（Comporta）的 Na Praia 酒店都已下单。Amble One 将于 2027 年年中开始向酒店业交付，欧洲和美国的消费者预订现已开放，预计 2028 年交付，起售价为 2.5 万美元。
“A lot of companies in micromobility start in the urban market and want to compete with everyone, and we all know that this did not work out so far,” Hoenig says. “We’re taking a different approach: build our brand as a premium brand, and then step by step go more into this urban market.” “许多微出行公司从城市市场起步，试图与所有人竞争，但我们都知道，到目前为止这种模式并不奏效，”Hoenig 说，“我们采取了不同的策略：先将品牌打造为高端品牌，然后再一步步深入城市市场。”
Could this “luxury” lunar-inspired supermini EV be the ride to get us all to ditch our ICE second car and finally embrace micromobility? The Amble One is a darn sight more… 这款灵感源自月球车的“豪华”微型电动车，能否成为让我们放弃燃油第二辆车并最终拥抱微出行的座驾？Amble One 显然要比……（原文未完）