Chinese startup firm Niutron, which was only founded last winter, is already preparing to launch its first car and has patented the second one in the meantime. Judging by the submitted patent images, it is going to be a coupe-like crossover SUV. Niutron founder, Chinese billionaire Yinan Li, named it after another one of his businesses, Niu Technologies, which specializes in making electric scooters. The entrepreneur has extensive experience working for such IT giants as Baidu and Huawei.
As for the car itself, it still has no
name and looks like any other coupe-shaped SUV. The front half is
indistinguishable of that of any other off-roader, but the roof slants off
towards the rear until it transitions into the tailgate. A built-in rear
spoiler and unusually sculpted hood and sides lend it at least some
originality.
The vehicle is 4.9 meters long with 2.9
meters of wheelbase and supports semi-autonomous driving thanks to a couple
dozen of cameras and five radars on board. It is envisioned in two forms:
battery EV and 1.5 TFSI hybrid. The hybrid type is range extender, which means
the engine does not drive the wheels, instead feeding more electric power into
the system. Unlike many other automotive startups, Niutron has its own
industrial capacities to handle the production. A factory situated within 200
kilometers from Shanghai is 770,000 square meters large
and can produce up to 180,000 cars on an annual basis.
The first Niutron vehicle, an SUV called
the NV (see video), is expected to reach the market in the fourth quarter of
the year. By all indications, the patent shots depict the coupe-like version of
the NV, rather than a different model.
