What can you tell us about the technology in the car?
“Today technology defines luxury as well. I wanted to have something unique, something that no one has ever seen – not only in the automotive industry but in the world. I wanted to have the first holographic display with interactive motion.
“I wanted the car to be from the future and have no screens. Everything virtually projected in the air in three dimensions and you can actually control these buttons in mid-air inside the vehicle. So after a lot of negotiation with Magna Steyr and suppliers, we went to the inventors of the hologram and got the OK.
“We are the first company in the world to ever have this technology. It’s revolutionary technology. We are working with the people who have created it, and we are the sole people with the rights. We cannot patent it because we didn’t create it, but we have the sole rights to use it and no one else can ever use it.
“It’s a flat six, it’s not a V12, it’s not a V16 – we’re doing the same performance as a Bugatti Veyron which has 16 cylinder, I don’t know how many turbos and 1200hp. We’re doing the same with a flat six and 750hp: 2.8 seconds and less. It also weighs less [1380kg].”
“What’s special about it is that it works in sunlight, it works with movement and it works with all the tactile interaction in different layers and you can access all the multi-media in mid-air. You can even turn on the car, turn off the car; if you get an email you can have it display in 3D – it’s fantastic.
“Imagine seeing your GPS as a map floating in three dimensions where you can just hold it and turn it, it’s incredible. And this is the first car in the world to ever have that. On top of that we are playing around with the holograms to have many surprises later in our upcoming models, which we can’t reveal now. In short, it’s the car of the future.”
What about the ownership experience for those who can afford such a product?
“When someone buys the W we send him a private jet, he comes to the factory production line and he sees how it’s being built. It’s such a beautiful piece of art that we need to show people how it’s done. Even the engine is hand built and assembled piece by piece. The chassis is also hand assembled. Everything is hand-built. There isn’t a single machine involved in building this car.
“We also have a concierge service. Basically the car is like a Vertu phone, once you go in you’re in your own atmosphere – it’s a completely new experience. You can press a button and access a concierge service 24 hours a day and seven days a week through our server, which gets you whatever you need at any given time. “You can ask the concierge to get you reservations at a restaurant you’ll be arriving at in five minutes. And we have this exclusive service for all of W’s clients. Whatever you need – hotels, flights, its all connected to the car.
“We have the flying doctors – and this is also very important because people are asking how we’re going to service our vehicles – a group of engineers who are being trained with Magna Steyr and RUF Automobile to know how to fix this car. These people have experience for years now. They continuously monitor the vehicle and can alert you of a fault before it ever happens though a real-time diagnostic check.
“Whenever the client has a problem we know about it before the client does. It’s connected through the server as well. We know if the car needs to be stopped and we contact the client and guide them to the nearest garage, which we contact to notify them of your arrival. Within 24 hours a team of engineers fly into that garage and fix the car. If the car has a more serious problem, the ‘doctors’ will arrange to transport the car to either Dubai or Torino and fix the car there before giving it back. This all comes as a package of luxury, which you will not find on any other vehicle.”
What’s the reasoning behind the limited production numbers?
“We have the luxury and we have the technology, so what else do we need? We need the exclusivity, and this is where we came up with the idea to create two lines of cars. The first car coming out should be unique – there are 77 models of the Aston Martin One-77; there are 250 models of the Bugatti Veyron. This is not exclusive at all.
“We needed something more exclusive. The Zenvo sold for $1.8 million and there are only 18 in the world, so we wanted to go less than that. We decided to make just seven. There isn’t an automotive constructor in the world that made seven of just one model, which makes it the most exclusive car in the world. But there is also a reason to make just seven models. We wanted to relate to the Arab numbers but we couldn’t find the number five or seven in the Arab world.
“The wheels are milled from carbon fiber and aluminum, this is the only component that isn’t made by hand. We have different rims available, pure carbon fiber or a mix of aluminum and carbon fiber.”
“Our partners suggested not to put a number, if there is demand we would produce it – that’s what RUF does with the CTR3, they don’t even know how many they produce per year, they make them based on the orders they receive. We wanted to be strict with the numbers.”
Where will you sell the car?
“We are taking it slow right now. The Middle East, Chinese, Far East, and European market are more than we need today. Maybe later on in a year or two, we might decide to go for the US market and so we are doing our marketing and advertising in the States. We are more into the niche market: Qatar, Shanghai, Moscow. We are going to these markets. We are not looking to sell the car in the USA now, but we know we can do it.”
What’s next for W Motors?
“Along the way we figured we needed to launch another line of vehicles. If the [Hypersport] is going to be limited to just seven, we need to have something more sporty and accessible. So we decided to make a car that we’d produce 25 of, whilst still making it unique.
“It’s going to be a bit cheaper than the Hypersport, which is $3.4m and up depending on the options. For the Supersport we’re aiming at less than $2m. It’s based on speed, power and torque and doesn’t have the luxury or the technology but it has pure driving performance.
“It’s going to be a competitor to many other vehicles but at this stage we’re not sure. We need to have a product that stands out first. I can guarantee that it’s going to be one of the fastest cars 0-100 [km/h].
“We will produce 25 cars over five years — only five per year will ever be produced. It’s going to be the same model, but will a small evolution every year: subtle facelift, small design changes, modifying engine components every year. So these are the two lines of vehicles.”
