Meet the Voyah i-Land and the Lupa E26 | FOS Future Lab

The first of these electric start-up car makers is Voyah, a new Chinese brand and part of the large Dongfeng group, which supplies local-market Chinese production of Honda, Renault-Nissan and Peugeot-Citroën models.

Ahead of the 2023 launch of its first high-end all-electric luxury saloon, Voyah is now previewing a teaser concept of the model, named i-Land, and designed and built by the renowned Turin styling house ItalDesign. Voyah says that elements of the striking i-Land concept will be found in the new brand's production models, although its dramatic gullwing doors seem unlikely to make it through to production!  

The i-Land draws strong inspiration from ItalDesign’s 2019 DaVinci concept. The large doors open up like wings and give access to a clean interior crammed with digital screens, with the Voyah logo proudly displayed on the centre console and seats. 

Despite initial appearances though, the i-Land is not a conventional four-seater, but rather a three-seater, with an ‘ottoman’ footrest chair in front of the right rear seat, enabling the passenger to fully stretch out and rest. The i-Land is powered by an electric Voyah powertrain of undisclosed output, with the car claimed to achieve advanced autonomous driving levels. Although prices have yet to be disclosed, the final production Voyah saloon will be aimed at the higher end of the luxury electric car scale.

For those looking for a more affordable electric car in the near-future, the supermini-sized E26 may be of greater interest. Just previewed now by Lupa, a Spanish start-up, the E26 will be available for by 2023. Barcelona-based Lupa is ultimately planning a wider range of appealing low-cost EV models, unusually all with the switchable batteries sold separately to help keep costs low.

Lupa’s first model, the hatchback E26, will have a range of up to c.245 miles (400km), and will be priced new from €17,000 euros, including the battery that Lupa values at €9,400 euros (excluding tax and differing national state subsidies). Lupa envisions a future when batteries can be sold separately as well, enabling a buyer to change cars once every few years without having to invest the hefty cost of paying for the battery.

The low-cost Lupa E26 will utilise a skateboard-like platform to house a compact drive train, combining the electric motor, transmission and power electronics in one unit, plus the battery. At just over 4m in length (comparable to a new Peugeot e-208) the small E26 hatch will develop 87kW in Sport model, 66kW in normal mode and 48kW in city mode, giving a usable range between 200-245 miles (320-400km), depending on driving mode.

With the standard single-phase charger, Lupa specifies eight hours for a full charge with an optional 11kW onboard charger offered to charge the battery in 5 hours 15 minutes. A DC charger, also optional, will charge the E26’s battery to 80 per cent in 30 minutes.

The E26 and later Lupa EV models will be sold exclusively online, with a network of workshops appointed across Europe for deliveries and maintenance work. Lupa cunningly plans to offer replaceable a battery for around €8,700 euros (with an eight-ten-year life expectancy), with the company claiming that every model will fit the same battery and that any cooperating workshop can install and fix it.

Beyond its first 2023 E26 model, Lupa also plans to launch an electric delivery van optimised for last-mile deliveries, followed by two SUV models – SUV64 and SUV42 – in 2024. The base SUV42 will be priced around a competitive €11,500 euros without a battery, raising to €19,100 euros before tax, including the battery.

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