transport founded 2010 headquarters san francisco us key people daniel kim products electric vehicles website litmotors.com lit motors inc. is a san francisco based company that designs two wheeled vehicles including a fully electric gyroscopically stabilized vehicle . 1 founded by daniel k. kim in 2010 lit motors designs two wheeled vehicles with a focus on innovative and disruptive technologies . to date they have released information about two projects the aev auto balancing electric vehicle often referred to as the c 1 and the kubo cargo scooter . the inspiration for lit motors came to kim in 2003 when he was nearly crushed by a chassis while manually assembling a bio diesel land rover defender 90 . 2 kim decided to chop a car in half to create what is now the c 1 . 3 contents 1 designs 1.1 aev c 1 1.1.1 production timeline 1.2 kubo 2 see also 3 references 4 external links designs edit aev c 1 edit c 1 early in 2010 the company revealed a non functioning show model of the c 1 . the design vision showcased an enclosed two wheeled vehicle self balanced by two single gimbal control moment gyroscopes 4 to be powered by lithium iron phosphate batteries . design specifications indicated that it could hold a second passenger though no model or pictures other than computer renderings showed more than single passenger capacity . computer renderings of a two passenger model indicate that the tight space would likely not be suitable for long trips as the area behind the driver s seat is very limited in a semi reclined position with legs straddling the front seat . similar to a motorcycle the original c 1 design has two wheels but uses a small steering wheel instead of handlebars . direct drive in hub motors in both wheels were designed to provide a high amount of torque stability and traction control while allowing for the body form to be about half the size of a car . the alpha prototype shows both wheels without direct drive and only a single person capacity indicating that the design may be undergoing changes . 5 6 safety features were intended to include a steel unibody chassis seat belts airbags and a gyroscope stability system . 1 release balancing gyroscope torque gyroscope spin up motor output top speed range per charge charge time 2018 800nm 7 70 seconds 20 kw 100 mph at least 150 miles 4 6 hrs production timeline edit in 2011 the company announced plans for a first small production run in 2013 with the intention of selling the c 1 for 16 000 . 8 this initial price was typically referred to as 24 000 but varied depending on the state and federal tax incentives available at the time . the company began taking pre order deposits through a tiered system priced from 250 to 10 000 . 9 at the november 2012 gigaom roadmap conference a lit representative that the company had another couple years engineering works before it s really ready to go on a small scale production . by a couple i mean a year two years or so and then another couple years after that to scale to a big manufacturing . 10 in a later interview by gigaom daniel kim stated that the c 1 was still about 2 to 2.5 years from production . 11 the may 28 2013 interview date meant that he was expecting the c 1 to be produced around may november 2015 . in may 2014 kim said his company was working around the clock to get a product that is ready for production within eight months with 20 full time employees . 12 however february 2015 passed without any indication that production had started . while lit posted a few updates in 2015 they were all for a prototype that still appeared to be far from ready for production . in february 2016 forbes released an article which lit motors promoted including a new production timeline . 13 today daniel kim is close to securing a new round of funding a year later than planned . the money will be used to facilitate the next challenging stage of growth building infrastructure from the ground up . his plan is to have a production ready prototype in 24 months . the oft mentioned 2 year timeline remained despite no outwardly visible progress . on may 24 2016 at the pioneers.io festival 14 danny kim presented on the lit aev stating i know that if we put 20 million dollars into our bank account today we ll be able to deliver it in 2 years 24 months . this yet again uses the 2 year timeline that lit is locked into every time the question arises . company postings on social media show only a rough model alpha prototype driven at low speed . with limited pictures and videos of an unfinished single seat vehicle driven at low speeds and with audio removed from videos critics are wary to expect that a production model can be built in the next few years . despite consistent remarks of this project being vaporware lit staff continue to insist that production is upcoming and continue to accept pre order deposits . deposit refunds initially incurred a 15 % fee but lit is now offering refunds without penalty . kubo edit the kubo is a cargo scooter design dubbed the pick up truck of the developing world . 15 initial designs were for a fully electric scooter run on lithium iron phosphate batteries designed to carry cargo boxes measuring up to 22 in . by 22 in . by 22 in . and weighing up to 300 pounds . with a top speed of 35 mph it would have a range of at least 50 miles per charge . 16 in an interview from may 28 2013 kim detailed the kubo as using lithium polymer batteries with a 40 45 mile range with the ability to use the cargo space to hold additional batteries to extend the range to 200 miles . he claimed that by summer of 2013 a small production run of 5 10 units would occur followed by 100 1000 units in another 6 months time before ramping up to 50 000 200 000 units for full production . he also claimed a selling price of 500 800usd in china and 2000 4000 in the united states . 11 in december 2013 kubo was launched on kickstarter with july 2014 delivery expected but lit fell far short of meeting its funding goal with only 56 667 pledged of the 300 000 goal . 17 despite only 10 backers having pledged between 5 000 and 6 000 to purchase the kubo scooter lit affirmed that they are definitely continuing with kubo in an update on the campaign . the project was later silently dismissed and appears to have been abandoned as the company s website has only one mention of kubo which directs to a blank page . see also edit elio motors aptera motors peraves 18 toyota i road yamaha tricity references edit a b lavrinc damon 2012 05 29 . exclusive this is the gyro stabilized two wheeled future of transportation autopia . wired.com . retrieved 2012 06 15 . carpenter susan 2012 05 26 . lit motors hopes its c 1 becomes new personal transportation option . tribune newspapers . retrieved 2012 06 15 . daniel kim . fortune presentation . youtube . retrieved 2012 06 15 . lit motors unveils all electric fully enclosed motorcycle . youtube . 2011 09 12 . retrieved 2012 08 06 . gyro stabilized electric motorcycle hits road . los angeles times . 2012 10 16 . retrieved 2012 12 11 . it will take a baby elephant to knock over this bike . click tv programme . 2012 12 11 . retrieved 2012 12 11 . cmgs for self balancing motorcycle pdf . cayuga astronautics . retrieved 17 december 2015 . lit motors unveils all electric fully enclosed motorcycle . youtube . smartplanet . retrieved 15 december 2015 . world s first gyroscopically stabilized electric motorcycle virtually uncrashable . discovery channel . 2012 03 21 . retrieved 2012 06 15 . lit motors c 1 fully electric self balancing two wheeled vehicle at gigaom roadmap roadmapconf . armdevices.net . retrieved 15 december 2015 . a b green overdrive lit motor s electric folding scooter . youtube . gigaom . retrieved 15 december 2015 . two wheeled electric vehicle builder lit motors finds funding from mark pincus and kelly slater . forbes . retrieved 15 december 2015 . liane yvkoff what immobility taught this transportation ceo about mobility forbes 18 february 2016 a mobility sensation on two wheels . pioneers.io . retrieved 14 june 2016 . lit motors foldable electric scooter is a cargo carrier for developing nations . trendsupdates.com . retrieved 2012 08 06 . domenick yoney . lit motors looks to light up electric vehicle market with cargo scooter video . autobloggreen . retrieved 2012 06 15 . meet kubo an electric scooter to carry all your stuff . kickstarter.com . retrieved 2013 11 23 . https peraves.wordpress.com external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to lit motors . official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title lit motors & oldid 743700906 categories electric vehicle manufacturersmanufacturing companies based in san francisco2010 establishments in californiaexperimental and prototype gyroscopic vehicleshidden categories commons category with page title same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article 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