SINGAPORE — In 2019, when Mr James Chan wished to embark on a brand new enterprise enterprise — of promoting electric bikes — he felt it was solely pure for him to zoom in on the Indonesia market.
After all, from his frequent journeys to Jakarta in his earlier job, he observed that motorbikes have been the principle mode of transport in the crowded metropolis, in contrast to on Singapore roads the place there have been largely automobiles.
The 40-year-old entrepreneur additionally felt that in Singapore, rules to get autos road-safe are too strict.
“I can’t test my bikes legally on the roads in Singapore because it’s not a vehicle yet… The only leeway I could get was to test on private roads,” he mentioned.
But this could imply additional prices for transporting the car to the placement in addition to paying for the utilization of the personal roads.
“Here, we are held to the same standards as incumbent motorbike giants. As a startup I just don’t have the resources to compete with that,” mentioned Mr Chan.
Indonesia had additionally laid out formidable plans on electric car (EV) adoption, with President Joko Widodo in 2019 pledging authorities help to construct an EV trade in Indonesia together with extra incentives for imported and domestically produced EVs.
This includes decrease taxes for producers and patrons of EVs.
Along with the excessive bike utilization, Mr Chan mentioned it was “hard to ignore a market like that”.
So in the identical 12 months, regardless of having an illustrious profession beginning out as a authorities scholar earlier than shifting into enterprise capitalism and monetary know-how, he determined to threat all of it to begin Ion Mobility — an organization that produces digital motorbikes, with a deal with the Indonesian market.
BUMPY START
But the street to constructing their first electric bike was something however easy.
“For startups, it’s always like you’re jumping off the cliff and trying to fold the paper aeroplane before you crash,” Mr Chan mentioned.
He additionally discovered that there was no prepared pool of expertise he may faucet in Singapore with related experience in electrical autos.
This meant that he had to forged his nets wider, bringing folks from abroad onboard.
For occasion, he employed two engineers from Vietnam and one other from Kazakhstan.
He recalled the problem of constructing a worldwide crew in the center of the pandemic, consisting of 42 members from locations together with Singapore, Malaysia, Hanoi, Jakarta, Shenzhen, Kazakhstan and India.
The crew had to depend on video calls to coordinate, plan and construct their first prototype remotely since journey was restricted on the time.
“After over a year of working together, I finally met a few of my team members for the first time in-person last December,” he mentioned with fun.
But the crew managed to pull by and inside 18 months of conceptualising, designing and assembling, their first electric bike referred to as the ION Mobius was constructed — solely in Singapore. It was unveiled final December at JTC LaunchPad @ One-North.
The Mobius, which has a prime pace of 110km/h, may have three completely different using modes to cut back vary nervousness — the worry of working out of energy whereas driving an electric car and never having the ability to discover a charging level on time.
Riders will likely be ready to journey between 120km and 200km on a single cost relying on their using type.