A UAE company with big ambitions to rival Tesla on the global stage of production of autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots unveiled its latest off-road hybrid military vehicle in Abu Dhabi.
The Eneron Magnus border patrol vehicle has been built from scratch in the UAE in under three months and is a marker for autonomous electric military vehicles of the very near future.
The concept car is the latest project from government owned Kintsugi Holding, that specialises in autonomous ground transport and the development of humanoid robots that can perform laborious, and dangerous tasks currently completed by humans.
The speciality vehicles have been developed in partnership with the UAE National Guard, and were on show at the Idex defence and security conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday, which was attended by President Sheikh Mohamed, as well as Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, who were briefed on a number of the defence systems on display.
What sets the Magnus aside from other autonomous transport is its sleek muscular looks, bulletproof Kevlar shell and 800km range thanks to an electric battery and on board diesel generator.
Composite panels on either side of the vehicle are engineered to pair with ballistic steel and a composite chassis, providing level two ballistic protection from landmines and other incendiary devices.
Its six-seater cabin is similar in size to the Tesla Cybertruck, which is also electric, and can be brought for about $81,000. Kintsugi would not reveal how much the Magnus cost to develop or how much it would retail at, if it becomes commercially available.
More than 20 cameras offer a 360 degree of the outside, while ladar and radar sensors have the vehicle ready for autonomous driving, and an escape hatch in the roof allows for a quick emergency exit.
A futuristic interior features a high-tech digital cockpit design, purpose-built for border patrol operations, while a multifunctional steering wheel and a 10.4-inch central touchscreen with hotkeys is designed for intuitive accessibility.
Sean Teo, managing director of Kintsugi Holding, said common problems with using electric batteries to power heavy armour plated vehicles has been the drain on power, and resulting short range.
“We wanted to completely reinvent the military vehicle,” Mr Teo, told The National. “People said it was crazy to design a vehicle like this because one of the biggest challenges was generating enough torque. When you're going uphill, after a while the electricity becomes too hot. So we’ve had to refine the entire design to overcome the heat issue by adding a diesel generator.”
Electric power
An electric motor provides 800KW of power, generating a top speed of 130kph and acceleration from a standing start to 100kph in just seven seconds.
Abu Dhabi police has commissioned a smaller version of the Magnus, the Magnum, that can be used for motorway patrols, and emergency response, while Civil Defence is also said to be interested in adding the vehicle to its fleet.
Michael Robinson, a design consultant for Kintsugi, brought his 45 years of experience in the Italian car market to develop the Magnus’s eye-catching looks.
“It's a giant vehicle, much larger than anything I've ever worked on before, so it's already in a different class,” he said. “I wanted to bring in a new architecture into this industry which tends to be very boxy, with flat, vertical windshields. The entire body is done in Kevlar, so it's very structurally robust and gives the possibility to do muscular, aggressive shapes.
"It is 100 per cent EV hybrid, with one electric engine in the front axle and one in the rear axle, but the diesel just charges the battery up so we can do 800km which is amazing in such a big beast. We did this in record time, six months to do the engineering on this thing and then three months to build it.”
Robo taxis
Kintsugi said it is in talks to fill the gap in the autonomous taxi market left behind by the issues faced with Cruise, the US self-driving vehicle manufacturer that was trialling routes for its driverless cars in Dubai.
In 2023, regulators in California ordered Cruise – a subsidiary of General Motors – to stop its driverless taxi service in San Francisco after a near fatal incident with a pedestrian who was dragged several metres by the autonomous vehicle.
Mr Teo said the failure of others to develop safe driverless vehicles had created an opportunity for robotaxis built in the UAE by Kintsugi.
“This (Cruise incident) made it all the more important to make sure that we manufacture these vehicles locally, so we can control the availability and quality of services,” he said. “By the end of June you should see about 20 of these vehicles running around the island (Abu Dhabi).”