EV Engineering News

Motorcycle maker Brammo eyes electric car, 2015 IPO

Craig Bramscher, CEO of the Oregon-based electric motorcycle manufacturer Brammo, told Portland business leaders this week that he plans to take the company public by the middle of 2015.

Bramscher said Brammo has been meeting with some of the same investment bankers that helped take Tesla public. “It’s always next year, but Tesla showed there’s an appetite for it,” he said. “I’m hoping to do it late next year or in the middle of 2015.”

Brammo, which sells the Enertia and Empulse electric motorcycles, has raised about $17 million over the last two years. The company’s goal is to raise about $150 million in private funds, then another $150 million from an IPO. The funds could be used not only to further develop its motorcycle business, but also to produce an electric car. Bramscher said the company already has an EV prototype about 85 percent done.

Bramscher’s story has several things in common with a certain other EV entrepreneur. He sold a tech company called Dream Media for a tidy profit, then turned his attention to building the kind of electric car he’d like to buy.

“When I sold Dream Media on my very lucky day with the stock market, I thought I’d buy a ‘super-car,’” said the “pro athlete-sized” Bramscher. “It turned out my ‘petiteness’ wouldn’t fit into a Lamborghini or a Ferrari.”

His team spent several years working on an electric car that would satisfy Bramscher’s need for speed, but ended up taking the two-wheeled option. “It would sound better to say I was passionate about [environmentalism], but I was a gearhead,” he said. “We had all these tools for building a very fast car, but when we built this exotic one-person motorcycle and took it on the road, we thought, this is it.”  

 

Source: Sustainable Business Oregon via AutoBlog Green

Comment
Create Account. Already Registered? Log In

Virtual Conference on EV Infrastructure: Free to Attend

Don't miss our next Virtual Conference on December 4-6, 2023. Register for the free webinar sessions below and reserve your spot to watch them live or on-demand.

LOAD MORE SESSIONS

EV Engineering Webinars & Whitepapers

EV Tech Explained

The Tech

How to protect an EV’s on-board charger from transient grid surges

Will designating China as an “entity of concern” spur the development of US supply chains?

White House clarifies (sort of) EV tax credit eligibility rules for foreign companies

Researchers develop cobalt-free lithium-ion battery

The Vehicles & Infrastructure

FTC seeks public comment on its labeling requirements for public EV chargers

2 days left to join the Virtual Conference on EV Infrastructure

Swiss firm Designwerk presents container-sized Mega Charger for commercial EVs

Updated OpenADR communications standard helps utilities manage renewables and EV charging

Rivian launches leasing for R1T electric pickup truck in 14 states

EPRI’s new groundbreaking grid planning tool for electric transportation (Webinar)

Circontrol’s next-generation Raption EV chargers feature 240 kW of power, new user-friendly features

Rental companies account for a third of fossil cars sold in Norway

U.S. Steel pilots battery-electric locomotives

TeraWatt Infrastructure breaks ground on heavy-duty EV charging site near Port of Long Beach