Current Status

Interest from around the world and enough experience to satisfy it

Elbee vehicle

Since its beginning, the development of the Elbee vehicle has been focused most on how to facilitate the mobility of wheelchair users and provide them with transport without the need to leave the wheelchair and at the same time without requiring assistance of another person. 

The unique system of the front drive-in allows comfortable, safe drive-in into the vehicle with most types of mechanical and electric wheelchairs. The possibility to retain the rear seat for a fellow passenger and getting out of the car directly on the sidewalk are other advantages of the front drive-in. 

Elbee enables to adapt the vehicle according to the degree of disability. Just the people dependent of wheelchairs will appreciate the many integrated specific elements. In addition to the elements of the hand control and wheelchair fixation, they are for example the remote control of the front door and the drive-in ramp, 4-point safety belt, a mechanism for automatic drive-in of the mechanical wheelchair into the vehicle and much more.

Combustion engine

  • Category: LE (heavy quadricycle)
  • Design speed: 80 km/h
  • Piaggio 300 GTS, capacity 300 ccm
  • Single-cylinder, four-stroke engine
  • Maximum output: 12.5 kW
  • Average fuel consumption: 4.5 l / 100 km

Electric engine  

  • Category: LE (heavy quadricycle)
  • Design speed: 80 km/h
  • Battery cells: LG 3.2 Ah – 19.9 kWh
  • Electric motor: up to 18 kW 90 Nm
  • Charging: 3.3 kW
  • Range: 215 km

Lunochod

A special mechanism for automatic drive-in of the mechanical wheelchair into the vehicle

The only chance to drive

and to be also socially integrated, for many people relying on wheelchairs

Design

The vehicle was designed by Pavel Hušek, a world renowned designer, who worked on projects of cars, motorbikes, but also  aircrafts and ships for BMW, Ford, Audi, Volvo, Ogle: Jaguar, BMC, Scimitar, Automobile Revue, Renault, Grob, Mercedes, Gillera-Ferrari, Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Nissan, Pininfarina: BLM, Cadillac, Honda,  and also Jawa, Liaz, etc. He is a member of the Association of Designers and the Union of the Visual Artists of the Czech Republic. He also collaborated with the development departments of Škoda Mladá Boleslav and Tatra Bratislava.

Continuity of production

In the case of interest, the continuity of supply from existing suppliers will be ensured. However, a simple transition to new suppliers will also be ensured. The moulds and fixtures for making parts are the property of Elbee Mobility and 95% of the manufactured parts and/or subassemblies of them are in stock. Also in stock are 99 % purchased parts which can be used as reference samples.

The vehicle is composed of 640 parts, of which 349 metallic manufactured parts/assemblies, 213 purchased parts, 70 fiberglass parts, 6 glass parts, 1 wiring bundle and 1 set of painting.

The simplicity of the transfer process shall also be ensured for assembly. It only requires common workshop equipment; experienced car mechanics can practically be trained during the assembly of the first vehicle.

Assembly drawings

significantly facilitate the initial training and the work with foreign business partners  

Cost of production of one vehicle

The total cost of production of one vehicle under the conditions of small-series production in the Czech Republic is EUR 16,109 (CZK 409,163)

There is a large scope for cost reduction. Most of the purchased parts are bought at retail prices and delivered in batches not efficient for transportation; no automation is used at assembly.

140 hours of assembly

is the current time allowance of small-series production

Distribution and contacts

During the project implementation, experience has been gained in different business models. The possibilities of exclusive distributors as well as non-exclusive contractual cooperation were tested. The business partners are especially companies from the field of vehicle modifications or companies providing wheelchair users with products or services.

You can meet Elbee on the roads of France (5 vehicles) or Italy (5 vehicles). There is newly developing cooperation with business partners in Switzerland and New Zealand.

In the Czech Republic, the cooperation with the driving school for the disabled has proven to be a functioning model, together with active promotion at rehabilitation clinics. Only in 2017, 5 vehicles were sold. Based on the analysis of population and purchasing power it can be presumed that one vehicle sold in the Czech Republic can equal 50 vehicles sold in any country of Western Europe.

Database of potential customers

Database of potential partners

A typical customer

is an electric wheelchair user, most often these are persons with higher levels of disability, obese or elderly persons

Competitors

In history, there were several attempts to develop a special vehicle for wheelchair users. The wheelchair always entered the vehicle through its rear part, which, however, only meant by default a single-seat version of the vehicle. In all cases they were the so called light quadricycles (or low-speed vehicles in the USA), with the top speed limited to 45 km/h, i.e. without the possibility to use highways.

Quovis, Kenguru and Kimsi counted among those vehicles. Other vehicles, like Project D3 or Pratyko, were in the concept phase.

None of the stated vehicles is currently available on the market, and there is even not a real assumption that it would be put on the market in the foreseeable future, due to the absence of backgrounds at those entities. So the companies dealing with modifications of conventional cars and vans still remain the nearest competitors.

Elbee is the cheapest drive-from-wheelchair solution on the market

The current recommended price for the end customer is EUR 22,000 + VAT