Stark Drive Advanced Arrives in Tahiti, French Polynesia

Hello Backers,

Timi, one of our earliest Stark Drive Backers received a nice surprise directly after christmas in Tahiti

Electric bikes are not so common on this island which is drenched in sun for a majority of the year and a definite contender for being able to supply all of their electric (and transportation needs) via 100% renewable sources, namely the sun. One of the barriers for these island inhabitants has been a lack of availability and a lack of affordability in terms of their electric bike choices.

These are two things that we endeavor to solve here at Stark Drive.

Price should not be a barrier to entry but getting bikes to an island in the south pacific is not without its challenges either, challenges that we meet head on at Stark Drive. One of the biggest things that has been somewhat a limiting factor for us here have simply been volumes. Although we have hundreds of backers around the world that have entrusted us with their hard earned savings for the reward of a fantastically well equipped electric bike, when we ship a single or a few units to any given country we are held somewhat at the mercy of the logistics terminals that our bikes arrive at. Although we prepay shipping charges in all instances, and in many instances to far away places the costs are higher then the 200 USD that we charge as a flat rate, once they arrive at any given port, its a whole different ball game as the local handlers that move and brake down the containers and ultimately readdress the package so that it can be handled locally do charge a fee that we do not see from our end. We are trying to improve this aspect of the customer experience and we hope that as volumes of Stark Drive increase, we will be able to ultimately eliminate this additional cost that is tacked on at the ports of entry. Flying Stark Drive to the final destination may seem like the ultimate solution to many however this is not without its challenges as airlines have very strict policies on high capacity lithium ion batteries which are a standard component of every Stark Drive unit. These are then marked as hazardous goods and it increases the shipping costs exponentially.

Timi Loves Stark Drive

I have just had the pleasure of speaking with Timi over the phone and ironically he mentioned that he was in Auckland, New Zealand when Stark Drive was transferred off the container ship from China to be loaded onto the container ship traveling to his home island in the south pacific.

Timi, has already had the chance to assemble and try out his Advanced bike and from his perspective he loves it, we hope to hear more from him in the coming days and will post anything that he sends us on our blog (with his permission) and we hope that we are able to enable anyone else in Tahiti the opportunity to own a solid electric bike to ease the flow of movement throughout this hilly region.

Thank you Timi for believing in our dream and backing our campaign even when we faced unexpected hurtles.

One of the benefits of being worldwide is that we have thousands of eyes following or progress and shipping 24 hours a day. Today we received word at about 230am Swedish time that bikes in the USA have cleared customs and that they were now moving forward to the final carrier for door delivery. More on this when it becomes available to us. We also have word that the EU bikes will ultimately be delivered by the carrier TNT for final door shipping for all our EU backers, more on this later.

Update on Batch 2

We will be posting an update on batch 2 soon with all the information as well as photos we know and its all good! the production is ongoing with all the major components for this batch having been ordered for the eventual 3rd week of January departure from the factory and ultimately having this batch leave China before the Chinese New Year which is a time when the entire country shuts down for about 2 weeks with people traveling home to their loved ones to ring in the New Year. We will post an update specifically on Batch 2 in the coming days.

From everyone at Stark Drive working around the world we would like to with everyone:

A Happy and Prosperous New Year, Dare to Dream and Dream Big!

Sincerely

Oscar
CEO, Stark Drive LLC.