Apollo

The company was originally founded in 2004 as Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur by Roland Gumpert, a former director of Audi Sport. Based in Altenburg, Germany, the firm gained international fame with the Gumpert Apollo, a vehicle that held the N rburgring Nordschleife lap record for several years. Despite the technical prowess of its vehicles, the company faced significant financial challenges and filed for bankruptcy in 2013. In early 2016, the assets were acquired by Ideal Team Venture, a Hong Kong-based investment consortium that also owns the De Tomaso brand. The company was subsequently rebranded as Apollo Automobil. This transition marked a shift from the utilitarian, function-over-form aesthetic of the original Gumpert models toward a more dramatic and expressive design philosophy. Under the new ownership, Apollo launched the Intensa Emozione (IE) in 2017, a track-focused hypercar featuring a 6.3-liter naturally aspirated V12 engine and a full carbon fiber body. The IE was limited to just 10 units, all of which were sold prior to production. This model successfully re-established the brand in the hyper-luxury segment and served as a technological flagship. In recent years, Apollo has expanded its focus to include future propulsion technologies. In 2021, they unveiled the Project EVO, a successor to the IE, and the G2J, an advanced electric vehicle engineering prototype. The company currently maintains its engineering and operational base in Denkendorf, Germany, while leveraging global investment to fund its research into high-performance electrification.