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Electric motorbike firm gets £11m to aid expansion

Kevin Reide,in Coventryand
Andrew Dawkins,West Midlands
News imageBBC A motorbike with the word Maeving on it is prominent in the photo. Other motorbikes, also inside, are lined up in two rows in the background, in what appears to be a showroom for the machines.BBC
The battery on the motorcycles is removable and plugs into a normal 240-volt mains socket to re-charge

An electric motorcycle company is to receive an £11m grant to invest in expanding its business.

Maeving, set up by two London entrepreneurs five years ago, employs more than 70 people and sells 1,600 electric motorcycles per year, in Coventry.

Co-founder of the company, Seb Inglis-Jones, said Coventry was chosen because of its rich motor manufacturing heritage. The firm now produces about 40% of the electric motorbikes sold in the UK.

As part of the £11m, which comes mainly from private investors, West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker's office is investing £500,000 in the business as being ideal to support under his "regional growth plan".

"We are now a stone's throw from where the first motorbikes were built in the end of the 19th century, 1897 I think it is, and all of the expertise is in the area," Inglis-Jones told BBC Midlands Today.

"We knew if we wanted to design and build our own bikes in this country, this is the part of the UK we needed to be in."

News imageA man with short dark hair and wearing glasses is looking at the camera. Boxes are on shelves behind him on the left of the photo.
Maeving co-founder Seb Inglis-Jones said it was "a stone's throw from where the first motorbikes were built in the end of the 19th Century"

The motorbikes' battery takes about three hours to charge and Maeving says it equates to a cost of about £1.30 a week in electricity.

News imageA man with glasses and brown hair is near the back of a motorbike, which is on a raised surface.
The firm, which has a factory on the outskirts of Coventry, has motorbikes with different speeds, but the same range of about 80 miles

Parker said: "They're drawing on the skills we've got in the region and it's exactly the type of business I want to succeed here and exactly the type of business that I want to support through my growth plan."

According to its website, Maeving's motorbikes range from £4,995 to £8,995.

News imageA man wearing a tie, blue shirt and pinstripe jacket is inside, looking at the camera. Motorbikes are behind him.
Investor Douglas Hansen-Luke founded Future Planet Capital

Latest investors in the firm include UK funds such as Venrex, Future Planet Capital and Elbow Beach Capital.

Their involvement is alongside others, such as John Ayton MBE - co-founder of Links of London - and Simon Hill-Norton, who set up Sweaty Betty.

Douglas Hansen-Luke, founder of Future Planet Capital, said: "In London [the motorbike] is perfect - you've got lots of people who'll be travelling one to 10 miles to work and this is a fast, efficient way to get there and it's pretty darn safe as well.

"And you can go faster than the traffic, [you] don't have to pay the emissions charges and everything else that goes along with that, and you have a lot of fun."

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