---
title: "Apple and Audi alumni unveil a $25,000 electric buggy inspired by the moon rover"
description: "A Portugal-based startup called Amble has revealed its first vehicle: a stripped-back, open-air electric buggy modeled on NASA's 1971 lunar rover, designed by a team that includes a veteran of the Apple Watch and Audi — and aimed first at luxury resorts rather than the open road."
category: "Technology"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/technology
author: "Priya Sharma"
published: 2026-06-27T12:08:00.000Z
updated: 2026-06-27T12:08:00.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/amble-electric-buggy-moon-rover-design
tags: ["electric-vehicles", "ev-startup", "amble", "design", "moon-buggy", "apple"]
---
# Apple and Audi alumni unveil a $25,000 electric buggy inspired by the moon rover

A Portugal-based startup called Amble has revealed its first vehicle: a stripped-back, open-air electric buggy modeled on NASA's 1971 lunar rover, designed by a team that includes a veteran of the Apple Watch and Audi — and aimed first at luxury resorts rather than the open road.

A new electric-vehicle startup is betting that the future of personal transport looks less like a Tesla and more like a moon buggy. Amble, based in Portugal, has unveiled the Amble One — an open-frame electric buggy whose design borrows directly from NASA's Apollo lunar rover, [according to the company's announcement](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/06/25/3317721/0/en/New-EV-Company-Amble-Launches-its-First-Vehicle-A-Street-Legal-Electric-Buggy-for-a-World-Beyond-Cars.html).

## The team

Amble's pitch leans heavily on its founders' pedigree. The company says its design is led by Julian Hoenig, an industrial designer who previously worked at Apple — where the company credits him with work on the Apple Watch and Vision Pro — and earlier at Audi. The chief executive, Adrien Roose, co-founded the design-focused electric-bicycle company Cowboy, and other founders bring backgrounds in hospitality and at Ford's advanced design studio. Backers, the company says, include a co-founder of SolarCity and a former Airbnb executive.

## What it is

The Amble One is not a conventional car, by design or by law. At under about 990 pounds, it qualifies in Europe as an L7e "quadricycle," a lightweight class that can be driven on public roads without the engineering of a full passenger vehicle. The company lists a 15-kilowatt motor, a 12-kilowatt-hour battery, a range of more than 60 miles and a top speed of about 40 mph, with a starting price of €20,000 (roughly $25,000), [as reported by HiConsumption](https://hiconsumption.com/motors/amble-one-electric-buggy/).

The aesthetic is the point. Echoing the Apollo rover's exposed tubular frame, the buggy wears almost no bodywork; its skateboard-style platform is left visible, with oversized screws flagging parts meant to be removed or swapped. Materials lean toward natural and durable rather than glossy: a cork-wrapped steering wheel (a nod to Portugal's cork industry), a marine-grade canvas roof, an aluminum frame and leather seats meant to age rather than wear out, [Designboom reported](https://www.designboom.com/technology/cork-canvas-lunar-rover-electric-beach-buggy-amble-one/). "No doors to close you in, no unnecessary screens to pull you away," Hoenig said of the philosophy.

## Resorts first

Amble is taking an unusual route to market. Rather than chase mass buyers, it is courting luxury resort operators first — naming destinations such as Amangiri in Utah and the Six Senses group — with hospitality deliveries planned for 2027 and consumer orders following in 2028. A second, more road-oriented model with removable doors is sketched for later. "Cars are engineered for speed, distance and efficiency. Yet many journeys are short," Roose said.

## A crowded graveyard

The caveat is the one that hangs over every EV startup: ambition is cheap, production is hard. Well-funded names such as Rivian and Lucid have burned through billions chasing profitability, and Fisker, Lordstown and Arrival have gone bankrupt. Amble's narrow niche — a lifestyle quadricycle priced like a premium e-bike or a high-end golf cart — sidesteps a head-to-head with Tesla, but it also limits how big the company can get. Whether the Amble One becomes a fixture at exclusive resorts or another stylish concept that never scales will, as ever in this industry, come down to whether it actually reaches production on time.