A former tech executive from New York has entered the ultra-luxury automotive arena with an ambitious electric vehicle that carries a $500,000 price tag and aims to compete directly with established names like Ferrari, Bentley, and Rolls-Royce. Dacora Motors, founded by Kristie D’Ambrosio-Correll, represents a bold attempt to create America’s first ultra-luxury EV brand built from the ground up for the modern luxury buyer.
The Dacora debut model draws inspiration from 1930s automotive design, featuring sweeping lines, an elongated hood, and distinctive circular headlights that give it a retro-futuristic aesthetic. Designed in collaboration with the legendary Italian design house Pininfarina, the vehicle combines vintage styling cues with contemporary electric performance. The car sits higher than traditional luxury sedans with a 7.5-inch ride height, positioning it somewhere between an SUV and a grand tourer.
Under the distinctive exterior lies serious performance capability. The all-electric powertrain delivers over 800 horsepower while maintaining the whisper-quiet operation that luxury buyers expect. Despite weighing 6,500 pounds, the vehicle can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in under four seconds and offers an estimated 400-mile driving range. For customers not ready to go fully electric, Dacora also plans to offer a hybrid powertrain option.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the Dacora experience lies in its unprecedented customization options. The interior can be completely reconfigured with modular seating arrangements accommodating anywhere from three to seven passengers. Seasonal upholstery changes allow owners to swap between materials like wool for winter and linen for summer, treating the car’s interior like a wardrobe. Even more unusually, customers can incorporate personal heirloom materials and woods into the vehicle’s trim.
The cabin itself rejects the screen-heavy approach of most modern luxury cars, instead featuring a retractable digital display that disappears behind semi-transparent wooden panels when not in use. Optional center console configurations include everything from humidors and espresso machines to living bonsai garden displays housed under glass domes, catering to highly specific luxury preferences.
Kristie D’Ambrosio-Correll brings substantial credentials to this ambitious venture, having previously served as CTO of Mirror, the home fitness company that was acquired by Lululemon. Her experience scaling technical teams and bringing premium hardware-software products to market provides relevant expertise for the complex challenge of automotive manufacturing.
Each Dacora vehicle will be handcrafted at the company’s Hudson Valley facility in New York, with production limited to maintain exclusivity. The company has already secured over $35 million in pre-sale commitments, exceeding 140 percent of planned first-year production capacity. With deliveries expected to begin in 2028, Dacora represents an intriguing test of whether American craftsmanship and innovation can carve out space in the traditionally European-dominated ultra-luxury automotive market.
