Heavy-duty micromobility - the story of Ubco with CEO Timothy Allan

Oliver Bruce
Podcast
November 13, 2020

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This week Oliver interviews a fellow kiwi, Timothy Allan, CEO of Ubco,about their heavy duty electric motorbikes. While the firm is small -they’ve sold a bit more than a thousand units across NZ, Europe and the US- it ticks a few interesting disruptive innovation boxes, mainly by meetingthe customers core needs in very specific ways through improved reliabilityand then creating new jobs to be done in the form of silent transport andportable power packs that change the basis of competition against other ICEoptions.Specifically, they dig into:- The history of the Ubco brand/motorbikes in 2014/15- Why farming environments in New Zealand are the perfect place to testheavy duty micromobility vehicles- The value of getting bikes into the hands of customers for real worldfeedback- The importance of quality in componentry in a heavy duty setting- The challenges incumbent manufacturers will face transitioning across toelectric powertrains- How they think about distribution and servicing, and how that impacts thebusiness- The story of fundraising for an electric motorbike manufacturer down inthe middle of nowhere.

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