Russia Unveils Ghastly New ‘Amber’ Electric Car Prototype And Oh God, It Looks So Awful

Amber Russian Electric Car Topshot
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It feels like it’s been a while since anyone’s shown off a properly unfortunate car. The Youabian Puma is a decade old, the Ssanyong Rodius is ancient now, and even the VinFast VF8 is at least decent to look at. Well, the dry spell ends now. Researchers in Russia have unveiled a new prototype electric car called the Amber, and oh God it’s hideous.

The Amber is a…thing that’s been built by Moscow Polytechnic University as the forerunner for an impending production car. I know we’re pro-car at The Autopian, but this thing seems like an am-car, a thoroughly amateur attempt at motoring that lacks the grace and talent of, well, any other current automaker on the face of this pale blue dot.

It looks like Postman Pat’s red van had angry sex with a G-Wiz, and nine months later, the end result hit every branch of the ugly tree on the way down. It has a panicked face, massive ungainly unbroken surfaces on each bodyside, and it elicits a ton of questions. Why does it sit on its wheels like a wooly mammoth on roller skates? Why does it have two holes on the right side of the body? Why is the bottom of each door two feet off the ground? Did anyone with eyes actually sign off on the styling of the Amber?

Amber Electric Car 2

You might wonder how Russia is managing to build an electric car, considering the sorts of sanctions it’s under right now. Well, major electric drivetrain components like the battery pack, inverter, an electric motor are claimed to be all Russian, a questionable claim when Russia relies on China for lots of electronic things. Allegedly, this car is more about the hardware underneath than the styling, as World Today News reports that ““Avtotor” notes that the future car will look different from the presented test model.” For what it’s worth, the production car will apparently be classified as a heavy quadricycle, so take that information as you will.

When developing a technological testbed, manufacturers tend to move in one of two directions: Either use a lot of effort to produce a near-production spec body that lets engineers actually test efficiency, or put in no effort at all and chop up an existing car as a mule. This prototype seems to have seen some sweat go into making it look positively hideous. Make no mistake, despite the windscreen and side mirrors seemingly sourced from another car, the Amber was styled like this on purpose.

Amber Electric Car 1

As per Russian automotive website Auto, “Production of Amber in Kaliningrad should begin in 2025.” Claims of mass production in 2025 seem dubious, especially if this technological testbed isn’t virtually identical to the finished product. Ford took nearly three years to go from the unveiling of an electric F-150 prototype to the start of F-150 Lightning production, and that thing borrows the bulk of its bodywork from an existing vehicle. To go from something that scares small animals to a production car in about two years? Sure, I’ll believe it when I see it.

Make no mistake, the Amber is a deeply unfortunate vehicle, likely reflecting the terrible conditions that led to its birth. It’s less attractive than an open wound, makes fabulous claims about its technology that most people would be skeptical about, and comes with a bit of backpedaling. Let’s hope the production car looks radically different from the prototype, because it doesn’t seem difficult to do better than this.

(Photo credits: Moscow Polytechnic University)

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130 thoughts on “Russia Unveils Ghastly New ‘Amber’ Electric Car Prototype And Oh God, It Looks So Awful”

  2. How the hell are you supposed to see out of that thing? The windshield isn’t that big and you’ve got that huge nose that, just for extra fun, has a big chin-like protrusion on the bottom that you will absolutely run into something because it sticks out so far from the end of the hood, which is where the sightline presumably ends. And those side windows…you couldn’t even get a pizza box through one of those, let alone see anything out of them. Thankfully we’ve been spared seeing the rear end of this thing, but will there even be a rear window? I’m picturing something absurdly tiny, like the split windows on early VW Beetles.

  4. What is the hole in the side for? We know it’s not for dragoning because you wouldn’t be able to find a paper bag large enough to put over the car.

    Wrong answers only please.

    3. Have you seen Snowpiercer? Somewhere there’s a small Russian child being forced to reach into those holes and perform some mechanical operation that Western sanctions have precluded producing a part to do.

      1. Yes I have.. It could also be used from the inside to extend your arm out the hole into the Russian winter and then shatter the frozen arm as punishment for designing this car.

        2. Because they slept through their thermodynamics classes in college?
          (The train is a perpetual motion machine that is powered by the movement of the wheels which obviously makes no goddamn sense.)
          (I know you said you didn’t want to know and I apologize for my inability to just not chime in.)

    11. Holes are oarlocks.

      Elon says Cybertruck is boat. Russian electric car must be boat. Put oarlock on sides.

      No, no, must have two oarlock, capitalist lackey!

  6. Kaliningrad? Seems to be an avoidable logistical challenge. Would seem to make more sense to build it somewhere in the steppes or have they become too unpopulated from sending them into a meat grinder?

    1. I think it’s an intentional move to spread jobs and economic development beyond the current major automotive centers in Samara and Nizhny Novgorod

  11. I disagree with your take…this has a “pushing the envelope” kind of uniqueness I see in some concept cars. Personally, I kinda like it.

    Still better than the back of a Nissan Cube…although now I realize I don’t know what the back end of this looks like. Hopefully it at least has the grace to be mostly symmetrical.

  12. Well, panel gaps are better than any Tesla prototype. And some final versions too.

    It seems that they chopped the body off, put batteries below and tried to put everything together again with tons of bondo.

    Color doesn’t help either. Maybe black would look like a little better.

  14. I get the feeling they used a Fiat Multipla as a starting point for this… vehicle.

    For those fixated on cars having grilles that are fake and/or entirely too large, this might be the dream machine.

    Fix the front on that and it’s not terrible. Then it becomes odd and meh.

      1. Evocative of a Subaru, that Vesta Cross. But then those high mount lights, and that really unfortunate front design, make things just weird.

  15. Is this the Russia’s answer to 007’s submersible Lotus Esprit? The tiny windows and the beyond awkward proportions makes it look more like a submarine than a car.
    Imagine Putin in the red amber, flying down tight serpentine roads with a beautiful Devushka by his side, chased by American special forces..

  20. An Amber engineer arrives at customs. He carries two very large and heavy suitcases. On his wrist is a new Russian-made watch. He tells the customs man: “This is a new Russian watch. It’s a wonder unknown in other countries. You see, it shows time, the rate of your pulse beats, the phases of the Moon, the weather in Warsaw, Moscow, and New York, and more and more!”
    “Yes, it’s a wonder,” the customs man agrees. “And what is it you have in these big suitcases?”
    “Oh, it’s just the batteries for that watch.”

    That big ass battery pack/floor reminds me so much of this joke.

  21. Dorbroye utro fellow capitalists! We only put the minimal amount of windows in Amber, so you don’t have to look around and be reminded that you’re still in Russia!

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