Meet Eli Electric Vehicles, Next Gen Vehicles for the Mobility Revolution

The Offer Sheet readers —

We’re excited to share our most recent interview - we sat down with Eli Electric Vehicles founder and CEO Marcus Li. They happen to be building the next generation of vehicles in the coming mobility revolution.

We discussed what makes their vehicles so unique, how it’s going to solve the parking problem in urban centers, other use cases, the market opportunity, investments to date, growth, what’s in store for the future, and the chance to still invest in Eli Electric.

The story’s definitely a compelling one and that’s why we wanted to feature it. A tiny vehicle for your tiny STR. Hope you enjoy!

First off, why Eli Electric and what makes you guys so unique relative to other electric vehicles?

Prior to founding Eli, I worked in research and development for a large manufacturer of outdoor lawn and garden machinery, including golf carts.  It was here that I gained a passion for both design, but also the mobility and EV space.  However, I’m actually an architect by training, and I’ve always been fascinated by how technology and design can have a huge impact on how a city or population grows and evolves.  Look at what the invention of the elevator did for large cities, allowing them to expand upwards.  Cities were able to scale their populations and their economies as a result.  I view the micro-EV market as having a similar impact on our cities.  Cars are still designed for traveling long distances and carrying multiple people and/or pieces of cargo.  

I believe we need more, lower speed and shorter distance modes of transportation that will allow people to move freely around urban areas.  These will serve as a complement to higher speed, traditional automobiles, which will be used for transporting more people longer distances.  

That led me to launch Eli Electric, which we debuted publicly at CES in 2017.  I haven’t looked back ever since.

I can personally attest to the problem of parking (spending 10 minutes driving somewhere and an hour looking for parking) and often wishing I had a more compact vehicle that would fit the tight spaces of NYC and Brooklyn. Is that the kind of future you guys are thinking of?

Yes, that’s one of the use cases for micro-EVs and Eli Electric.  Over 75% of US car trips are under 10 miles and over half of US daily car trips are less than 3 miles.  With an average in city vehicle speed 15 miles per hour, why do we still rely on larger, less efficient vehicles for our daily drivers.  Your daily commuter in New York should be smaller.  It’s financially and environmentally inefficient for you to be driving anything else in a major metropolitan area.

What makes this such a massive market opportunity?

As you can see, there are so many use cases for micro-EVs: they are environmentally friendly, operationally efficient, easy to use, and economical.  This is a $470 billion market opportunity and growing.  Right now, in the transportation space, you have on one end, the market for very short trips that can be solved with scooters, electric bikes, traditional bicycles, etc.  This is what we call the micro-mobility market, currently worth approximately $200 billion.  Then on the other extreme, we have traditional automobiles, which are optimized and make the most sense for much longer trips. These cars aren’t economical from a cost and size perspective for shorter trips.  However now, there’s a huge, and growing, white space in between, which is where micro-EVs come into play.  There’s never been a bigger need for a more cost-efficient transportation option that allows a consumer to drive a shorter distance much more easily and economically.  And this is only the beginning.

It seems that in terms of use cases, you see this as more than just vehicles for urban commutes with applications like vehicle sharing, corporate fleets, last mile delivery, etc. Can you tell us a bit more?

Exactly, one of the best examples is the Avis Rental Car in Bora Bora, where we found a great use case for our Eli ZERO.  There, it not only serves as a mode of transportation for the local population, but also powers part of the Avis fleet.  The size, ease of use, lack of maintenance, and cost makes the Eli ZERO the perfect fit for out of town travelers to move freely around the island.  So with Bora Bora, we found a perfect dual-use case: island transportation for the local population and to serve tourism.

We absolutely have recognized the need for our cars to serve a multitude of purposes, including campus/school transportation, hotel fleets, corporate fleets, courier services, and more.  The micro-EV market will only grow and become an even bigger part of our lives.

What type of investments have you received to date?

To date, we have raised over $6,000,000 from over 3,000 investors.  We’ve been lucky enough to raise capital from the general public through equity crowdfunding and from traditional investors.

Can readers of The Offer Sheet invest, and are there any special perks?

Yes absolutely, you can actually invest now by visiting invest.eli.world.  You can invest for as little $793, and based on how much you invest, you’re eligible to earn additional free shares.  You can also earn some fun Eli-related perks, like merchandise and even a free Eli ZERO. 

Also, if you invest by April 4, you can earn an additional 5% free shares.

Can you tell us a bit about your growth and vehicle sales to date? It seems that you have focused sales in Europe thus far and are looking to get kicked off in the US this year? When can I buy one haha?

Yes, we started out in Europe and saw great traction and now we’re at 6 countries, with more to announce soon.  Yes, we are launching in the United States this year, and we can’t be more excited about this new market.  We’ll be accepting pre-orders shortly, with delivery following later in the year.

Can you tell us about how you are able to get efficiencies in scale with your production model and partnerships?

Yes, absolutely.  This is one of the exciting things about Eli that makes us unique in the market. We’ve designed our cars to be able to work with a variety of supply chain and production partners.  Better upfront design equals a more efficient production process.  We’ve assembled a set of supply chain partners that can deliver parts and sub-assemblies that require less manufacturing work upon delivery to our production partners.  Our simplified production process, which in part is made possible by a less complicated supply chain, allows us to be able to work with a variety of manufacturers.  This flexibility in production allows us to be nimble as we seek to grow our production from a volume and a location perspective.  We are able to work with a larger number of partners, allowing us to scale more easily across the globe.

What’s on the product roadmap? Do you expect to grow beyond the first model?

Right now we are hyper focused on growing the sales of our Eli ZERO and integrating new features and technologies.  As we continue to improve the performance of our core model, we will start to explore a variety of new models, which will include a goal of expanding into emerging markets.  These new models will be able to service a variety of needs, including for different consumers in different countries, and eventually for corporate and commercial purposes.

It sounds like you might customize models in the future based on the unique locations it might serve?

Yes, exactly.  Different markets and countries may have different needs for a micro-EV.  There’s the obvious example of a right-hand side drive car versus a left-hand side, where we will want to offer both models across the globe.  Beyond that however, there’s a reason and argument to offering different size cars, with different storage sizes and capacities in different countries based on specific geographic and demographic needs.  Style and design preferences can differ across regions, as can the need for varying degrees of cooling and heating, depending on the climate you are in.  These are all of the things we are thinking about as we look to expand globally.

Where do you see Eli Electric Vehicles in 5-10 years? What are the ultimate ambitions? 

Well I hope I see them everywhere in 5-10 years!  Jokes aside, I hope to see the micro-EV market as a whole significantly larger than it is today, since it’s clear the benefits that micro-EVs can have on a population, a city, and the environment as a whole.  And I hope that Eli Electric is leading the charge.

And what about a potential exit for investors that invest today?

Well it’s always difficult to promise anything, but we hope that over time as Eli continues to grow its revenue and its reach, that new strategic opportunities come our way.  Those could manifest as an opportunity to get acquired by a larger brand or a path to a public offering.  We’ll keep focusing on growing the business and offering the best micro-EV in the market.