Fuel-efficient
vehicles have seen explosive growth; they are now the
fastest growing segment in automotive sales and are at the
forefront of both President Bush’s and Obama’s energy reform
policy. “Green” vehicle sales topped $5.5 billion in 2007
alone, partially due to the increased media coverage of
fuel-efficient vehicles. Consumers clearly prefer purchasing
vehicles that get over 50-mpg, and that only need fueling
every seven hundred miles. With the “carbon footprint” a
growing commodity and concern amongst consumers, many want
to know that their new vehicle only required half of the
current energy consumption and materials needed to build
their current vehicle.
Global-E designs and builds green vehicles, that
offer 10,000 miles between oil changes, don’t use water,
require no spark plug changes, create no smelly pollutants,
have a super low carbon footprint, and still have the look
and feel that today’s consumers expect to see from four and
five passenger vehicles.
This allowed Global-E entry to the open market we
are now flourishing in, the market for electric and hybrid
electric vehicles the consumer is now demanding. While the
larger manufacturers are slow to adopt, Global-E fills the
market gaps in two primary ways. The first way is with an
adaptation to the current European assembly operation business
model for vehicles where the manufacturing phase is removed from
the business’ core goals. Vehicles are being assembled, and the
vendors are the manufactures. The second way is by attracting
customers who have a need for assembly operations and thereby
eliminating those operations from their business focus. Our
associated much lower vehicle assembly overhead rate is the core
business model. Addition of subsequent supportive engineering
services at a greatly reduced industry rate also improves our
customer’s business model by lowering the vehicle cost, and
therefore gives them the ability to maximize their profit or
improve their market price leveraging capability.
Global-E moved into the market three years ago by
providing the unique engineering talent that is required for
designing super fuel-efficient vehicles. Simultaneously our
aerospace manufacturing background was leveraged to win the
assembly contract for Pulse Motor’s 100% electric plug-in
vehicle. We were able to enter the market sight unseen, and into
the two most open sub-markets: engineering and manufacturing.
Our analysis reveals that there is a basic flaw in only relying
on the design and assembling of our own vehicles in such a
dynamic global market. For example, the soon to be released 100%
electric vehicle from Mitsubishi will also be marketed in Europe
for two different struggling automobile manufactures, yet it is
being marketed under a different product name; the vehicle is
exactly the same it just has a different moniker. By being the
original vehicle’s design team or by improving the customer’s
vehicle design and then assembling their vehicle under contract,
Global-E is responsible for the facility throughput without the
initial concerns of distribution and servicing. Currently all
three of the vehicles that we will introduce to the market
obtain between 80 and 100-mpg so they clearly are bettering the
current US industry average of 24mpg.
