The author of this post owns an EV Global electric bike. EV Global was started in 1996 by auto industry giant Lee Iacocca. Thirty years earlier, in 1964, Lee Iacocca was an auto engineer at Ford, when he identified that there was a new generation of auto buyers, and they needed a new car, one that represented a change from the bloated utilitarian models which had dominated the market since the end of the Second World War, and which symbolized the freedom and adventure-loving spirit of the post-war baby boom generation. The product of this fresh thinking was the legendary Ford Mustang.
After spending ten more years at Ford developing new projects, including the highly prized Mustang Mach 1 Shelby, designed by renowned race car builder Carol Shelby, Lee Iacocca moved to Chrysler Corporation, the innovative car maker begun 100 years earlier by the brilliant, inventive German auto engineer, Walter Chrysler. It was now 1980, and Iacocca had identified the fact that the buyers of his iconic Ford Mustang had moved on in life, and were now married with children, and needed a practical vehicle which could haul parents and children in comfort from home to school to soccer practice. At Chrysler, Iacocca’s famous out-of the-box thinking produced another automotive industry first, the minivan.
Although minivan sales were brisk, Chrysler itself had become a bloated giant, forming alliances with foreign small car makers such as Mitsubishi and importing models from overseas that few Americans wanted. Meanwhile, they become infamous for poor quality control and lack of durability of the products that they produced back home in Detroit. The result was that by 1985, Chrysler was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
In a desperate attempt to save the company, Iacocca traveled to Washington D.C. to lobby the Congress for the financing needed to keep the company alive long enough to once again become profitable. The Congress grilled Iacocca for days about the excesses and shortcomings of Chrysler, then, staking their decision largely on Iacocca’s integrity and reputation, finally, said “Yes.” Iacocca returned to Detroit, where he designed a lean, inexpensive car designed to be produced quickly and at low cost. In a history-making moment, the so-called “K” car was born, and Iacocca had purchased a new lease on life for an aging auto giant.
EV Global was created by Iacocca to satisfy the world’s demand for economical and ecologically friendly transportation. Teaming up with the Giant Manufacturing Company of Taiwan, EV Global began producing battery-powered bikes in 1998.
Iacocca’s belief in the company was strong. He said “although wide scale production of electric cars is still not feasible, the market for electric bikes and scooters is huge.” It was reported that Iacocca had invested $600.000 of his own money in EV Global, and was drawing no salary. The first electric bikes shipped to dealers in March 1999. Iacocca predicted sales of 50,000 E-Bikes for the first year through bike shops and auto dealers.
There were several models of the ebike, which was equipped with a 35-pound, removable battery, and featured a top speed of 18 – 20 mph and a maximum range of approximately 16 miles. The selling price was approximately $1,200. At this time, Iacocca was looking at automobile dealers as the primary distributors of the ebike. But with the exception of environmentally-conscious California, and the retiree communities of Florida and Arizona, sales of the bike were slow in the United States. To try to boost sales, Iacocca signed with a company promising a network of 500 independent bicycle shops to market the ebike.
By September, EV Global had sold only 12,000 e-bikes, far less than Iacocca’s earlier projections. And the company had not made any money on the bikes that it did sell. By 2001 EV Global had emerged as the leading seller of electric bikes in the United States, outselling such competitors as Giant Bicycle and Currie, but it still couldn’t find a market for the bike anything like what Iacocca had expected.
What went wrong with the EV Global e-Bike? Looking back now, it appears that the electric bike was a very new product, and something that few people were aware of. Ironically, in countries like China and Taiwan, millions of people were riding bikes to work every day. But EV Global had set its sights on the United States market for their product, and even if they had tried expanding their market to Asia, it seems likely that the $1,500 USD price tag for the bike would have put it out of reach of most Asian buyers.
Admitting problems with the marketing of his electric bike, Iacocca moved on to market a new product, called the Lido. California’s strict laws requiring that automakers sell at least 2% non-polluting vehicles in 2003 seemed to provide the promise of boosting sales of electric cars, especially in California. But critics of the Lido said it looked more like an over-sized golf cart than a serious means of transportation. Regardless, the move away from bikes to cars turned the e-bike into an orphan, with no dealer network and no supply of replacement parts.
Today, you can still find EV Global bikes being sold on several of the various on-line auction sites for about half the original retail price. Although the sealed lead-acid battery technology is a bit outdated now, the bike has a solid, well-thought out design (would you expect anything less from Mr. Iacocca?), and is fun to ride. Any of the various EV Global models are a fine choice as an entry-level electric bike for a first-time buyer on a budget, and the bikes have earned a reputation for quality build and durability.
