LeEco, the brand formerly known as LeTV, has had a pretty busy day today. Not only did it announce a new set of phones for the Chinese market, but it also unveiled its first all-electric concept->ke169 that it is calling the LeSee. The brand does have a partnership with Faraday Future, but apparently the LeSee was built completely in-house by LeEco.

Of course, this is just a part of the pie. Aside from its partnership with Faraday Future, the brand also has other electric vehicle->ke1030 projects going. It has an investment in Atieva and even has a partnership with Aston Martin.->ke13 LeEco isn’t exactly a big name in the automotive world yet, but now that it has unveiled the LeSee concept – not to mention that partnership with Aston Martin – the company might be making some kind of splash in the automotive world sooner than later.

Before we get too far off topic, let’s quit focusing on the future and other investments, and stay here in the present. We don’t know a whole lot about the LeSee concept yet, and it looks like it isn’t exactly a finished project. So, let’s take a better look at this interesting concept, what we know about it now, and a little about what might be coming in the near future.

Continue reading to learn more about the LeEco LeSee Concept.

Exterior

Most of the information we have about the LeSee, at this point, involves what the car actually looks like. As you can see from the images, the car has this massive LED light stripe integrated into the front fascia. More interesting than that, however, is that LeEco claims the front fascia is a smart screen that can will display important information when the vehicle is running. As part of a “private fleet,” the screen will display information regarding availability, and I would assume destination – similar to the way public transportation displays information. The car doesn’t have a hood, so the upper half is pretty much one piece.

To the sides, the car has an interesting body structure. Looking at the side of the car from the rear, it almost looks like it has a sleeve over it that stretches up and over the doors and below them. It gives the appearance of a vent just in front of the doors. Interestingly enough, there is also a cutout in the side skirts that further reinforces this look.

To the rear, things are smoother than on the sides. It looks like the windshield, roof, and rear window are all one large, curved piece of glass. It appears as if there is a small decklid that opens to give way to a rear storage compartment. Down below, the taillights are made up of another large LED strip – just like that used up front. Considering the car is all-electric, it’s shocking to see that there is a rear diffuser of sorts in the rear. This hints to me that, while it is all electric, it may also be a performance based model.

Interior

We can’t make out a whole lot of the inside, as we only have one image, but it certainly looks futuristic. There appears to be a large display screen mounted in the center of the dash that may extend across to the passenger side of the vehicle. It looks to have an odd steering wheel, and if there is an instrument cluster, it's short and long, and likely all digital. The wraparound effect of the dash does make the inside look spacious, but I’m not sure about what is going on in the rear.

Where the rear seats would be, looks like an oddly stacked continuation of the center console that covers the width of the interior. It does look like there is some kind of controller sticking out of the center console, which is probably used to control those two large screens on the back of the front seats. The only thing LeEco has said about the interior, aside from the fact that the steering wheel can fold down for automated driving, is that the car provides an “isolated area for each passenger.” The idea is that one passenger won’t be bothered by whatever the other is watching or listening to. It sounds a little farfetched to me, but I’m keeping an open mind about it for now.

Drivetrain

The drivetrain department is probably the most mysterious of all at this point. LeEco has remained completely quiet about what will power the car, and chances are it’s probably not a functional concept at this time. It did say that it has a “theoretical” top speed of 130 mph but failed to mention exactly how it would get there. Until more about the concept is known, we can only speculate, but if I had to guess, I would expect it to have two electric motors – one up front and one in the rear. That would make it all-wheel drive. With a top speed of only 130 mph, however, I suspect it will have a rather large battery pack which will hopefully lend a helping hand to the vehicle having a decent driving range.

Something else that was mentioned by LeEco was that automated driving technology is something that it “eventually wants to incorporate” into the LeSee. This has obviously been the plan all along, considering the steering wheel is already capable of folding down. Plus, with the side of the cabin and the way it is configured, it wouldn’t be that hard to allow the front seats to pivot around to face the rear.

Conclusion

Any time a new all-electric concept comes out, I’m excited to check it out. My biggest problem with this concept is that I think LeEco has revealed it a little too early. While we’ve seen what it looks like, we still know very little about it, which leads me to believe that the concept isn’t functional, and there is still plenty of work left to do on it. Secondly, maybe it’s just me, but this thing looks to me like it’s just a modified Tesla Model S.

Take a look at the side and rear glass, the shape of the rear end, and even the stance. Look at them side by side and the resemblance is uncanny. It actually looks like the LeSee is a Model S with a modified rear end, shortened doors, and a big metal sleeve placed over the front and lower sides to give it a different appearance. If the LeSee moves past the concept phase, I can already see the criticism it will receive for having a similar appearance.