Alpha Motor says it’s really going to make its $36,000 electric truck

Alpha Motor claims it’s actually going to produce its $36,000 electric pickup truck

Electrek.co Fred Lambert August 17 2021

[{"selector":"#anim-93a2c136-7580-4a95-85da-688d1c974ad6","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] Alpha Motor managed to make a splash unveiling renders of a $36,000 electric pickup truck despite having nothing to back up its claims. Now, the company says it’s going to actually unveil its electric truck with production planned for 2023. Earlier this year, we reported on Alpha Motor after it was all over the media for unveiling renders and specs on the Alpha Motor Electric Wolf , an electric pickup truck.

[{"selector":"#anim-792d4e37-7a35-441c-bd74-913553e20c03","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] Starting at just $36,000 with specs like 275 miles of range, the Wolf grabbed people’s attention. The retro-looking design was also appealing to many. However, the company offered very little information as to who is behind the effort and how they would deliver this product.

[{"selector":"#anim-79b6fd11-ffb0-428c-936b-c7783621171a","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] For our original report, we did a LinkedIn search of Alpha Motor and found that only two people were listed as working there. One of them goes by Kevin L. with no other listed work experience, and the other is Lawrence Eric Go, a California-based copywriter in charge of writing press releases for Alpha Motor.

[{"selector":"#anim-0f038943-5471-4e37-afef-c520f03146c4","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] Go previously did the same thing for Neuron EV, another dubious California-based EV startup that seems to have disappeared after unveiling concepts in 2019 , including a Tesla Semi c lone. The company has gone quiet for the last two years and took down its website. Go also removed his work experience at Alpha Motor after we reported on it.

[{"selector":"#anim-2c4fa2bc-3dca-40a9-aa4f-15cbf9217a90","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] We pulled up Alpha’s business registrations in California and Delaware and found that it first listed someone named “Michael A. Smith” as its CEO in an original filling in October 2020, and then they updated it in January to name a Kevin Lee as CEO with offices in Irvine, California.

[{"selector":"#anim-35fc299e-cf5a-46fd-a721-452284f10302","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] Irvine is also where Neuron EV claimed to be based. In short, we couldn’t find any evidence of an actual organization capable of delivering more than renders and press releases about electric vehicles rather than actual electric vehicles.

[{"selector":"#anim-dc0b9235-90c2-446c-8775-919ee15fa86c","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] But now Alpha Motor announced that they will debut the Wolf electric pickup at the Petersen Museum next week: Alpha Motor Corporation is set to exhibit the WOLF™ Electric Truck at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California beginning August 24, 2021. The company has even started taking reservations for the vehicle and claims that production is going to start in 2023: Production of the WOLF™ Electric Truck is slated to launch in the United States toward the end of 2023.

[{"selector":"#anim-0f96e1f3-b1c8-481a-89f9-d00781679420","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] Electrek’s Take Months after the company came out and the media jumped on the release of the renders, Alpha Motor still doesn’t list any member of their leadership or engineering team on their website. The few people we found on LinkedIn have also removed mentions of the company from their profiles.

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[{"selector":"#anim-6209fefc-2ccf-480b-9084-9163bc2f5a48","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] [{"selector":"#anim-89c6c74c-7398-4f59-b0f0-fae49bf8e09b","keyframes":[{"transform":"rotate(-540deg) scale(0.1)","opacity":0},{"transform":"none","opacity":1}],"delay":0,"duration":1000,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both","iterations":1}] You would think that an EV startup claiming they can reach production within the next two years would leave more traces of an organization with some engineering and financing behind it, but that’s not the case for Alpha Motor. I remain extremely skeptical of the company despite this upcoming unveiling, but we will see.