Electra Meccanica Eyes Global Market with New Vehicles

Vancouver-based Electra Meccanica (NASDAQ:SOLO) has its eyes on the global market with two of its upcoming cars, Tofino and SOLO.

At the Extraordinary Future Conference in Vancouver last week,Electra Meccanica held a presentation where it provided an update on the company’s plans with the two vehicles and its non-ground based vehicles.

The Investing News Network (INN) had the chance to speak with Jerry Kroll, CEO of Electra Meccanica, who provided a teaser on the company’s future. Kroll spoke of the company’s two cars—the two-seater Tofino, which is set for commercial delivery by 2020, and the single-seater SOLO, which is scheduled for mass delivery later this year.

Tofino is an all electric sports car that is up for pre-order on the company’s site. Specifications include performance between 0-100 kilometers per hour (kph) in seven seconds with a total range of 400 KM. With a base price of C$50,000 and a top speed of 200 kph, Kroll said that Tofino has had a “massive success” in pre-orders.

“There’s a large amount of big players looking to work with us on that vehicle,” Kroll said told INN. “In our development pipeline, we have lots of other vehicles, not all of them are ground based vehicles.”

In mid-August, the company reported its financial results for the second quarter where Electra Meccanica said that the pre-order booking of SOLO and Tofino is in excess of C$2.4 billion.

SOLO, the company’s brainchild to emerge as the major participant in the electric vehicles market, has an operating range of 160 kilometers (km) with a top speed of 130 kph.

On that note, the company announced on Wednesday (September 26), that it has entered final stages of setting up its production line which has the capacity to manufacture 75,000 SOLOs over the next three years.

Solo Assembly Plant #1 is ready for launch! pic.twitter.com/kzvAe7x0Kz

— Jerry Kroll (@jerrykroll) September 26, 2018

“It’s an amazing car,” Kroll said. “Our chassis for SOLO is made up of aluminium honeycomb composite, the same kind of material you’d find on a Formula 1 race car.”

According to Kroll, the car delivered “amazing results,” especially on side impact tests where SOLO withstood 10 times the required force of side impact for certification. This means that car is fully compliant on any road conditions.

Further, Kroll said that the aluminium honeycomb structure—which is light but strong—will be used as a standard material to build cars in the future.

The single seater is undergoing several compliance testing as the company is looking to launch the car across the world. However, SOLO has already received its federal certification in the US earlier this year, which is one of the primary launch markets along with Canada.

“Los Angeles, San Francisco [and]Seattle [are] massive markets for our car and electric vehicles. They’re the ones that are going to get best returns on investments for our shareholders,” Kroll said. “We are exploring all markets. We have taken 15,000 orders from around the world.”

Earlier in September, the company announced a partnership with 7-Eleven Canada with two SOLOs taking to the streets of Vancouver to promote 7-Eleven’s delivery service. Electra Meccanica said that the collaboration has the potential to expand in the future due to the wide presence of the convenience store in 17 countries.

Kroll said that urban deliveries is one of the target areas for the car with the others being commuters and car sharing.

The company could also be a huge beneficiary with the latest announcement from the B.C. government which said an additional C$10 million will be pumped into the Clean Energy Vehicle Program (CVEP). The move translates to additional incentives of C$5,000 on the purchase of a new battery electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

With the move, the NDP government has made it easier for those in the province to purchase an electric vehicle as the province seeks reduce greenhouse emissions by 40 percent from the 2007 levels.

Shares of Electra Meccanica closed the trading session at US$2.45 on Wednesday (September 26) with the company losing more than 30 percent in the last month. On TradingView, the company has a “Sell” ranking with 15 verticals against, three in favor and eight neutral.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Bala Yogesh, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in contributed article. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.