Aria's new FXE uses a gasoline engine and two electric motors to produce 1,150 horsepower.
Aria is singing a tune it hopes some American performance car fans will like, the California-based start-up revealing an 1,150 horsepower, U.S.-made supercar that it says will be able to hit a top speed of 220 mph.
The Aria FXE concept should enter production within two years, the company said during its news conference at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It’s the second prototype the Irvine-based company has brought to the show, following the debut of the Aria FE a year ago.
Aria is one of a growing array of start-ups in the U.S. and abroad hoping to get into the supercar market – though a number of others, including Lucid and Faraday Future, have been turning to purely electric propulsion.
Aria, however, plans to take the best of both the gasoline and electric worlds to power the FXE, like the new Acura NSX. The car starts with a supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 making 720 horsepower the company “borrowed” from General Motors.
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Then it adds twin electric motors producing at total 540 hp, bringing the total package to a heart-pounding 1,150 horsepower and 1,316 pound-feet of torque. The FXE is extremely light due to a carbon fiber monocoque, carbon fiber panels and lightweight 3D-printed metals, tipping the scales at 3,450 pounds.
The FXE sprints from 0 to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds and will be available in 2019.
It will use an all-wheel-drive system to maximize power-to-pavement, and Aria claims, it will be able to hit 60 in 3.1 seconds. That would be about 0.8 seconds slower than the 840-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon or the Tesla Model S P100D with optional Ludicrous Mode.
The new Aria is a bit slower, and significantly more expensive than the aforementioned Demon and P100D. Pricing wasn’t revealed, but the base model FE, which was shown last year, starts at $650,000. On the upside, buyers can lease it once available to the public in 2019.
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“We’ve learned that regardless of how wealthy you are, (you’d) actually prefer to lease the car,” David said.
Though it may lag by tenths of a second on the front end, it makes up for it on the top end with a top speed of 220 mph, Aria officials note. The new FXE will have an “American stance,” but will compete with better-known European supercars from Ferrari and McLaren.
“It’s inspired by track-oriented cars (but) it’s made for the road,” said Nicholas David, Aria’s design director. Buyers of this American-looking supercar – of which there will be 100 – will be able to completely customize the FXE.
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The seats are “sculpted” to the individual with telescoping steering wheel and pedals that move toward the driver, who sits in a very central position in the cockpit. David noted that the form of the car is key, not the lights and not the grille.