By: Matt Brueggeman (8 minute read)
It doesn’t make sense to drive a 4,000 pound vehicle a mile to get a quart of milk. A car is great for long distance transportation, raising kids and hauling stuff, but for an individual’s short distance transportation it is not a good fit. We all know it, but there isn’t an alternative built for existing infrastructure that is convenient. So, most people just get in the car and go driving past their neighbors, instead of interacting with them, along the way. We at Flux believe there is a better way, and that is why we developed the Flux EM1 to be Your Local Ride.
FLUX MOPEDS PRODUCES SMALL ELECTRIC VEHICLES FOR SHORT DISTANCE TRANSPORTATION.
First, a quick intro to who we are. Flux Mopeds produces small electric vehicles for short distance transportation and our flagship is the Flux EM1, an electric moped that tops out at 38 mph and gets up to 50 miles per charge.
MATT BRUEGGEMAN, CO-FOUNDER OF FLUX, GREW UP DRIVING SUVS BUT THEN TRAVELED ABROAD AND SAW THE WORLD FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.
My name is Matt Brueggeman, co-founder and CEO of Flux Mopeds. Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, my family had 3 large SUVs for 3 people. Regardless if we were hauling concrete, which to be honest I only did once, or driving three blocks to see a friend, we drove. Want a coffee? Jump in the car. It was the way I interacted with the outside world. I studied Chinese in college and after graduating moved to Beijing, China. The sheer volume of small electric vehicles on the road in China was awe inspiring. It didn’t take but a minute on my travels to discover that the way people transport themselves in the US is different than many other places in the world, and I found myself asking why. Structurally speaking there are a number of technical reasons but, at its most basic level, infrastructure is the personification of a country’s culture and priorities. Our culture’s cornerstone in the United States is the importance of the individual, where in China the conscience is more collective. What works in the United States won’t work in China and vis versa, but my experience made it clear to me that a car doesn’t have to be the only mode of transportation and that there is another way.
A COMMUNITY IS A GROUP OF PEOPLE WITH COMMUNALITY WHO PROVIDE A SAFE SPACE AND SUPPORT TO THEIR FELLOW COMMUNITY MEMBERS.
Looking back on growing up, I felt, for lack of a better phrase, lonely. Although constantly around people and having loving family and friends with whom I grew up, I never felt a close connection with a community. The standard mode of transportation, a car, exacerbates that feeling by driving past, but not interacting with, fellow humans. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown, among other things, that the vast majority of people want a physical connection and that online communities can’t replace the human touch. I believe that subtle changes can have a huge impact and simply using a different type of vehicle for transportation around our local communities could be profoundly beneficial.
IF WE USE LESS ENERGY TO GET AROUND, IT IS EASIER FOR OUR COMMUNITIES TO BE INDEPENDENT AND SUSTAINABLE.
The problem with climate change is that it is such a gigantic issue that it is very difficult for any one person to point at one thing and say, “see, that’s a problem caused by X and we need to change because of it.” My viewpoint on the environment has always been the same. Our home, the planet Earth, only has so much stuff. Once that stuff is gone, it is gone. If humans continue to consume at the current rate, one day, probably sooner than we would like, the stuff we depend on to run modern society will be gone. To sustain modern society we need to produce as much as we consume. Transportation seems as good a place to start as any, and if we use less energy to get around our local communities it makes our consumption easier to offset.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES ARE EASIER TO OWN AND OPERATE THAN GAS VEHICLES.
The environment, the value of advanced technology, better performance, cost of operation, etc. have been identified as reasons to make the leap to electric vehicles, but in my opinion the reason is actually far more straight forward. Electric vehicles are easier to own and operate because they require only a fraction of the maintenance gas vehicles require. With that said though, a car can’t help from being a car. Simply replacing the power train from gas to electric on the same basic vehicle that has been driven for a century misses the opportunity that this type of transition presents. Taking the infrastructure built for gas automobiles, chief among which is gas stations, and swapping it out for charging stations is plain silly. That viewpoint negates the strength of electric vehicles by pigeonholing them in order to recreate what we have instead of envisioning what can be. Gas automobiles were likened to a mechanized horse that provided a full tank of freedom in order to explore the new frontier. However, now that the frontier has been discovered what’s next?
AMERICANS NEED A SMALL ELECTRIC VEHICLE FOR INFRASTRUCTURE AS IT EXISTS TODAY.
In developing a small electric vehicle, there are 2 basic approaches to take: 1) use an existing platform to study and prove the market and then grow or 2) raise a significant sum to develop a vehicle from scratch. Over the past decade, we’ve seen a number of companies try both approaches. The problem with the second approach is that the small electric vehicle market is in its embryonic stage of development making market expectation virtually unknown. Any company developing a small electric vehicle must make major guesses early on in the design process which can have a significant effect downstream. Case in point: the Segway. We chose the first approach because we believe that Americans do not yet live on a spaceship and that we need to build a vehicle for infrastructure as it exists in the real world, not a fantasy world.
THE FLUX EM1 IS A RELIABLE SMALL ELECTRIC VEHICLE WITH A TRACK RECORD THAT HAS PROVEN TO BE EXTREMELY LOW MAINTENANCE.
The entire idea behind our strategy was to use an existing small electric vehicle model to better understand the market in the United States, so that one day we could develop our own. What we didn’t know was exactly how difficult this would be to achieve. There are a number of “electric mopeds” available in China, but we determined early on that we could not directly import because of a vastly different “culture” of quality. In China, if a bracket breaks the rider takes it to the guy on the corner to get it fixed, but in the US it is considered a serious liability concern. We needed to control our own engineering, which is not sexy, but vital to produce a vehicle upon which our clients can rely. After literally twelve years of development and hundreds of thousands of miles ridden, over 75% of the Flux EM1’s components are now Flux intellectual property. The result of all of this work is that the Flux EM1 has proven to be a reliable small electric vehicle for short distance transportation that has extremely low maintenance. The battery is so reliable in fact that our manufacturer warranties it with battery replacement for two years.
