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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

One-Person Car Dealer

Jerry Kroll has a simple if daunting mission for his Canadian electric vehicle company – to close the last gas station. To do that, Electra Meccanica Vehicle Corp. is bringing to the U.S. the Solo, a single-passenger all-electric vehicle to be sold starting this month from the company’s first dealership in Studio City at 11685 Ventura Blvd.  “Once you test drive it, you wonder why these things haven’t been around for the last 20 years,” Kroll said. Anthony Luzi, the director of U.S. operations for Vancouver-based Electra Meccanica, said that when the Solo is on the road, other drivers take notice and become distracted by its odd shape – it appears to be half a car because of the three-wheeled configuration. “Even on the freeway they are yelling out their window at you,” Luzi added. “With that kind of excitement and enthusiasm, especially with us being so unique, everybody wants one.” Electra Meccanica started trading on the Nasdaq in August under the symbol SOLO, having raised net proceeds of $9.1 million from a public offering. The company had previously been listed on the over-the-counter market. The purpose of the public listing is for the benefit of people who want to see more electric cars that use clean energy and not fossil fuels, Kroll said. “This gives everybody the chance to join the company and own a part of the action as things move forward,” he explained. The Solo, which costs less than $17,000, is just the first of three models Electra Meccanica plans to produce. There is also the Tofino, a two-seat sports car to be available starting next year and carrying a price tag of $50,000, and the eRoadster, also a two-seater and modeled after the Porsche Speedster that costs a hefty $125,000. Electra Meccanica’s subsidiary, Intermeccanica, has been making a gas-powered version of the Roadster for decades. “Even as a prototype, the look and performance are remarkable, and it is only uphill from there,” Luzi said of the eRoadster. Single-gear acceleration But it is the Solo that Kroll and Luzi are promoting first, a lightweight car powered by lithium ion batteries that can charge in as little as three hours with a range of 100 miles. The vehicle comes with all the amenities expected these days – air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, LED headlights, keyless entry and rear-view backup camera. Its top speed is more than 80 miles per hour. For an electric car, the Solo has a lot of power. One hundred percent of the torque of the electric motor is available the minute you accelerate and there is no reason to shift gears. “It has one gear and that is quick,” Kroll said. Kroll and Intermeccanica President Henry Reisner, son of the founder, co-founded Electra Meccanica in 2015 and worked with Luzi to bring about the Solo, which is based on a previous small, electric vehicle that Luzi had been involved with called the Sparrow, made by Corbin Motors. “It has history, it has tested tried and true in the marketplace,” Luzi said. “The Solo has come out of that DNA from the late ’90s in that same three-wheeled, single-passenger concept.” Electra Meccanica currently makes the cars at its Canadian factory but is working with a Chinese company to begin manufacturing the vehicle as well. There are three primary markets to which Electra Meccanica will market the Solo. The first is the large number of people – Kroll puts the number at 140 million – who commute by themselves on a daily basis. The second is the car-share community, and the third is urban courier delivery services, such as Amazon.com Inc. and Deutsche Post AG, which operates DHL Express. “It makes a wonderful delivery vehicle because it has a surprising amount of cargo space,” Kroll said. Jeremy Acevedo, manager of industry analysis for Edmunds.com, the online vehicle information provider in Santa Monica, said that the company seems to be going after a market niche that he imagines to be small. Then there are the limitations of the vehicle with it being a tiny, one-seater that is quite the opposite of what the U.S. car-buying public wants, which is larger vehicles. “It is targeting folks who commute but the broad base of people who use their vehicle for commuting are still electing to buy a record number of trucks and SUVs,” Acevedo said. In August, 70 percent of U.S. vehicle sales were SUVs, trucks and vans compared to cars, he added. Edmunds.com expects this year to set a record for sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. Last year, 1 percent of national car sales were plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, a figure forecast to go to 2 percent this year, Acevedo said. The number does not include traditional hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius, he added. Both Luzi and Kroll expect sales to be brisk from the new Studio City dealership due to drivers here at the forefront of the alternative fuel vehicle trend. Kroll said that a second dealership will open next year in the San Francisco area while Luzi hopes in that time to set up a manufacturing plant, probably in California.

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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