The Avathor One is a weird-looking electric vehicle designed by Avathor, a startup firm based in Turin, Italy, with some help from Volkswagen Group, Italdesign and Stellantis.
The North American corporation supplied the micro-EV with refurbished battery packs extracted from used EVs. According to Stellantis, even batteries with severely degraded volume can be stripped down, tested for any remaining cells with good energy capacity and repackaged into new EVs to serve another several years.
This approach has limited application, but the Avathor One doesn’t need much: it uses a 2.8-kWh battery pack and only covers 50 kilometers (31 miles) per charge at a top speed of 10 km/h (6.2 mph). Those willing to save money may even get a smaller 1.4-kWh pack good for half the range quoted above.
Why bother designing such an EV? The companies claim that the One will be appreciated by wheelchair users and other people with limited mobility. It consists of a 1.5-meter (6-ft) long platform with a dropdown section for easy getting in and out, and is driven via joysticks. LED headlights, a rear-view camera and a collision prevention system makes it resemble “normal” cars a little bit. It also helps that the exterior was designed by none other than Italdesign.
Sales of the Avathor One will begin in Italy in late 2025 and Spain in early 2026.
