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

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 meeting the customers core needs in very specific ways through improved reliability and then  creating new jobs to be done in the form of silent transport and portable power packs that change the basis of competition against other ICE options. 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 test heavy duty micromobility vehicles- The value of getting bikes into the hands of customers for real world feedback- The importance of quality in componentry in a heavy duty setting- The challenges incumbent manufacturers will face transitioning across to electric powertrains- How they think about distribution and servicing, and how that impacts the business- The story of fundraising for an electric motorbike manufacturer down in the middle of nowhere. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit micromobility.substack.com/subscribe