The latest electric-vehicle startup to make a splash isn't chasing Tesla. Amble, a Portugal-based company that launched publicly on June 25, unveiled a doorless, open-air electric buggy called the Amble One — capped at 40 mph, styled after NASA's Apollo-era lunar rover, and pitched at resorts, islands and short urban hops rather than the highway. The image above is the actual 1971 moon buggy that inspired the look.
What it is — and why the small scale is the point
The Amble One is a low-speed quadricycle: under 450 kilograms, it qualifies in Europe under the lightweight "L7e" vehicle class and is also street-legal in the U.S. That positioning is deliberate. Squeezing into the quadricycle category — rather than building a full car — sidesteps the brutally expensive crash-testing and certification process that has bankrupted bigger EV dreamers. Think upscale golf cart, not Range Rover rival.
The design leans openly on the moon-buggy aesthetic, per Electrek: an exposed aluminum frame, flat windscreen, chunky tires and no attempt to hide the mechanical bones. The flourishes are luxury-minded — a cork-wrapped steering wheel, marine-grade canvas roof, leather seats meant to age rather than wear out, and physical controls instead of a touchscreen.
The pedigree
The founders carry real credentials. Design lead Julian Hoenig worked at Audi (on models including the R8 and A4) and then Apple, where he is credited with work on the Apple Watch, the Vision Pro headset and Apple's shelved car project. The CEO, Adrien Roose, co-founded the design-led European e-bike brand Cowboy. That hospitality-first instinct shows in the go-to-market: rather than selling to consumers first, Amble is targeting prestige properties, naming early clients such as Amangiri in Utah and Six Senses in France.
The specs — announced, not delivered
On paper, Amble lists a rear motor, an 11–12 kWh battery (sources differ slightly on the exact size), a claimed range above 60 miles, and a roughly 5.5-hour charge from a normal household outlet. Pricing starts at €20,000 in Europe and $25,000 in the U.S., before taxes and fees. The company says it has commitments for more than 500 vehicles and names backers including SolarCity co-founder Peter Rive and a former Airbnb product executive; the total raised hasn't been disclosed.
Crucial caveat: every one of those numbers is the company's own. No independent outlet has tested the vehicle, and first deliveries — to hospitality clients — aren't slated until 2027, with consumer orders later still. As with any pre-production EV, announced specs and a real product are not the same thing.
The graveyard it's entering
Amble arrives in a market littered with cautionary tales. Fisker filed for bankruptcy in 2024 after failing to scale production; Canoo collapsed; Lordstown Motors wound down. Even far better-funded names like Lucid and Rivian have burned through billions chasing profit. The hardest part of building cars has never been the reveal — it's manufacturing at cost, at volume, reliably.
Amble's bet is that staying small dodges the worst of that. By choosing the quadricycle class and selling first to resorts, it cuts both the regulatory burden and the capital needed to get visible vehicles on the ground. The open commercial question it hasn't answered is whether enough buyers will pay $25,000 for a 40-mph open-air buggy when a golf cart costs a fraction of that and Chinese-made competitors crowd the same niche. The Amble One is a genuinely handsome object with a credible team behind it. Turning that into a durable business is the part no design award can settle.
