Neta’s Eureka moment

A few years back there was no shortage of Chinese EV start-ups. If you believed the headlines you would think that actually only three of them WM Motors, NIO, Xpeng and perhaps now Li Auto were making anything in the way of significant sales. Neta, a brand from Hozon, managed to sell a reasonable 10,006 in 2019 and now has two models on sale with another about to hit the market.

Making its debut at the Beijing Auto Show, the new Eureka O3 is the latest in a line of concepts from the company bearing the Eureka name. Compared with Neta’s small production hatchbacks and SUVs, the Eureka 03 is very different. Not only is it much bigger, measuring in at 4.8 metres length with a wheelbase of 2.9 metres, the car is a four door coupe – a style seen quite a lot with concepts at this year’s Beijing show, but not a body shape currently popular with Chinese consumers. The concept claims a range of 800km along with level 4 autonomous driving capability.

According to Hozon “the car is designed to be the perfect balance of four-door sedan comfort and sports car speed. The stance of the whole car pulls back the forward strength with the sense of tension before the moment of the power explosion as the core theme.”

There is a strong shoulder line which mirrors the front wheel arch before dipping at the front door and then rising again to mirror the rear wheel arch. The C-pillar meanwhile meets the boot far inside the top of the wheel arch, giving space for the rear light cluster to wrap around the arch. Hozon describe the surface language as soft and warm, complementing the in-motion expression of the car.

Although the Eureka 03 is not necessarily destined for production, it does show the progression of Neta’s design language. Based on an evolution of the Neta logo, the headlights (although reminiscent of those on the production Neta U) are far sharper and more symmetrical. The taillights receive similar treatment. For the lines on the body side, which are lit by built-in LEDs, inspiration came from cable-stay bridges emphasising the tension in the design.

As with many concepts these days, the Eureka 03 features electronic rear view cameras and, more uniquely, windscreen wiper arms integrated into the A-pillars. Eureka 03 also takes the transparent A-pillar technology seen on the Neta U – the first production model to receive such technology – and upgrades it to 2.0 technology giving a more complete yet simple look. Furthermore the electric rear view mirrors are integrated into the system displaying real time information. The system reduces the drag coefficient while enhancing safety by elimination blind spots.

Doors open using fingerprint recognition. The user’s identity is checked by a thumb print recognition system consisting of a depression where the door handles normally are. When matched, the door opens automatically. While great for a concept this system will unlikely be making it to a production car anytime soon for a whole host of potential usability issues.