Electric Chinese supercar made its European debut in Italy at GAC Advanced Design Milan
April 18, 2024 at 18:59
- Aion Hyper SSR makes its European debut at GAC Advanced Design Milan.
- Chinese supercar generates 1,208 hp and can hit 62 mph in 1.9 seconds.
- Prices in its home market range from $178-233k.
It’s not only Europe’s mass-market automakers that ought to be worried about the coming Chinese EV invasion. The continent’s supercar community is under threat too, and that threat just got more tangible with the European debut of Aion’s Hyper SSR in Italy.
The SSR, which looks like an electric Acura NSX with dihedral doors, was presented for the first time on the continent at parent company CAG’s Advanced Design Milan facility in Italy this week. And though there’s no indication that it’s about to go on sale in Europe, bosses at Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and Rimac would be foolish to think cars like the SSR don’t have ambitions to find buyers beyond China’s borders in the coming years.
Related: GAC Aion Hyper SSR Electric Supercar Costs A Fraction Of The $2M Rimac Nevera
Regular readers might have already heard about the SSR when it was unveiled in China last year. The carbon-bodied exotic measures 4,538 mm (178.7 inches) long and 1,238 mm (48.7 inches) tall, making it fractionally shorter, but taller, than a Rimac Nevera, although the Croatian supercar packs a much bigger punch. It makes 1,877 hp (1,903 PS), whereas the SSR’s tri-motor electric drivetrain ‘only’ generates 1,208 hp (1,225 PS).
But outside of the crazy world of EVs that’s still a heck of lot of horses, and the SSR seems to shrug that power deficit off anyway: GAC claims its machine can crack 62 mph (100 km/h) in 1.9 seconds, which would make it almost as quick as the Nevera (1.8 seconds). The SSR does fall behind in the end, though. It runs out of puff at 155 mph (250 km/h) while the Rimac breezes on to 258 mph (412 km/h).
But that’s the least you’d expect given that the Nevera stickers at around $2 million and the SSR reportedly costs around a tenth as much ($233k) in its Ultimate Track configuration, and only $178k in entry-level form.
In keeping with the car’s zero-emissions credentials, GAC says the Hyper SSR’s interior is made from sustainable materials and contains no animal products. As on a Ferrari, there are no stalks mounted behind the hexagon-shaped steering wheel, the lightweight seats are claimed to deliver plenty of support without losing daily comfort, and there’s the plenty of digital tech, as you’d expect. The driver faces an 8.8-inch virtual gauge cluster that’s paired with a second 14.6-inch display on the console.
City cars for 2044
In addition to debuting the Hyper SSR at Milan, GAC revealed Car Culture Series 3.0, a set of three concept cars that each take a different look at the future of urban mobility. The City Pod, a kind of 22nd century BMW Isetta, the utilitarian City Box urban delivery van and sporty City Run coupe, look very different from one another, but have all been conceived around the same modular electric drivetrain that packs the drive motor and battery into a single unit. GAC says the setup makes for swift powertrain replacements, minimizes maintenance downtime, and boosts efficiency and performance. Which one is your favorite?
