Ann Arbor's Current Motor Co delivers first electric scooters

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 | Source: Concentrate

John Harding was Current Motor Co.'s first customer before the business even existed.

Harding wanted a sustainable electric scooter, but the only ones he could buy were powered by fossil fuels. So he and Erik Kauppi started Current Motor Co. last year on Ann Arbor's far west side.

"I wanted an electric vehicle," says John Harding, president of Current Motor Co. "I am a motorcyclist as well and a two-wheeler makes a lot of sense."

The company now employs 10 people from its headquarters on Jackson Road. There it puts together scooters --mostly from stock parts-- while creating its own electric package. They even issue their own vehicle-identification numbers. The company makes its first delivery of eight bikes to customers later this month.

"We're rolling out slowly," Harding says. "We're ramping up our marketing now that we have our first bikes out."

The next shipment of bikes will be sold out of the firm's new dealership at its headquarters, 6241 Jackson Road, which is set to open by the end of the month. Current Motor Co. expects to produce about 100-200 electric scooters within the next year. At the same time it plans to develop a national network of dealerships.

"2011 is when we want to grow that dealership network nationally and sell thousands of bikes," Harding says.

Source: John Harding, president of Current Motor Co.
Writer: Jon Zemke