eVTOL's and Safety When In The Sky
Green Transport
Stark Drive is committed to advancing green fossil fuel free transportation technologies and when we launched we wanted to provide our customers with the most affordable electric bike solutions in the eBike marketplace.
When we first launched our $399 US electric bike people were sceptical that such a price-point was even possible. Our ambitious goal of lowering the barrier to being able to own a means of transportation that helped primarily people living in cities use it as their primary means of transportation or in conjunction with public transport was thought to be impossible however we defied the skeptics and not only launched Stark Drive's 'City' Range of bikes but also delivered on our promise.
Since then we have been working towards achieving our master plan which included launching Stark Drive Mini which was even more affordably priced at $299 which we thought to be the perfect companion to those that wanted to eschew the rental scooter revolution which has spread worldwide to many cities often treated poorly by the users, improperly parked on sidewalks with there even being questions about the maintenance of the scooters which could result in safety concerns for riders that rent this form of transportation. In conjunction with this, scooters are by design prone to launching the rider forward in the event they hit an obstacle that is larger than the wheel diameter which can often result in serious injury as it is common to see riders of these public scooters forgoing safety gear such as helmets. We at Stark Drive believe that the bicycle has a much better weight distribution for the rider to ensure balance when riding even when obstacle's such as potholes or the like are encountered ensuring rider safety.
After the launch of Stark Drive Mini we then went on to design our first registered custom frame design that incorporated high quality and powerful Bafang mid motors to drive the bike further centering the balance of our bikes by eliminating the heavy rear wheel hub based motor and of course taking into account that our entire range of bikes have the battery pack hidden in the frame of the bike centered on the bike.
Furthermore we have produced the first prototypes of Stark Drive Carbon which is going to be the first 20'' Tire based folding Mid-motor eBike that achieves significant weight reduction by using carbon fibre as the frame material instead of the traditional aluminum that is commonly used in the marketplace. We will in short order be releasing videos of both Stark Drive Torque as well as Carbon demonstrating their raw performance as well as describing the features that we have incorporated into these new models which are typically only found on eBikes at a significantly higher pricepoint.
Shanghai Bike Expo 2023
Our CEO was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Shanghai Bike Expo this year and with that we have been impressed with the amount of integration that is occurring within the eBike industry. Instead of separate components being frankensteined together to build an electric bikes, more and more our suppliers are working to integrate components in more seamless ways so that they not only look better but also improve performance. Some examples of this are turn signals incorporated right on the frame of the bike, rear lights being built into the rear rack. The amount of innovation within the industry is mindblowing and the expo was a good demonstration of this with hundreds of companies showing their wares and their ideas of how to build a better eBike. We have spoken with dozens of companies and will be designing our future products with these innovations in mind.
Our Future In The Skies
There is an burgeoning eVTOL sector that has been gaining momentum in the last several years which we consider to be very interesting when talking about transport for our customers. More and more companies are developing their concepts of battery based aircraft and we would compare this to be a bit of a wild west with many different concepts being designed and tested. The main benefits of the majority of these new styles of aircraft is redundancy in the form of multiple rotors with an inherent improvement in the level of safety when compared with more traditional rotor based craft like the helicopter.
Its more important now than ever to have safety and redundancy as the primary focus for the development of any aircraft design considering the fact that if some component were to function improperly, you not only have to worry about just stopping as you would with an electric bike but also the inevitable descent down to ground. Stark Drive takes these safety concerns very seriously which is why, for the last 3 years, have been working to perfect our design for an eVTOL and having it customisable based on the customers intended usage be it commuting or simply enjoying the feeling of flight.
The current generation of electrolyte based Lithium batters are entirely unsuitable for travel in the skies and we believe that the risks associated with using this technology is doomed to failure. Standard lithium cells are exceptionally sensitive to damage and when lithium is exposed to air leads to an unstoppable combustion process at extreme heat levels. Lithium cells are also exceptionally sensitive to temperature and must operate within a defined temperature range to function optimally. Any eVTOL that is using this technology is inherently unsafe and we believe that this style of cell will be regulated out of the marketplace for this application either through regulation or darwinism.
We look forward to providing you more details on our eVTOL design as well as test flights demonstrating Stark Drives concept of how we think we can democratize the skies. As always, Stark Drives eVTOL will be the most affordable in the market and have the added advantage of being customisable both during the order process or even once you receive your craft and want to upgrade it in the future.
