Alpha Motors has been more productive in presenting CGI than providing credible plans for the multiple vehicles it said it wanted to sell. So far, it has shown seven tentative models and a total of 14 derivatives, apart from accessories for cars it never sold. At least until now. The latest YouTube video from the company comes with the first explicit money request from Alpha Motors: $249,500. And that is just 50% of what it wants for the Montage.
The company’s latest project is a nostalgic coupe which will cost $499,000. Alpha Motors opened reservations for it, but you will have to fill out an application form and hope to be chosen as one of the privileged folks from which Alpha will accept that kind of money. The form asks what owners intend to do with their Montage units: use them in exhibitions, philanthropy (how so?), as collectibles, or for private use.
If you happen to be approved, the company will contact you “to complete verification.” Yes, you read that right. Alpha Motors’s page for the Montage brings this disclaimer:
“Approved applicants will be contacted to complete verification and vehicle customization. A 50% down payment of the purchase price is required at (the) point of sale. Price and availability are subject to change and terms of the purchase and sales agreement. Specially constructed vehicle built for private use(,) not on public roads and not eligible for resale. Minimum 6 months delivery time.”
Photo: Alpha Motor Corporation
If you paid careful attention to what the nostalgic coupe is, it is a bit more than the Wolf mockup Alpha Motors presented at the Petersen Museum. You will only get to drive it in closed tracks, which is the company’s way of telling you it is not willing to spend money on homologation, testing, and all that road cars need to receive a license plate. You are also not allowed to resell it, suggesting you will have to keep it for life. We wonder which sort of contract makes that possible.
Curiously, Alpha Motors claims it will build this car “on a custom-built electric vehicle platform constructed from (the) ground up using Alpha's proprietary development process involving advanced Computer-Aided Development (CAD).” For the record, all carmakers use CAD in the development process of their cars.
It will also have “an optional custom-built Electric Drive Unit (EDU).” That suggests the company will sell a model that you may drive if you decide to put a motor on it. After all, why would the drive unit be optional? To confirm that, the company disclosed the technical specifications, and there is no standard drive unit there, only the optional one.
Photo: Alpha Motor Corporation
Weirdly, Alpha claims the vehicle will come “with a custom-built lithium-ion battery pack with an estimated 250 miles of range.” Without a standard motor, it may work as a movable power bank. The company did not disclose the capacity of this battery pack.
If it is ever produced, the car is expected to be 4.40 meters (173 inches) long, 1.85 m (73 in) wide, and 1.38 m (54 in) tall. As a two-seater, Alpha Motors probably thought it was irrelevant to disclose its wheelbase, but it could at least have informed how big its trunk and frunk are. It would also be helpful to say what the small barrel with power outlets on the frunk is: there are only CGIs of it, but no explanation about what it does. It looks like an auxiliary battery pack for emergencies.
Photo: Alpha Motor Corporation
As usual, the company did not mention a single executive involved with the project. We only know two of them, Joshua Boyt and Jay Lijewski. They were baristas from Seattle before joining the company. All the information and even quotes come from Alpha Motors – as if it were a human being. We’d love to know at least who designs these cars, which are really good-looking. Too bad we are not sure about anything else related to the company. Even the apparent poem used in the video below seems to have been created by a bla bla bla generator.
Those brave enough to pay $249,500 just to order an Alpha Montage will help fund the company for its future endeavors, whatever they are. The company even mentioned some of its suppliers to give the project more credibility, but that did not help much. We have never heard of Spinneybeck or Shawmut Corporation – the only company represented by a person: Mollie Engel, its vice president of Design and Development.
Why Alpha Motors created a nostalgic coupe instead of using any of the other vehicle projects it has presented so far to try to raise money? Are they slated to become actual vehicles and not expensive toys as the Montage promises to be? Will the company use the funds it manages to raise with the Montage to help build them? Only Alpha Motors can answer that.
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