B.C. single-seat automaker aims to break into the electric car market
CBC News | Posted: January 14, 2017 9:00 PM | Last Updated: January 15, 2017
New Westminster's Electra Meccanica designs single-seat cars that are sold world-wide
Jerry Kroll is no stranger to getting behind the wheel.
He's a race-car driver by trade, and has represented numerous professional motorists, including the late B.C. driver Greg Moore.
Kroll is also the CEO of Electra Meccanica, a local company aiming to bring a single-seat electric car to the global electric car market.
"My background is motor sports — and all the cars a race car driver wants to drive are single seaters," he told host Gloria Macarenko on CBC's Our Vancouver.
"Applying that to the commuter world, [where] many people are driving by themselves... it just made a lot of sense."
A different kind of commute
Kroll says 83 per cent of people drive by themselves in a typical four-person car that occupies a full parking spot.
But his brainchild, the three-wheeled single-seater called Solo, takes less than half of that space and still offers the driver enough room for a full cart of groceries in the trunk.
He thinks it's the next step in the evolution of vehicles.
"You don't use your laptop when you walk along the sidewalk to check your e-mail. You use a smaller device that's mission specific."
The vehicle is approved for highway use and can reach a speed of 130 km/h. It takes about four hours to fully charge the lithium ion battery after it's been fully drained.
The first fleet of Kroll's Solo is being built in collaboration with world-renowned coach builder Intermeccanica.
While Intermeccanica has long specialized in building replica Porsche Speedsters and Roadsters, the company is now turning its attention to the mass market with Solo.
"You've got businesses wanting to use this as a delivery vehicle," Kroll said, adding that it's also a perfect fit for new drivers since they won't be distracted by passengers,
He said they are looking into making an autonomous model that would be driverless.
The Solo retails for $20,000 each and Kroll said he hopes to have 200,000 of the vehicles built within the next twelve months.
Click here to watch Kroll chat with Gloria Macarenko
With files from CBC's Our Vancouver