DRIVING A CAR SHORT DISTANCES DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.
Upon opening our dealership in 2014, our focus was first to talk with people, listen and learn about the problems they experience. We started to see sales all across the nation, not just in the urban areas where we expected, but in smaller towns as well. Through thousands of personal interviews with individuals throughout the country, we discovered that there is a similar sense among people that getting in the car and going, no matter the destination, is just the way it is. People agree that a car makes sense for long distance transportation (e.g., seeing family on the weekends, going fishing, etc.). However, for short distance transportation a car isn’t the best option because of the hassle of dealing with parking and traffic congestion combined with the cost of maintenance and ownership. It doesn’t make sense to drive a 4,000 pound vehicle a mile to get a quart of milk.
THE PROBLEMS PEOPLE ENDURE BECAUSE OF THE FORCED REALITY THAT OWNING A CAR IS NECESSARY TO SURVIVAL ARE ABSURD.
Our research opened my eyes to the vast amount of absurd problems that people have just become accustomed to because of the forced reality that owning, operating and parking a car is necessary for survival. One client told us that he had to get to work at 5am just to get a parking spot because his company’s parking lot isn’t big enough for every employee’s car. Another had to pop out of work every two hours to move her car to the other side of the street to prevent getting a ticket. Yet another drove into work only to have to park at a remote lot, and wait for a shuttle bus to pick him and his colleagues up. Parking problems, traffic, insurance, vehicle service, and all of the expenses and responsibilities of car ownership are enough to drive anyone bonkers. It’s not to say that owning a car doesn’t have value. It does. But, it’s value is the freedom it provides for long distance transportation, raising kids and hauling stuff. A car, regardless if it is gas or electric, doesn’t make sense for an individual’s short distance transportation around his/her community. It is not the right application of the technology. It’s like using a chainsaw to cut a loaf of bread.
THERE IS A BETTER WAY. THE FLUX EM1 IS YOUR LOCAL RIDE.
I have spent twelve years working on this business and that simple fact begs the obvious question; why? The first part of the answer is because I know there is a better way. The Flux EM1 solves annoying problems because it is the perfect balance of range, charge time and speed for short distance transportation. It is a blast to ride, easy to park, easy to haul and extremely low maintenance. The Flux EM1 is Your Local Ride. But the second part of the answer gets to the heart of who we want to be as a people. On a small electric vehicle like the Flux EM1, a person is more likely to keep their money, when possible, within the community by supporting local business thereby building vibrant and eclectic communities. Moreover, because a person on a vehicle like the Flux EM1 is more vulnerable and not protected by a shield of armor unnecessary for community transportation, it is more likely that person will give the same patience to others that he/she would like to receive in return. There is a reason why the concept of “treat others the way you would like to be treated” is called The Golden Rule.
WE KNEW WE WERE RIGHT BUT GETTING THE BALL ROLLING ON THE MARKETING FRONT HAS BEEN VERY DIFFICULT.
The most difficult part of this enterprise has been to determine how to get the ball rolling from a marketing perspective. Our data and early sales indicated a range of possible interested markets. We tried a number of different strategies to reach out, but found that most people get in the car and go, regardless of destination, making the concept of short distance transportation unfamiliar. Even though the argument that it doesn’t make sense to drive a 4,000 pound vehicle a mile to get a quart of milk resonates, most people don’t understand exactly how a small electric vehicle like the Flux EM1 benefits an individual person. Proving the benefit is clearly possible but will take significant effort. During our research, we discovered that for RV owners the value of short distance transportation is already established for around the campsite and to town. Flux is able to provide a short distance transportation alternative to hauling a car cross country. For that reason, we have pivoted our short and medium term marketing strategy in order to focus on servicing the needs of RV owners.
AN EFFECTIVE MESSAGE CANNOT COME FROM OUTSIDE THE COMMUNITY, IT MUST COME FROM WITHIN.
Our long term strategy is to prove that there is a better way to get around short distances in local communities and that the Flux EM1 is Your Local Ride. We are listening to our clients who tell us that self-sustaining small and medium sized communities with neighborhood traffic patterns, an average one way travel distance of less than seven miles, and a vibrant town center is the best place to focus. Communities like Verona, Middleton, Shorewood, and Oshkosh in Wisconsin as well as communities throughout the country like Rockville, Maryland, Elmhurst, Illinois, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Sanger, Texas, and Fayetteville, Arkansas are a diverse group of examples. All of these examples are very different of course, but that is the point. Each community is unique, and therefore short distance transportation will play a slightly different role in each accordingly. To accomplish this we are going to need help from allies who understand their own communities. An effective message cannot come from outside the community, it must come from within.
WE DEVELOPED THE STREET PILOT PROGRAM TO PROMOTE THE VALUE OF SHORT DISTANCE TRANSPORTATION.
We have developed a prototype strategy that we call the Street Pilot program, which simply put, is a referral program. An excited and happy client is our best sales person and we offer $100 for each successful sales referral. However, at a deeper level, the Street Pilot program is a way by which to work with like-minded believers in our vision of independent and sustainable communities bound together by Your Local Ride. Street Pilots order the Flux EM1, ride it around their communities, and work with us to develop grassroots marketing strategies that will resonate with their neighbors to promote the value of short distance transportation. We are currently seeking 200 street pilots throughout the United States to begin this process. Are you interested?
