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Enginer grows to 15 people in first two years of hybrid vehicle retrofit business
Thursday, February 17, 2011
| Source:
Metromode
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When oil prices started to spike a few years ago and $4-a-gallon gas was seen as a big problem, Jack Chen
came up with a
solution.
That solution
turned into
Enginer
, a Troy-based start-up developing technology that improves the fuel efficiency of hybrid vehicles. The company went from just Chen, a former automotive engineering consultant, to 15 people today. It shipped 200-300 of its retrofit units last year and is aiming to break the 1,000 barrier in 2011.
"We'd like to be a leader in the automotive conversion market," Chen says. "We're second to A123 Systems right now."
Chen and a small group of colleagues first developed the technology at the
X PRIZE
competition a few years ago. Now their automotive retrofits make hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius 40 percent more fuel efficient. The company sells these conversion kits for $3,500 apiece, which compares quite favorably to competing products that often demand five figures.
"A lot of people can afford our product," Chen says.
Source: Jack Chen, president & chief engineer of Enginer
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at
SEMichiganStartup.com
.
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