When Eren Canarslan, the co-founder and CEO of Olympian Motors, removes the car cover from one of his company’s prototypes on a rainy fall day in Brooklyn, the most striking first impression is that it’s, well, cute. The two-door coupe, dubbed the Model 01, has distinctly vintage vibes, with smooth curved lines, swoopy Art Deco finishes and a front end so friendly it seems to smile. It looks more like a set piece from a classic movie than a car you’d take to the McDonald’s Drive Thru.
Founded in 2021, Olympian is the outgrowth of an idea Canarslan developed with co-founder Jasmine Sungu. The two connected over a shared belief that traditional automakers were trapped in century-old thinking, and increasingly disconnected from intuitive design. While car reviews are often dominated by horsepower, torque and acceleration speed, Olympian’s surveys of roughly 2,000 people across the US found that only a small percentage actually cared about those things.
“They said that as long as the performance is within the industry average, we’re good,” Sungu says.