Our mission

Our mission is to provide practical and affordable all-electric transportation for immediate sale in the USA. We focus carefully on the quality and value of our products and treat our customers with respect and fairness at all times.

If you ever feel that we are not living up to our mission then please contact us and allow us to correct the situation.

REVolution Electric Vehicles, LLC

REVolution Electric Vehicles (REV) was formed in 2007. At that time the founder, John Harding, had just purchased an electric scooter after searching for a practical and affordable all-electric vehicle he could use for his commute. Having found that there was no local presence in southeast Michigan and that the majority of online dealers lacked the knowledge and inclination to answer questions John decided to form his own company selling the products that he had direct experience with.

From the beginning rEV focused on educating potential customers on the various facets of electric scooters and on setting realistic expectations for what electric motor scooters could be used for. John quickly achieved a reputation as an honest, open and knowledgeable member of the two wheel EV community on the V is for Voltage message boards.

rEV was one of the first dealers to receive the new class of Lithium powered maxi-scooters. Unfortunately, John was also one of the first to find out about some shortcomings in the early models not fulfilling the promises and expectations created by the initial advertising for this bike. rEV has always believed in open and honest communication – we would much rather turn down a sales opportunity than over promise on what one of our bikes can achieve.

After selling these scooters for around one year John came to realize that there were several areas that needed improving. At this time John joined forces with two local business owners with the intention of opening a Class A dealership and directly importing scooters from the factories that supplied the brands he was already selling. The intent was to be able to address some deficiencies in the original bike (such as fitting a battery management system) and to improve initial quality by performing a very detailed pre-delivery inspection.

However, after several months of negotiations, it became apparent that this business model while it could be profitable would not result in the quality that rEV was seeking. At this point Electric Vehicle Manufacturing, LLC was born with the goal of assembling a bike in the USA that would meet the performance and quality goals demanded by the market at a price that was still much more affordable than the high cost competition.

Electric Vehicle Manufacturing, LLC

Electric Vehicle Manufacturing (EVMFG) was formed in fall of 2008 with the goal of producing an all-electric motor scooter for sale by the summer of 2009. The founders were John Harding (owner of rEVolution Electric Vehicles) and Erik Kauppi (owner of Corsa Instruments – a company that produces automotive data acquisition systems).

Our goal was to produce a bike with performance close to a Vectrix with price close to an XM-5000Li and with quality to allow for a trouble-free and virtually maintenance-free ownership experience. With around six months to achieve this it was a very aggressive goal – however one that is nearing succesful completion.

At EVMFG rather than following the herd and using the same basic frame as several other manufacturers our first order of business was to find a suitable rolling chassis (or glider). This glider is sourced and built to our specification by a major Chinese scooter manufacturer. Likewise we have carefully selected off the shelf components for motor, controller and batteries to keep costs down and to be able to bring the bike to market as soon as possible. Although these key components are off the shelf we have thoroughly tested them to determine their suitability to achieve the performance and reliability goals.

Needless to say there is a lot more to producing a quality all-electric maxi-scooter than simply choosing components from a catalog. The engineering of key structural components (the swing arm and the battery box) have taken place at our facilities in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We are lucky to be employing an engineer with over two decades of experience in the EV field. Terry Richards was working for a company converting VW Rabbits in the early eighties – at the time they were the only crash tested EVs on the road. At the other end of his full-time career Terry worked for Chrysler and was tasked with working with Indian manufacturing giant Tata to produce electric utility vehicles for the 2008 Worlds Fair in Barcelona, Spain. At EVMFG Terry has been instrumental on the design and implementation of the key mechanical aspects of the rEV 1 bike.

Another area that EVMFG brings additional expertise to bear is with electronics and software. Our bikes are fitted with a per cell Battery Management System (BMS) using surface mount technology and produced in the USA to our specification. This BMS ensures that the batteries are used as safely and efficiently as possible. A unique aspect of our bike is the Bike Control Unit (BCU) – this device is a “meta-controller” (i.e. a controller for the motor controller). The BCU combines monitoring of bike function with control over throttle operation and allows our bike to offer a best-in-class feature set including: an accurate fuel gauge corrected for current riding style, cell monitoring, data logging, intelligent economy mode and a “limp-home” mode should the rider try and over stretch the batteries. Like the BMS, this unit is designed with technology appropriate to it’s intended usage environment and is produced for us in the USA.

As well as producing a bike that we can be proud of we produce a bike that is fully FMVSS and DOT certified and is legal for use in all fifty states. We are the manufacturer of record with the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration (NHTSA) and we issue the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and Manufacturer’s Certificate of Ownership (MCO) for our bikes.

REV and EVMFG – a partnership

REV’s sales philosophy which is open and honest combines with EVMFG’s ability to respond and adapt to changes in technology and market demands making the partnership of these two company’s a welcome addition to the EV marketplace.