What does Atlas Electric Vehicles do?
Atlas Electric Vehicles is the design and manufacturing division of Atlas International Group.
Tell me more about Atlas international Groups design and manufacturing division.
Who is ATLAS
Atlas was formed in 1999 to design and purchase Motorcycle and Scooters parts in China and manufacture in the Philippines. We designed 4 new models for the Philippines market and opened a factory in the Philippines.
Our main advantage was isolating areas critical failures in previous product and working on reducing exposure to claims for warranty and wear.
However the variation in quality of the parts we were receiving meant we need a full time presence in China.
John Krechting began spending most of his time sourcing product and monitoring quality in China from 2000.
Due to ownership disagreements and withdrawal of one of the directors, the business moved from Philippines to China in 2003.
Product Development. 2003 Pit Bike
In 2003 Atlas moved the business to building product in China with the development of the Pit bike.
In Australia we found people we converting Mini Bikes (mainly Honda 50cc) by upgrading parts and racing and jumping them. We were asked to source parts in China and opened several moulds for parts to sell as accessories.
This lead to us developing one of the first purpose built Mini bikes called pit bikes. We opened moulds for most of the major parts necessary for Jumping and racing. We again worked on making sure they were produced with parts that reduced risk to the retailers.
We researched the problem people were having and increased strength of the components.
At the end of 2003 companies started copying our product the following is the comparison of our product and the copies that led to the prices dropping by 70%
2 wheel Joint Venture. Hyundai Corporation 2004-2008
In 2004 we met representatives of Hyundai Corporation with a request from them to source product to make a trial of 2 wheel vehicles marketing.
Mid 2005 H-Moto, a joint venture between Hyundai Corporation and Atlas was formed to promote and test the global market for 2 wheel vehicles using Hyundai’s 30 global sales offices and support staff.
The joint venture began with sales to Turkey, Middle East and South America.
In 2005 Atlas International group was formed and Chongqing Atlas Import Export company was opened in China with paid up capital of 500,000 rmb. This company was the export company used for H-Moto product.
In 2008 with the GFC and restructure within the Corporation the Hyundai Corporation board decided to discontinue the 2 wheel business and gradually withdrew from the market.
4 Wheel drive UTV Development. 2008-2012
In late 2008, after Hyundai Corporation withdrew from the joint venture Atlas began a new venture with Yinxiang Motorcycle Group to develop a 4 wheel recreation vehicles. This was done also using the expertise of Hyosung engineers to build the engine.
Together we designed and built some Quads and then a 4WD UTV. Again taking into account the problems Yamaha was having with roll overs and the lack of Torque of most units we built at that time the widest and most stable UTV in the market.
The UTV’s were independently tested in Australia by Surf life saving and awarded their certification.
The first Chinese product to be awarded certification. The testing against the Japanese and US models of UTV proved that the UTV had quality that exceeded most of the competition. With longer productive life than the Yamaha Rhino.
Atlas developed a special Alloy drop side back for the unit. We also worked assisting with the global marketing and working with the Yinxiang group staff sales training.
The product is still sold globally and in U.S.A currently.
Beginning of Atlas in the EV market. 2012 to 2015
In 2012 we were approached to assist a company we had been working with since 2005 and one of our Hyundai Corp supplier factories to assist them with a marketing plan for their new 2 Wheel electric Vehicle business.
This factory has a good history in the 2 wheel business we agreed to help with their marketing and train their staff for several months.
We saw the potential of the Electric two wheel business and have remained in the business ever since.
In 2013 the company was one of the biggest exporter of 2 Wheel Electric mopeds globally. In China it is a leader in in the higher specification and quality models.
2015 Purpose built unique Moped Bike.
When completing some investigation in U.S.A. We researched the market for electric bikes and mopeds.
We worked with a company in the U.S. to market an e-Moped model for their sales. We designed a model based comfort, ease of use and ability to ride with no license or registration.
We experimented with power from 350 watt to 750 watt, charger and controller from 4 pipe to 9 pipe to make sure it has climbing ability and can reach 20mph.
We designed the battery from 10AH to 14 AH, changed the brakes from drum to Disc front and larger drum rear
Included in the overall appearance power saving LED’s. Giving the models a more modern style and reducing the assembly by the end customer.
Used higher grade wiring harness to decrease loss of power between the battery and motor.
Changed the frame colour and mudguards.
The colour of the moped can be changed in 5 minutes for a cost less than $100.00 with 8 screws. Reducing the spare parts and making it easy to change the colour if the person does not like it any more.