GAC aims for emotive design with the Enpulse

“With traditional, internal combustion sports cars, you have the vibration and the sound that triggers your emotion. So for an EV, that has neither of those, how do you create that emotion? We do it visually,” says Zhang Fan, GAC’s vice president of R&D, speaking about the company’s Enpulse concept car shown at the 2020 Beijing Auto Show.

Not only is the GAC Enpulse an EV sports car, but compared with some of the company’s more recent concepts, such as the ENO.146, it looks far closer to production – something Zhang mentions as a distinct possibility. “Although it is a concept car, all the elements were well-thought-out and researched from the very beginning, including the package, battery layout, the vehicle architecture, dimension settings, powertrain and connectivity technologies” he says.

The Enpulse uses the latest evolution of the Vector Energy design language first seen on last year’s ENO.146. The sports car inspiration though came from a perceived gap in the market. Traditionally, sports cars have not been favoured by Chinese consumers. “As the Chinese market starts to mature and with thriving local manufacturers producing more and more competitive vehicles, but mostly sedans and crossover vehicles, we believe there is a void in the marketplace for something exciting and fun,” explains Zhang further pointing out that there are very few electric sports cars available.

Powered by two motors, the car measures in at 4.3m with a 2.5m wheelbase. To create emotion visually, Zhang used elements such as the Sky doors which open vertically along with a light show when opening. Linear patterns are important not just on the exterior but also the interior where they are more noticeable such as on the KVADRA material. The Enpulse is topped off with a special electroluminescent Lumilor paint which glows in the dark. F1 inspired side mirrors finish off the external look – mirror glass is replaced by screens.

“For inspiration, we looked at everything from the past to the present, fashion to architecture to pop culture. Combining all that inspired us, we came to a few key elements that would define the Enpulse,” says Zhang.

As with the ENO.146 the overall look is very clean with a strong diagonal ‘blade’ feature line on the body side. Arc headlights seamlessly integrate with the body and at the rear a ‘linear light blade’ stretches the tail lights across the Enpulse’s width. The pure and simple form extends to the interior. There is an exposed tubular cross-beam structure. These gain an iridescent effect and lights hidden beneath. Zhang mentions that they look like a lightsabre from Star Wars. The car gets the latest Adigo in-car smart ecosystem providing vehicle information and performance gauges.

With the Enpulse, GAC aims to combine the instant performance of an electric powertrain with a cool and extreme design. Zhang is keen to emphasise it is not a car for the select few but an electric sports car for everyone. Whether or not the car makes it to production one thing we will be seeing is the new GAC logo, which debuted on the Enpulse.