Aehra is a new electric vehicle startup that is slowly revealing its first planned offering, a sleek EV SUV with bold exterior styling. Now the company has revealed the SUV’s interior, which is equally dramatic even if at first it may seem like an ordinary luxury vehicle interior - it does have one important party piece, a screen that rises out of the dashboard when the vehicle is stationary to provide a theater-like experience.
When the vehicle is being driven, the screen will retract into the dashboard, with only its top part still visible and displaying information, as well as two smaller screens acting as digital rear-view mirrors. When stopped, though, the massive display reveals itself by rising out of the dash in one uninterrupted piece, making for one of the most spectacular dashboards we’ve ever seen.
Gallery: Aehra SUV Interior Renderings
The company doesn’t say how big the screen is, but it’s probably of a similar size to the one that you can optionally spec in the rear of the BMW i7, a 31-inch 8K display that lowers itself from the roof of the vehicle. In fact, this BMW screen is probably the only other automotive application of a screen this size, so it will be interesting to see if Aehra can actually pull it off; Byton also wanted to introduce a screen of similar size, but the company went under before it was able to start manufacturing vehicles.
Aehra says that the screen can be used to watch movies, or as a mobile office and meeting room. Being so big and so far from the front occupants of the vehicle, though, it won’t be a touchscreen. Users will be able to interact with the vehicle via a much smaller infotainment screen that is located in the typical place where you’d expect to find it in a modern car.
The still unnamed vehicle doesn’t appear to have any physical controls, so this smaller screen will be the main means to adjust settings.
There’s a third even smaller screen that is embedded in the top part of the steering wheel, which will act as a digital gauge cluster, displaying essential information for driving, such as speed or state of charge and range.
Production of the SUV won’t commence for another year or so as Aehra expects to deliver its first vehicles to customers in 2025. The startup doesn’t plan to build the vehicles itself, though, and will outsource their assembly to a third party (which it has yet to announce). Next year it plans to show its second vehicle, an electric sedan in the same style as this SUV.
