»Tesla meets dr. Dre.«
The Slovenian start-up Noordung has created the first in the line of four foreseen prototypes of an urban electric bike to mix biking and music and introduce innovative solutions, providing excellent biking user experience for urban bikers.
The prototype development in four stages, into which the company has included social media and the wider public through their website www.noordung.com, shall be concluded by producing the final product. The company will use that product to enter the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform in April 2017 — exactly after 200 years of invention of the bicycle.
In European Union more than 20 million bicycles are sold per annum, and more than half (around 12 million) are produced in EU. The European bicycle industry employes more than 70.000 jobs in more than 600 small or medium enterprises. An European owns more bicycles than any other vehicles.
In the past years the fastest growing category within the biking industy was the electric bicycle category (EPAC — “Electric Power-Assisted Cycle”), which generated sales of around 1,2 million bicycles, which represent 6 percent of all sold bicycles. In the year 2020 the electric bicycle sales should represent around 10 percent of all sold bicycles.
The Noordung company enters the European and American markets of electric bicycles with its own privately developed urban electric bicycle in the higher price range. In the heart of the bicycle lies the multifunctional »Powerbox« with an integrated sound system which can be used to play music from the smartphone through a bluetooth connection.
»We believe commuting is not just moving from point A to point B, but it is also a journey of joy,«, explains Gregor Fras, the founder and manager of the company, and he adds: »Biking represents freedom from our youngest years, and we want to upgrade that with the joy of listening to music. Today music on bikes is mostly listened through headphones, but that is extremely dangerous, because it lessens our perception of the surroundings.«
»Noorodung is the first maker in the world to address the user experience of listening to music while biking in an appropriate way. This way is, for example, the key compound of the user experience in a car,«, Fras explains, while he jokes briefy: »Basically, the Noordung idea can be compared to Tesla meeting dr. Dre!«.
The Noordung company got its inspiration for the name from the Slovene rocket engineer and cosmonaut, space flight & technology pioneer Herman Potočnik — Noordung. Just like Potočnik explored living in space in his only book »The Problem of Space Travel« the company Noordung is looking for solutions in the field of urban commute.
The first prototype, code-named N-01, the makers focused to develop an innovative »Powerbox« to power the electric motor and assist the biker while riding, but also to play music and charge his electronic devices through the USB interface.
The next stage will see Noordung company focus to develop their own frame and key bike components, made from carbon. »We wish to produce the lightest urban electric bicycle in the world. The ability to carry an electric bike is very important, because users will not want to leave it outside for safety reasons.«, Fras explains his future plans.
More: www.noordung.com
