Italian Aehra finds European partner for batteries

Aehra showed the first images of one of the models it wants to come up with at the end of last year. The car, which is still simply called ‘SUV’, looks quite futuristic and with its slick, low body is not even that SUV-like. Also special is that the car has a combination of wing and butterfly doors, so that it looks quite exotic with four open doors. It has to be, because Aehra calls this car ‘Ultra Premium’.

Such a label naturally also includes premium performance. As far as power storage is concerned, that performance comes from a battery from Miba Battery Systems. Miba comes from Austria and, according to Aehra, will supply battery packs of 100 or 120 kWh. The latter should provide a range of 800 kilometers, so the 100 kWh version is probably also good to live with.

The batteries are not just pulled off the proverbial shelf, but according to Aehra they have been specially developed for the cars of this brand. Partly thanks to a maximum voltage of 925V, the fast charging capacity is quite impressive: Aehra speaks of a maximum of 350 kW. The batteries and charging systems would also be suitable for bidirectional charging, so that it is possible to use your trendy Aehra SUV as a power storage for your solar panels, for example, or to power your home if there is a fault elsewhere.

Not for sheer speed

We’ve seen enough start-ups in recent years to be skeptical, especially when it comes to expensive ‘premium cars’. Yet Aehra does have something that speaks for her, apart from that Italian descent. Franco Cimatti, Chief Engineering Officer at Aahra, shows a somewhat idiosyncratic and well-thought-out view of what such a car should be able to do. “We don’t have the ambition to build cars with 1 or 2 megawatts of power under the hood. Something like this is nice to impress your friends, but also means that the energy reserve in the battery can be halved in seconds. We obviously want to deliver excellent dynamic performance, but we do not have the ambition to break speed records. Instead, we opt for a more moderate approach, so as to avoid exaggerating the battery. That would only increase cost, weight, complexity and consumption.”

Despite those large batteries, Aehra does not seem to simply want to install a huge battery in a heavy car in order to achieve a reasonable range. Judging by the obviously unofficial figures, the SUV should indeed become quite efficient: 800 kilometers on 120 kWh is comparable to what a Lucid Air performs. And that makes us a bit skeptical. Aehra’s wants to deliver the first cars in 2025.